Using Yelp to Connect with Customers

A lot of small businesses are jumping on the bandwagon and using Facebook and Twitter to promote their business and connect with consumers. I think that's great. However, I've noticed that Yelp is one of the most under utilized sites on the web. If your a retail brand, here is my case for why you should consider using Yelp to market your business.

Growth

Yelp has seen continued growth over the last couple of years. In 2009, the site saw a 60 percent increase in unique visitors! The site has also seen adoption from mobile users and is thinking ahead by launching one of the first Augmented Reality iPhone apps.

With all of this traffic, chances are your business is already being reviewed on Yelp. I'd recommend looking right away.

Yelp Business Accounts

Most businesses I talk to are surprised to hear that you can create a business account on Yelp for free. This feature alone makes Yelp a great tool.

As explained above, creating a Yelp business account is very simple. All you need to do is click on "get a business owner account" and your on your way to claiming your business. Once you've claimed your business, you'll have the ability to take full control of Yelp. At minimum, make sure you update the information for your business. This will help with local listings on the search engines. Below is a quick capture of just a few other things you can do once logged in.

Using Yelp to Interact with Customers

The best part of having a Business Account is the ability to interact with customers. Once you've followed all the sign-up steps, it's time to utilize these tools. Here are a few things you should be doing:

1. Special offers
   What better way to capture a potential customer that is checking out your reviews than giving them a special offer? Try to add some exclusivity to the offer (i.e. "Yelp Members Special"). These are the type of visitors that are going to come back to Yelp and give you a review following a great experience, so make sure you capture them when you can.
2. Respond to reviews
   Make sure you respond to both positive and negative reviews. You can choose to send a public or private message to anyone that post a review. Try to change a negative reviewers perception with an offer to make things right, on the house. And thank your positive reviewers, perhaps with a free meal. These are the influencers that are going to spread the word about you, so take advantage!
3. Ask for reviews!
   Don't be afraid to ask for reviews from your best customers. Once you have enough reviews, Yelp will send you signage that you can display in your storefront.
4. Watch Analytics
   The business account comes with analytics so you can see how many people are viewing your page. It will be interesting to watch this data and see if there is any connection to page visitors and sales. A great way to measure your success.

Hopefully this is enough to convince you that Yelp can be a powerful business tool. Good luck!