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With over 53 million local reviews and 120 million monthly unique visitors, Yelp is considered the leading review site on the Web.  Indeed, ‘to Yelp’ is a verb meaning to review a local business online, and a Yelper is one who actively participates on the site.  It’s part of our culture!

A public profile on the site is considered a must for local businesses, especially restaurants. 

Customers leave reviews, and other users use these reviews when considering visiting a local business.  Reviews and ratings for a business stack up, democratizing the process of choosing to eat at the new Thai restaurant or trying out a new nail salon.  Further, users can rate reviews ‘Useful,’ ‘Cool,’ or ‘Funny.’  (Yelp’s editors do keep things lighthearted.)

Let’s take a look at some features and best practices for participating on Yelp, and using the network to promote your business.

Make It Fun:  Contests, Games, Rewards

First off, make it fun!  Encourage your customers to check out your Yelp page.  Display the Yelp sticker on your front door, and in your collateral materials – brochures, menus, business cards, and the like – mention Yelp and your wish for your customers to review your establishment.

In addition to encouraging customers to write and post reviews, which are generally more time consuming, ask them to instead take photos, check in, or leave Quick Tips, which are faster and much easier.  Plus, you still get engagement and free social content.  Yay!

(Extra credit:  ask your Yelping customers to cross-publish their reviews, tips, and photos to their Facebook, Twitter, and other social profiles for even more engagement.  Even more extra credit:  ask your Yelpers to first take photos – and beautify them -- with Instagram, and then re-post to your Yelp profile.)

Meet Your Yelp Community Manager

Of the hundreds of communities on Yelp – Yelp is now in 24 countries – there is a Community Manager.  Unlike reviewers, who are not paid to contribute reviews, photos, comments, tips, and information on the site, Community Managers are paid employees of the company, and their job is to ensure that reviews keep going unabated.

The email address for your local Community Manager is usually [email protected]. 

Community Managers also plan local events, bringing together business owners and reviewers.  As an alternative to paid advertising, you could participate in these events by offering up your venue, catering food, providing a free giveaway, or some other way to get your name out in front of local Yelpers.  (Again this is not mandatory, and your decline to participate will not affect your profile on Yelp.)

Do I Have To Pay for Advertising?

Yelp derives 100% of its income from advertising, but you do not need to spend on advertising in order to unlock value from your participation on Yelp.

However, if you hear from a local Yelp advertising salesperson, don’t be alarmed – hear them out and learn about what they offer.

One promotion you might wish to consider is offering a special for checking in.  Much like geolocation app Foursquare, Yelp has increased its mobile engagement features, and allows merchants to offer discounts, freebies, and specials (called Yelp Deals) to users who check in or leave a tip at their establishment.   Your local Yelp advertising representative would be able to set up a promotion like this for your business.

There were rumors a few years ago that Yelp would only favor businesses who advertised, pushing those who did not further down in search results (i.e, if someone searched on ‘dry cleaner’ and ‘Phoenix,’), but after a few legal challenges, Yelp has pledged that the site is completely democratic and review-driven.

What If I Get a Bad Review?

Every business on Yelp has received negative or unfavorable reviews.  What to do?  For one thing, do not ignore it.  As the business owner, you can respond to the review publicly, and also reach out individually to the Yelp member and offer to make things right. 

This actually does not happen too often so taking the time to respond positively and in a timely manner shows your commitment to providing excellent customer service – and also displaying proper social media etiquette!  Go you!

(Yelp Business Owner Secret:  you can communicate directly with customers via the Yelp platform, privately or publicly – your choice.)

Not the Only Game in Town

Besides Yelp, there exist many other review sites.  Here are some worth considering:

• Google+ Local
• Yahoo! Local Reviews
• Citysearch
• Urbanspoon
• OpenTable
• TripAdvisor
• Angie’s List

The list goes on, and some specialty review sites exist for physicians and other professions.  Your experience with Yelp will certainly support your ability to deal with other review sites.

Getting Started

As with any social media profile, you should stake your claim before someone else – perhaps one of your customers – already starts.  Yelp makes it very easy for you to get started, and the good news is that once you claim your business, you can upload your own photos, add important info like phone numbers, hours, parking, and methods of payment, and begin to truly see how the community reacts and engages.

