What Is Yelp?
Yelp is one of the most popular urban city guides that help residents find the best places to shop, relax, eat, and retreat. This information is typically based on the opinions of active community members who’ve visited the places.
The platform offers a fun and quick way to discover the best stuff around the world. People review, find and talk about places that give useful insights to those looking for related services.
For instance, anyone wanting to purchase the best kid’s toys would wish to find information about the best kid toy stores.
They can go online and find reviews about the best places in the city. This will keep them from visiting shops that compromise quality, and they’ll be glad to save time - and money.
Currently, the platform receives over 178 million unique visitors.) monthly on desktop and mobile phones.
How Does Yelp Marketing Work?
While Yelp comes in handy for users looking for information, it also offers an opportunity to business owners. Yelp marketing allows businesses to connect with customers through advertising and profiles.
When you set up your Yelp business profile, the platform’s sales agents reach out to you, offering you premium features and ad packages to generate more leads.
Further, because customers review businesses based on their experience, it spreads word-of-mouth for local companies.
However, you need to be strategic about Yelp marketing to promote positive word-of-mouth, as a negative one can significantly impact your brand reputation.
Around 3,887 companies use Yelp to earn ratings and reviews to generate more revenue.
Benefits of Using Yelp for Marketing
Let’s face it, we all rely on facts and figures by the end of the day. It backs the claims and boosts our trust.
So, here’s a quick example of how Yelp can help your business grow. The Harvard Business Review published a research paper demonstrating how Yelp reviews contribute to restaurants’ revenue.
Data unfolds that a 1-star increase in Yelp rating leads to a 5-9% boost in revenue.
If that isn’t enough to tempt your tastebuds, the same study reveals that chain restaurants experienced a market decline after Yelp penetration enhanced, offering more value to your independent restaurant.
Here’s how else Yelp marketing can serve your business.
Boost traffic. Positive customer reviews on Yelp will attract more customers to your business. Because the platform has over 178 million unique visitors, you have a chance to gain massive exposure with a killer Yelp marketing strategy.
Gain trustworthy reviews. Data reveals that 91% of people prefer reading online reviews, and 84% trust them as much as their friends. Yelp is one of the most popular sites for online reviews. What’s more, the platform filters the reviews, suggesting specific verified ones. The unsuggested ones are generally bogus or biased. So, the platform helps individuals find authentic reviews and separate them from inauthentic ones.
Become discoverable. Yelp enables business owners to add their contact information. This allows customers to call or email you at their convenience. So, a simple yet helpful conversation can attract potential customers to your brand. Besides, they do not need to go through complicated procedures to reach you. A click of a button is all it takes to find your company.
Gain credibility. Yelp users expect to see your business on the platform. Not finding it is a red flag for them. They’ll doubt the credibility of your services if you aren’t listed on Yelp. This way, your customers may turn to competitors. Therefore, you must have a sound Yelp business profile to gain credibility as a business.
Get the Most Out of Yelp As a Business Owner
Your business is unique, and you must implement the newest marketing strategies to keep pace with the growing ecommerce world.
While designing quality products and offering premium services is one thing, you must also advertise and market your business to intrigue potential - and existing - customers.
Yelp offers an excellent way to spread positive word-of-mouth through reviews and ratings. So, you won’t be reaching out to your customers, but they’ll naturally turn to your business in the hour of need.
However, you must know how to maximize Yelp marketing to complement your marketing efforts.
Set Up a Yelp Business Profile
You need to check if your business is listed on Yelp. Consider searching your brand name in the search bar and see if it appears in the results. If it does, you only need to claim the listing.
Otherwise, you’d need to visit the homepage footer and create a business profile from scratch. This would require you to enter your business name, address, contact information, operation hours, and website address.
Besides, keep three major things in mind when setting your profile on Yelp.
- Business information. Make sure you answer basic questions addressing the common audience concerns. This may require you to share if you offer free Wi-Fi in your store, talk about the parking situation, tell the payment method, and other unique features your business offers.
- Description. This section is like the About Me of your business. You have to share what your business is about within 1500 characters. Here, you’ll need to write a killer description to attract customers to your brand.
- Categories. This part determines who finds you on Yelp. Because people discover companies based on search, you need to leverage the right keywords to draw them to your profile.
Respond to the Reviews
Word-of-mouth is a powerful tool that can make or break your business. Because a primary reason to be on Yelp is to earn positive reviews, you need to respond to them to gain more credibility.
This helps people build more trust in your services. However, make sure you address the users directly and are polite. Besides, maintaining your unique brand tone is also crucial.
