This user review site can greatly influence your relationship with consumers.
There are many different social platforms out there that businesses know they should be paying attention to in order to increase exposure and connect with their audience―Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, etc. However, one multi-dimensional social media site that often gets overlooked when crafting a company’s overall digital marketing strategy is Yelp.
When most people think of Yelp, they simply think of user reviews. While this isn’t incorrect―Yelp has one of the highest volume of reviews and comments among other review sites―this site offers so much more than that for businesses who want to further their relationship with customers and grab the attention of a wider audience.
In fact, more than 70% of buying decisions by consumers are now informed by online reviews. Given the fact that Yelp has over 60 million registered users and over 20 million reviews posted on the site, it is fair to say that Yelp remains a prevailing website for hosting these active consumers. If these figures were not convincing enough, here are four more reasons why you should include Yelp in your overall online marketing strategy.
1. Gathers Helpful Feedback
Review sites such as Yelp are great for gathering important feedback from your consumers, and getting helpful suggestions and responses from people that are familiar with your products and services. Plus, because you can reply privately or publicly to people who have left reviews for your business, you can engage customers based on their feedback and offer more information when necessary. For instance, if a customer really loved a promotion that you were offering around the holidays, you can engage them and let them know if this is an annual promotion they can come back for again.
2. Benefits SEO
Because Yelp is a leading consumer review site for many businesses, it receives high priority from Google search engine results. Plus, because it uses natural language URLs for its review sites (The Trade Group in Carrollton, Texas, for instance, is listed at http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-trade-group-carrollton), the reviews for your business on Yelp typically rank well in a Google search.
Related post: 50 B2B SEO Strategies
3. Encourages Word-Of-Mouth Communication
Reviews that are left on Yelp are free for consumers to write and free for others to read. Therefore, a positive review on this review site can go a long way towards providing your company with unlimited word-of-mouth advertising and even can give your small business a competitive, personalized advantage over larger companies.
4. Reinforces Social Proof For Your Website
Positive reviews that are left for your company on Yelp can also be leveraged on your own website. For instance, you can take some of your favorite quotes or reviews on Yelp, put them on your own website with the reviewers first name, and then reinforce the social proof when consumers come to check out your own business page. Plus, if you build a unique “reviews” page on your company website (i.e. www.yourbusiness.com/reviews), this can help your business rank well in search engines when people perform searches for “your business” + “reviews.”
How is your company using Yelp in your overall marketing strategy? Do you utilize any of the features we mentioned above? Be sure to share your experience and suggestions with us in the comments below!