Like any social media site, features, design, and navigation will continue to change over time.  Your Yelp community manager, local advertising representative, and most importantly, your customers, will help you unlock Yelp’s true potential as a marketing platform.

Final Thought:  A strong Yelp presence should be a substantial component of your marketing and social media strategy.

Not only will it help you become a better marketer, but your active involvement will also help you understand more about your customers, their preferences, and how they engage and interact with your products and services (and even your employees). 

In a way, this is free market research, perhaps even leading to a shift or adjustment in your very products or services.

View your Yelp presence as an ever-changing source of new ideas.

Want more info?  Expand your horizons with additional reading. 

Want Help? Contact our team today!

ChangeU: independent study…

Yelp Case Studies

https://biz.yelp.com/support/case_studies

Case studies on small businesses that successfully implemented Yelp, including automotive, beauty and spas, health and medical, home services, and restaurants

Huffington Post:  How to Turn Customer Service Into a Compelling Competitive Advantage

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-whetten/companies-that-care-how-t_b_4898558.html

From Huffington Post’s Small Business blog, five essential steps to exceptional customer service

The 2014 State of Marketing

http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/the-2014-state-of-marketing/

From Social Media Examiner, the results of a survey of over 2,500 marketers of what’s working and what’s not, and trends for 2014 and beyond.

Today more than 2.92 billion people worldwide use the internet to find products and services, including maintenance and repair for everything from cars to homes and appliances. The key to successfully tapping into such a huge resource is creating a digital marketing strategy that will help you find and communicate with your target customer in the local area to show them why your business is the best choice.  
Establish your brand with your website 
Your website is your online storefront and should immediately tell the customer what your business does, while giving the impression of expertise and professionalism. It is also a business tool that will be instrumental in defining your image, as such your design should be consistent with your core message.     Make sure you have a website that is SEO optimized, up to date with current information, license numbers, services, hourly rates, hours and works well on mobile devices. Since your primary business is offline it is very important that you encourage potential customers to take action by adding direct call-to-actions, like ‘Call Us’ or ‘email us for a free quote’ on pages throughout the entire site.  Furthermore, a website establishes an online presence so that potential customers, industry professionals, and even potential employees can easily learn more about your business. 

Maximize your exposure with local directories
To increase the likelihood that more local customers will find your business and use your services, add a listing on the local online business directories like Google+ Local and Yahoo! Local.  It would also be a good idea to get your business accredited and listed on the Better Business Bureau directory.  While it is best to add your business to more than one directory do some research to determine which ones are ideal for your business.  Some are automatically generated lists that you can add your business to, which help you get more inbound links to your website. Others allow users to optimize their listing by adding content, pictures, and even video, which improves the initial perception of your business.  Many of these are also community-based websites that mean visitors can rate and review your business.  
 
Dynamic Repairs and Renovations, LLC Business listing on Yellopages.com
Build Your Reputation by responding to reviews
Leverage the viral effect of online review to build a positive reputation.  Online reviews are a great influencer for consumers and play major role in the decision and purchasing process.  Moreover, customers seeking your services do not want to interact with you more than absolutely necessary. So, reading a review about how reliable your work is can set you apart from other local maintenance and repair businesses.  Reviews most often posted on general rating and review sites like Yelp and YellowPages.com but they can also be posted on social media pages as well.  Regardless of where they are posted you want to respond to these reviews in a personal and professional way in order to help you build relationships with your customers. Positive feedback can make the difference in a customer calling your business over the competitors when a problem arises.  Thank people for their positive feedback. Conversely, look at negative reviews as an opportunity to engage and learn how you can create a better experience for them. Customers will appreciate your proactive approach to resolving problems.  
 
Use social media to increase your referrals 
Word of mouth advertising coupled with social media networking can go a long way in building trust by allowing you to personalize your interactions, both of which influence customers’ decision when searching for a maintenance and repair business.  Set up a Facebook page for your business and start actively promoting it through your website, marketing materials, and in store on signage or customer receipts. You may even consider offering rewards or coupons to return or frequent customers that ‘Like’ your page. Encourage satisfied customers to share their experience on their Facebook page as well.  The point here is to build trust that will translate into recommendations to family and friends that need these type of repair services.  It can also be beneficial to create a LinkedIn company profile for your business in order to network with other professionals in the industry. 
Final Thoughts
Create a digital marketing strategy that makes it easy for people to do business with you.  When people find a reliable business to maintain and repair their home, car, or etc., they generally will maintain that relationship for years, as a result finding new customers can require some creative strategies.  A good digital marketing plan that includes a variety of techniques to enhance your online presence will keep existing customers coming back and win over new ones. 
 

