The Ultimate Guide To Yelp Marketing: How To Make The Most Out Of Things You Hate (The Yelp Marketing Funnel)
People live and die by ratings and reviews when selecting places to go and products to buy.
You know your product or service serves a specific demographic, but some people outside of that demographic try your product or service, and with different expectations.
It is because of this that people view your business differently online. Only the upset people are reviewing your business while your happiest customers don’t have anything to rant about.
For example, if your business appeals to the baby boomer market (people born between 1946 and 1964), then those people aren’t very likely to review on Yelp.
In addition to that, if someone in the younger generation experiences your business, but isn’t fond of how “old school” the ambiance of your place is, they’ll throw you a review which would totally misrepresent what your typical customers think.
The good news is, even in this case, you can still benefit from Yelp.
This Is What Yelp Was Made For
With over 145 million monthly visitors, the local search giant has definitely made a name for itself amongst consumers.
I have to be quite honest myself, I love using Yelp from a customer standpoint. I’m definitely a foodie and I’m always thinking of what to eat for dinner, when it’s only breakfast time.
But I often find myself not even knowing what I’m craving. That is when I use Yelp: to help inspire my stomach.
When using Yelp, I’m very sensitive to ratings. Anything that is 4.5 stars or above automatically attracts my attention. It gets to the point where, when I search for restaurants in my area, I scroll through the whole list looking for 4.5 star rated restaurants before even considering any of the 4 stars.
I keep those 4.5 star rated restaurants in mind, then I restart the same exact search to look at other restaurants I might be interested in.
I also use filters such as “Hot & New” and “Most Reviewed” to see what is new and what is the most popular.
These are the search habits of someone who
- wants to eat the most delicious food and receive the best service possible when it comes to value for dollar
- has been on the other side of Yelp reviews – someone that manages Yelp profiles for other businesses.
I wanted to make one more very very important point that I have been disappointed by 4.5 star rated restaurants, and many times have been very impressed by 3-4 star rated restaurants, which I’ve visited purely from recommendations by friends or what I’ve seen on social media.
With that being said, regardless of your rating and how you rank on Yelp, your listing will always get traffic from people checking you out before they visit your business.
What People Do On Your Yelp Profile
If you know me by now, you know my general concept of internet marketing. To refresh your memory, I believe that the purpose of every marketing campaign should be to help move your potential customer forward in their journey towards purchasing from your business. Your campaigns don’t necessarily need to hit home runs.
One big benefit Yelp gives local businesses is their ability to give searchers, with different levels of interests, actions to perform based on said level of interest.
[YELP FUNNEL]
For example, at the customer awareness level, customers can check out pictures and reviews that other Yelpers have uploaded. If they like what they see, they can, at the very least, bookmark your listing to save for the next opportunity they have to visit.
Beyond that, Yelp users have the option of making what I call micro-commitments such as visiting your website to learn more about you, getting directions to your location, sending you a message, and even calling your business directly.
All leading up to the highest commitment levels which are making reservations or buying deals and gift certificates. Instant revenue or revenue forecasts for you!
Here is the full list of customer actions which Yelp allows business owners to measure:
What most business owners don’t realize is that there is only one action you want your customer to take – and what Yelp doesn’t offer customers to do. It has even more value than someone making a reservation or purchasing a deal.
What could be more beneficial than making a sale?
After all, sales are the lifeblood of your business. No sales, no way to pay off loans, pay employee wages, pay yourself, and support your family.
Integrating Yelp Into Your Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy that is PROactive is better that is REactive. Let me explain.
On Yelp, you are relying on people to think “I’m hungry!” or “I’m bored!” before starting their journey towards a visit or purchase.
However, on other marketing platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Email, you are proactively providing ideas to customers. Given that your ideas are personalized and trustworthy ideas, this form of marketing allows you to drive traffic and generate sales on demand.
The missing piece to these marketing platforms is the traffic generation.
Too many times, I’ve seen people posting on their Facebook and Instagram business pages, expecting everyone on Facebook and Instagram to see the post and get customers in their store.
That’s not how it works. You need to build communities on these platforms.
For example, you need Page Likes on Facebook. You need followers on Instagram. You need emails to email people.
The bigger your business’s community is on these platforms, the more people will be aware of your content.
So what is one way to drive traffic and gain community members on these platforms? We can get traffic from Yelp.
There’s a rule on Yelp that you can’t put another social media page as your website link because they are technically competitors. However, there is a way around this rule.
When Yelp asks you to type in your website, what do you think they are asking for?
They could be asking you for the homepage of your website.
However, what I think they are asking me is: What web page do you want the people who find you on Yelp to go to?
So I usually put a landing page that gives the customer to join my email newsletter club, like me on Facebook, or follow me on Instagram.
Here’s an example:
From this page alone without any incentive, I get at 16.76% opt-in rate. That means if you have 100 people clicking on your website per month, you’ll get 16-17 more email subscribers that you can update on new products, services, and promotions whenever you’d like!
Getting More Traffic To Your Yelp Page
ON DEMAND.
Kind of like when you want to watch a TV show, you can turn on your cable box, open your Netflix app, or even search on Youtube.
Imagine having that flexibility and power for your business.
First thing’s first –
[with great power, comes great responsibility]
That’s right. If you use your powers for evil, like spamming, you probably won’t see any results.
They can save your place for future reference by bookmarking and visit your website to learn even more about you.
They can even directly interact with you by sending you a message on Yelp
But you didn’t get into business thinking you could just develop the best product or provide the best service and think it would sell itself.
Yelp has created quite a name for themselves over the years.
Sure, they dominate the space of local search, especially in the restaurant space. However, it’s not secret that restaurant owners can’t stand the existence of Yelp.
