Understanding the Role of ORM in Digital Marketing: Tools, Strategies, and Benefits

What is ORM in Digital Marketing?

In digital marketing, ORM (Online Reputation Management) refers to the process of monitoring and improving a brand’s online presence and image. It involves actively tracking online mentions, managing reviews, and engaging with customers across platforms like social media, websites, and forums.

ORM also includes responding to both positive and negative feedback to build trust with customers, prevent any reputation damage, and attract new opportunities.

By maintaining a positive reputation, businesses can increase credibility, boost brand loyalty, and enhance customer satisfaction, ultimately leading to better business growth.

The various types of online reputation management include –

• Online reviews

Managing online reviews is crucial for maintaining an online presence. Organic reviews are preferred over paid ones to instil faith in the product or service. Encourage users who had a good experience to share their feedback on your public business platforms.

• Social media

Without proper management, social media handles can prove problematic for online reputation. What is ORM in social media? ORM in social media for the brand is necessary, as consumers can generate negative comments, reviews, and unwanted tags on the business profile, which can seriously harm the company's reputation. It can, in turn, impact the business's growth. 

• Search Engine Content

Managing SEO (search engine optimisation) by optimising the website and managing content is of utmost importance.
 

• Negative SEO

Have a look at the negative review for Honda and how they used it as an opportunity to showcase their customer service. Apart from appearing in positive search results, it is also important for a company to manage negative SEO.

• Reputation Marketing

As a growth strategy, utilising the company’s core values in campaigns and promotions has proven to be highly successful. Promoting what the company stands for is good reputation marketing for the brand.

• Public Relations

Online press releases and news stories require regular monitoring. Positive stories can be self-published on various authoritative websites; however, it is also essential to manage negative stories. 

Popular Online Reputation Management Tools in 2025

Birdeye

• Birdeye offers a comprehensive ORM platform with real-time review monitoring, sentiment analysis, and AI-driven response suggestions.
• It's ideal for businesses seeking to manage customer feedback across multiple channels efficiently.

Brandwatch

• Brandwatch excels in social listening and analytics.
• It allows businesses to track brand mentions, analyse sentiment, and identify emerging trends on various platforms, helping brands respond proactively to potential reputation issues.

Podium

• Podium focuses on facilitating customer interactions through text messaging, making it easy to collect reviews, respond to inquiries, and manage feedback.
• It's especially effective for local businesses wanting to enhance their online reputation.

Reputation.com

• Reputation.com offers tools for monitoring and managing online reviews, improving customer satisfaction, and enhancing brand perception.
• Its platform provides actionable insights to help businesses address feedback and maintain a positive image.

Sprout Social

• Sprout Social is a social media management tool that includes features for monitoring brand mentions and analysing sentiment across platforms.
• Its analytics help businesses understand public perception and engage with customers effectively.

Yext

• Yext specialises in managing business listings across the web. 
• Ensuring accurate and consistent information helps improve local SEO, builds trust with customers, and enhances overall online reputation.

Trustpilot

• Trustpilot is a review platform that allows businesses to collect and manage customer reviews.
• Positive reviews on Trustpilot significantly boost credibility and influence potential customers’ purchasing decisions.

Each of these tools offers unique features tailored to different aspects of online reputation management. When selecting an ORM tool, consider your business needs, the platforms you want to monitor, and the level of engagement required for each platform. The right ORM strategy can help safeguard and enhance your brand's reputation in 2025.

Examples of ORM in Digital Marketing

Here are a few examples of ORM in digital marketing –

1. OYO Rooms

OYO Rooms had many trolls posting negative comments toward women on their social media profiles. The brand utilised ORM to raise awareness about this and educate the public. Within 11 days, there was a 40% decrease in negative comments and a corresponding drop in negative sentiments toward the brand.

2. Nike

With bigger brands come bigger problems and challenges. Content management, customer satisfaction, and online reputation management are major challenges for larger brands. 

Nike addressed this by launching @NikeSupport – a Twitter handle specifically designed to handle customer queries. It enables them to get back to customers in a timely manner.

3. Yelp

Yelp once had a bad review with a one-star rating. The customer was very dissatisfied. They made sure to address the issue immediately and also took responsibility for their mistake. Since then, the company has taken every review seriously and follows up after solving the matter, making their customer service very strong. 

Quick responses demonstrate that you value your customers. Many companies are also investing in AI technology to address this issue. Check out this article on the future of artificial intelligence in digital marketing. 

Importance of ORM in Digital Marketing

A happy customer is crucial for any business worldwide. Today, with people conducting research before making a purchase, a brand is under scrutiny, and comparisons with other brands are constant due to increased awareness and accessibility. 

This is why brands need ORM more than ever to ensure that their users have a good experience and are genuinely happy with their product or service.

In case they aren’t, ORM helps in damage control and fixes this issue. This can be achieved through proper customer care, including responding to all feedback and comments, and having a strong customer support team in place.

Role of ORM in Digital Marketing

Wondering what the role of Online Reputation Management (ORM) is in digital marketing? Let's break it down and explore how ORM can benefit your brand.

Role 1: Monitor Online Reputation

• ORM acts as an audit for your brand’s digital footprint.
• It helps track how your brand is perceived online, allowing you to identify strengths and weaknesses in your reputation compared to those of your competitors. 
• This audit lays the foundation for improvement strategies.

Role 2: Avoid Potential Loss of a Sale

• Effective ORM helps prevent the loss of potential customers.
• Research shows that brands with a solid online reputation can retain up to 40% more customers by addressing negative feedback promptly and fostering trust.
• By managing reviews and feedback, you can prevent negative perceptions from influencing purchasing decisions.

Role 3: Increased Conversions

• A positive reputation directly correlates with increased conversions.
• Happy customers are more likely to choose your brand over competitors.
• ORM ensures that customer satisfaction is continually improved by addressing concerns and engaging with reviews, ultimately leading to higher sales.

Role 4: Better Brand Perception

• Positive online feedback and verified reviews contribute to a strong brand image.
• A well-maintained reputation via ORM makes your brand appear trustworthy and professional. 
• Managing your brand’s reviews across social media and other platforms ensures that negative content doesn’t tarnish your image.

Role 5: Brand Loyalty

• ORM helps build lasting relationships with customers.
• When customers see that a brand is responsive to feedback and cares about their experience, they become more loyal.
• Loyal customers are not only more likely to return but will also recommend your brand to others, boosting word-of-mouth marketing.

Role 6: Improves Visibility 

• Effective ORM improves brand visibility by boosting SEO rankings.
• Positive feedback and increased user-generated content lead to higher search engine rankings, ensuring that your brand gets noticed by more potential customers. 
• Engaged customers will also contribute to discussions about your brand, further increasing visibility.

Role 7: Provides Insights 

• ORM provides actionable insights from customer feedback and reviews.
• These insights can highlight areas for improvement, helping you refine your products or services to better meet customer needs. 
• Additionally, ORM tools often provide analytics to track sentiment and market trends, offering valuable data to inform future marketing strategies.

How to learn ORM in Digital Marketing?

Wondering how to do ORM without any prior experience in this area? Don’t fret! Read up on ORM, review case studies and examples, and try to absorb as much as possible. You can also consider taking a short course.

This short online course on Online Reputation Management features 4 hours of lectures designed to help you master ORM. You will ace free ORM tools in digital marketing, such as Buffer, Google Alerts, and Awario. There are many other ORMs in digital marketing tools that you can explore as well, apart from these.

We also offer a free digital marketing tutorial that includes ORM as well.