ChangeU: For your independent study ...

http://bit.ly/1seCRYm
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It is time to step out of the kitchen and create an effective digital marketing plan to attract, engage and communicate with your customers. Because the internet has become the primary source of information for people when it comes to deciding on what restaurants they will choose to go to, it’s critical that you are use a combination of marketing tactics to present your brand online. Furthermore, to ensure your restaurant continues to grow, it’s important to define your target audience, learn what is relevant to them and learn how they communicate to effectively create an online experience that will convert them from visitors to customers.     

Here are some ways to increase your online presence and promote your brand. 

Serve up a great website

Your website has the potential to be your greatest marketing asset and a professional-looking website that run quickly on a variety of mobile devices is the first step in converting visitors to customers.  Your website should be easy to update, they should integrate with popular restaurant locator and review sites like GrubHub Seamless and Urbanspoon, and at the very least show your menus, offer online ordering options, location information, and hours.  Also, remember that eating out isn’t just about eating, it’s about socializing, being seen and talking about food so your website should make these simple activities look amazing.  Include galleries to showcase your food, guests, and events. Post a virtual tour of your restaurant to give your online visitors an idea of what the ambience and tone will be like when they visit your location.  

Create a mobile experience   

People are more connected to the web as ever, for this reason it is essential that you include a mobile component in you digital marketing strategy. It is expected that by the end of 2014 1.76 billion people with will own or use smartphones on monthly basis, so as a restaurateur you should be asking yourself how you can reach this audience.  While creating a separate mobile site or mobile app may be expensive there are still ways to get in front of these mobile phone users.  The most obvious way is to optimize your website responsive design to make it mobile friendly. 

Another effective way to create a mobile presence is to partner with one of the established online directories, like Google Places. This kinds of sites are free and offer built in mobile-optimized shortcuts, including mobile apps which put your restaurant in front of thousands of mobile of users every day, including those in your local area.  Deal sites like Groupon or LivingSocial are another way to increase your online presence when used in combination with your other marketing efforts. A big advantage of these promotional sites is that it's free to feature your business.  

Pair the Right Social Platform with the Right Customer Type
Each social media platform effectively reaches a different type of customer and serves a different role (see our post on how to use each social platform), so that means you should take a few minutes to figure out which of these platforms your customers are most likely to use and how to use it.  If your restaurant already covers the broad spectrum of customer types (e.g., families, professionals, foodies, lunch crowd, etc.), then you may want to have a slightly different strategy for each platform so you can best target EACH of your choice customer types.  More importantly, there are some great tools, such as Hootsuite and IFTTT , to help you manage and automate your social media accounts and save time. 
 
Additionally, each social platform has a unique sets of capabilities.  For example, Facebook allows you to provide updates, photos, videos in a “personal-oriented” environment, whereas Twitter might be ideal for shooting out coupons, new menu items, specials and other timely updates to your audience.  The great thing is, you don’t have to use all social platforms, but you should be aware of what other restaurants like yours are doing and do your best to provide a competitive experience to your customers.  You can turn to firms like ours for help (affordably) as well as use automation tools to make it more efficient for you or someone on your staff to do personally.

Final Thoughts
An effective digital marketing plan is one that will help you build and nurture relationships with your customers.  Therefore, with a well-developed strategy your restaurant will appear at the top of search results and stay on the top of the mind of you customers as they decide where to dine.  By understanding how to best use the marketing tools available, your business will see a return on investment in the long run.     

ChangeU: for your independent study ...

Cell Phone and Smartphone Ownership Demographics http://pewrsr.ch/1vZBrS7

Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research.

Mobile Apps in the Age of the Consumer   http://bit.ly/1qgv4pI
Build a mobile app that engages. This paper answers today’s pressing mobile app questions, including: Should your brand develop an app? What operating systems are the most significant? What do millennials think about mobile apps? Restaurant executives will learn the answers to these questions and which trends to watch.

The Mobile Path to Purchase study by xAd and Telmetrics  http://bit.ly/1D5xPCm  

The results of these studies provide valuable insights into the mobile tools utilized in the process of research and decision, and strong mobile user intent to purchase.