Tackle Negative Reviews Like a Pro
While getting reviews sounds enticing, you’ll deal with negative ones by the end of the day. The thing is, it isn’t uncommon to stumble upon negative reviews among hundred positive ones.
But how you choose to tackle them depends on you. Certainly, ignoring the negative reviews isn’t wise. Instead, you must respond to them while maintaining a polite tone.
Consider apologizing for a bad experience and offer customers a way to address their pain points. If you come across a fake review, report it to Yelp, and the platform will solve your problem.
Try to Earn More Positive Reviews
The best way to handle negative reviews is to earn more positive ones. But how to do that? You can always ask customers to leave reviews after they utilize your services.
As a whip-smart business owner, you may want to offer them special discounts and coupons for leaving reviews. However, make sure you aren't bribing them but offering value for their gesture.
Benefit from Yelp Advertising
A Yelp advertising account will cost you somewhere between $1,000 monthly. Yelp advertisements typically work through sponsored PPC ads that people come across when searching a website. However, your ads must.
- Adhere to the policies of Yelp
- Feature relevant keywords
- Include your business description as a text
- Inform customers about how to find you
This appears as a banner on the Yelp search page. You always have a choice to personalize the appearance using Yelp’s toolset. A more customized and targeted ad will lead to a better outcome.
Nail the Photography
You’ll need two types of photos for the platform. First, your photo gallery must include pictures you captured yourself. Second, it must have images generated by your customers.
If you’re just starting, you won’t have user-generated pictures. So, you’ll need to click your own. Make sure you capture quality pictures highlighting your products and services.
However, don’t exceed your budget by hiring a professional photographer. Yelp users rely on reviews by the end of the day. Photographs matter, but not as much as the reviews.
Be Discoverable
Yelp allows you to customize your business’ call to action button. You must display your contact information at a prominent place on your listing.
Keep business data noticeable, including website URL, address, and phone number.
The key is to remove hurdles between you and the customer, and one way out is to make it easy for customers to contact you.
Consider Outsourcing
Millions of people use Yelp to find relevant and quality services. Because customers seek value, they read Yelp reviews before investing their hard-earned money.
This means you have a chance to target them by offering quality services and using an effective Yelp marketing strategy.
But as a business owner, you have less time to learn the ins and outs of Yelp marketing. Therefore, experts recommend hiring professionals for the purpose. This reduces your burden and allows you to hand over a complicated business task to experts.
Things to Consider When Hiring Yelp Marketing Service Providers
Whether you’re an owner of a large business corporation or run a small company, marketing can be overwhelming. Keeping up with new and distinct technologies is not easy. Besides, it sucks up your time, and you rarely achieve the desired results.
Therefore, marketing agencies exist to help your business thrive by executing smart marketing strategies. Nonetheless, consider these things before choosing a company for your business.
Specialization
Thoroughly research a company and its services. Because an agency offers marketing services, it doesn’t indicate it’ll create an ideal Yelp marketing campaign for you. Consider hiring a firm that specifically offers Yelp marketing.
This will ensure you’ve handed over a significant business task to the right service providers.
Motivation
How driven is a company to contribute to your business?
Offering quality services is one thing, but whether an agency desires to help you with your business growth is another factor to consider.
The more motivated a company is, the better approach it’ll take to drive desired results. You can always check its reputation through online reviews and see what customers say about its services.
Customization
Each business is unique and has distinct goals to achieve. The same applies to your business.
Do not go with a company that sells template solutions. Because an agency has delivered numerous services and taken up several projects, they may assume your business is similar - when it's not.
So, avoid hiring a company that takes a one-size-fits-all approach
Mistakes to Avoid
Choosing from several Yelp marketing agencies is not a cakewalk. Make sure you avoid a few common mistakes to keep yourself from annoying hassles.
- Do not choose unreasonably low-pricing companies with exceptional claims. While cheap rates may tempt you to pick one, your frugal ways may cost you more down the line. Simply put, investing in the wrong company would require you to pay more to hire the right one and recover the loss from the pathetic services. Besides, you may end up ruining your brand reputation.
- Be wary of companies with no social proof of their services. Reputable and authentic agencies display customer reviews on the site. Besides, they have social media handles and testimonials to back their work.
Hire the Best Yelp Marketing Companies With Xpeer
The swiftly evolving digital world and growing competition demand you to exist on every social platform.
You cannot just create a website and Facebook profile and get away with marketing.
Instead, you need a sound social presence to build brand awareness, connect to your ideal customers, and promote your business. Yelp is another platform with millions of visitors searching for quality services.
Xpeer connects you with credible Yelp marketing service providers that take your marketing game to the next level with their skill, expertise, and knowledge.