Facts about Yelp for Small Business
August 24, 2010
With more than 75% of adults turning to the internet to make LOCAL buying decisions, social networking sites like YELP are more popular than ever. In June of this year, 33 million consumers visited Yelp to learn about localsmall businesses.
Whether you know it or not, your small business may already have a presence on Yelp. The question is – are you in control of it? Yelp is a social networking site that all
ows consumers to learn about – and rate – their favorite (and not-so-favorite) places to eat, shop, play, and spend their hard-earned dollars.
Ignoring social sites like Yelp isn’t going to make them go away or prevent negative reviews. Remember the golden rule of Social Media Marketing? SOCIAL MEDIA IS AT LEAST 51% LISTENING. And if you haven’t set up your listening station to be notified when people are talking about you (using Google Alerts, for example) on the web, you are missing a huge opportunity – and you could be responsible for sabotaging your own business.
Some Yelp Basics:
- You don’t have to claim your page or set up an account for people to be able to post reviews- That’s right- anyone can add your business and review it. You may already be there and not even know it. This could be extremely damaging to your business.
- Claim/unlock your business page- go to yelp.com to claim your business page and unlock all the tools that are available to business owners. Like tracking number of visitors, demographic info of reviewers so you can learn more about your target market and how they found you, you can post hours, specials, photos, or anything else you want your potential customers to know about your business – and of course the ability to respond to reviews.
- Respond to negative reviews – either publicly or privately – what a great way to turn a negative into a positive! We all make mistakes and most consumers will forgive a mistake if it’s handled appropriately.
How to handle a negative review:
Respond privately: If someone leaves a bad review you now have the option of communicating with them privately to work it out. I recommend doing so – immediately. Do what you can to resolve the issue- this is an awesome opportunity to create goodwill, save a customer, and perhaps generate awesome word-of-mouth marketing.
Once the customer is happy ask them, “Have we satisfactorily resolved your complaint?” “Would you recommend us to a friend?” If the answer is yes, ask them if they would either revise or amend their Yelp review to let people know how your resolved the issue. If the customer doesn’t do it- you can then go to a public response – see below.
Respond publicly: You can also respond publicly and I’ve seen this done extremely well. You can tactfully state your case. Did you try unsuccessfully to resolve the issue? Tell people! Did you go out of your way to try to make it right? Tell people! Did you respond to the customer privately and rectify the situation? Talk about it! Also keep in mind – there will always be complainers- and the Yelp community can spot one a mile away (anyone can access all of a person’s reviews and if they’re chronic complainers their opinion will most likely be ignored by potential customers).
Quiz: What Takes More Planning – a Wedding or a Business?
August 2, 2010
Your daughter announces she’s engaged. What’s the first thing you do? Plan the wedding. There are wedding venues to visit, flowers to order and cakes to taste…
You’ve just booked your next vacation. What do you do? You start planning what you’ll wear, what you’ll pack, where you’ll go, what you’ll see…
You’re a small business owner. You’re out of leads. Business is slow. You need more revenue. What do you do? Start planning? (Or turn to your marketing plan for direction?). Nope. If you’re like many business owners, you panic. Like a sailor overboard you latch on to the first advertising salesperson who walks into your business like a life preserver and spend hundreds or thousands on advertising. Thinking, “This one will be different”. The ads hit. You wait. The phones don’t ring. And you wonder why. Just more proof that marketing doesn’t work.
The problem is: there’s no cohesive, well thought out strategy. No plan. It would be like waiting until the day before your daughter’s wedding to order flowers, book a caterer and find a venue. Instead of getting the flowers your daughter would love, a caterer that serves the type of food the bride and groom like, and a venue that reflects the taste and values of the family, you’d end up settling for whatever is left and then wondering why your daughter didn’t have that fairy tale wedding she always dreamed of.
Here is what a marketing plan will help you with.
1. Uncover your Core Marketing Message. Answers the question: “Who are you and what are you going to do for me?”
2. Discover how you’re different. Answers: “Why should I choose you over the other 50 companies that do what you do?”
3. Who buys what you sell and why. Potential Customer???: “I hate widgets and I’ll never buy your widgets, why are you wasting your money advertising to me?”
4. Where the heck do we find them? Potential Customer: “Hey, over here!!!! Hello…. I’m your best prospect. I love widgets, I need widgets, I’ve made the decision to buy widgets and I have tons of money to buy widgets. But I don’t know about your widgets because you spend all your money advertising to the guy who hates widgets.”
5. And, what prompts them to buy? Potential Customer: “10% Off? Ha, that’s not worth my drive all the way across town. I’ll just wait. “
Don’t know where to start? Well, you can check out the free report on the home page of this site. Or call us to schedule your FREE marketing audit!
Is Your Website Like a Bad Date?
June 15, 2010
I’ve seen a lot of articles lately about website design. One of the best was by Jonathan Kranz on MarketingProfs entitled “5 Things to Think About Before You Launch Your Next Website”. I really liked this one because it addresses what I believe are the 5 main things everyone should consider before building a website. 
I especially love his 5th point, “It’s Not All About You”. One of my biggest pet peeves about websites is that so many are all about the company and so little about the customer. When I land on a website and it’s “I this” and “we that” I’m left feeling like I’m on a bad date listening to another self-involved bore.
Would you walk into a meeting with a new prospect and immediately start rattling off how long you’ve been in business, where you’re located, your education, experience and how great you are? Of course you wouldn’t. So why are you doing that on your website?
A website should first and foremost tell me – immediately – that you understand my problem. Then it should demonstrate how you are going to solve my problem and make my life better. The first rule of engagement – it’s all about me (the customer) – not you. FIRST demonstrate that you get me by addressing my problem, then how you can help me, and last- give me a way to find out more about you if I choose to even get that far (“About Us” are a great way to do that without the entire website being about you).
Jonathan’s article does a great job of addressing this issue and 4 others. So if you’re thinking about a new website – or even if you aren’t – you should definitely check it out – “Five Things to Think About Before You Launch Your Next Website”.
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