How to Get Full Benefits of Yelp For Business Owners

Is Yelp right for your service business? To decide, here we guide you on how to get the full benefit of Yelp for business owners to increase your customer base and add new revenue every month.

Every month there are millions of people on Yelp potentially looking for exactly what your business has to offer. In most areas, there are several hundred searches for terms like “general contractor” or “Plumbing Contractor.” By creating a free profile on Yelp, you can potentially put your business in front of thousands of eyes every month. The biggest catch with Yelp is your competition likely has a listing for their company as well. This means when customers are looking at different businesses they often will go with the one who has the best reviews, this can work for or against you. If you make a conscious effort to provide excellent customer service, then you should naturally receive good reviews. You can also use third-party review tools such as review buzz to have more control over your business reviews and what ends up getting posted.

What can Yelp do for your Business

Just by claiming their free business page on Yelp, businesses increased their annual revenue by $8000 according to a study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group. Among the revenue increases companies are seeing:

  • An average increase of $23,000 in annual sales if you use Yelp Advertising
  • 82% of Visitors on Yelp have the Intent to Purchase from a Local Business
  • 89% of Users who make a purchase at a business they found on Yelp, do so within a week.
  • Yelp get’s over 142 Million Visitors every Month.

Yelp has become very serious about helping business owners get more customers, through their website and they want to establish a win/win relationship. They have provided several case studies for all different industries, on how Yelp can generate new business. Below we will highlight a few of the case studies relevant to the construction sector.

What Makes A Great Yelp Page?

A successful case study is by a company called Matt Mark Service Company. According to Mark, Yelp has increased his business by 90%. He claims before using Yelp he had 10% of the business he has now. He Says, My personal Exposure is greater than it ever was three years ago. And there are some months where I would say that 70% of the business comes from Yelp.

If you’re going to make a Yelp page, then you’ll want to do it right. It can hurt your reputation to throw up a profile with no content, just for the sake of having a Yelp Profile. You will be much better off by spending some time adding goods descriptions, graphics, and videos to your page. What makes this company’s page stand out is:

  1. Excellent Reviews: This page has over nine reviews, and all of them are 5 stars.
  2. BBB Rating: They posted a Picture of their A+ Better Business Bureau Rating.
  3. They post several photos of their past jobs so potential customers can get an idea of his quality work.

Another successful case study is by the company called Morgan Miller Plumbing and Drain Cleaning. This small company went from 8-10 employees to double that in less than four years, and the owner contributes much of its success to Yelp. Jeff Morgan, a third generation plumber, and owner of Morgan Miller Plumbing and Drain Cleaning said, “every Month I’ve really dug into Yelp to see where each and every dollar came from, it’s been very consistent. I know my ROI is going to be there month after month”.

Some things that make this company’s page stand out include:

  1. A customized video featuring the owner of the business, in this video the owners talks about the companies dedication to customer service and satisfaction. Customer service is important for Yelp customers as they care about other people’s reviews.
  2. 28 Positive Reviews
  3. Pictures of Company Equipment, Employees, and Previous Work.

Setting Up Your Yelp For Business Page

One of the great things about Yelp is you can get started for nothing with their free tools. All you have to do is create a business account and claim your business page. From there you can:

  • Interact with your customers. With a business account, you can send private messages to reviewers as well as reply to the public reviews people leave.
  • Add customer pictures and videos to your business page.
  • Add a link to your company website.
  • Use Yelp’s Business Analytics tools to track the visitors to your business page and potential leads.
  • They also have a mobile app for business owners that allows you to manage your Yelp page on the go.

Advertising On Yelp

Once you create your free account, you may want to consider Yelp’s Self-Service Ads for Businesses. This type of account allows you to create ads on Yelp at your leisure. With Yelp ads you can:

  1. Target local people that are looking for your business type.
  2. Advertise on your competitors business pages.
  3. Offer exclusives deals to customers that use Yelp.
  4. Add a customized slideshow to your business page.
  5. Use Yelp’s business analytics tools to track visitors to your page and conversions.

If you want to take advantage of Yelp and everything they have to offer, then you should seriously consider Yelp’s Page Upgrades Service for Business Owners. With this program, you get a dedicated manager that will completely walk you through the process of how to set up your Yelp Page. This service also comes with all the same features as the Self Service Business Account plus a call-to-action button on your Yelp Page and a customized photo slideshow for your business. If this plan sounds interesting to you then contact a Yelp specialist.

At the end of the day, your business needs to bring in more cash than it’s spending. If you’re considering trying some Yelp advertising make sure you pay close attention to how much you’re spending on Yelp ads and how much business that’s producing. While Yelp can be great for contractor’s in some areas, it may be a waste of money for others. Closely monitor your Yelp page to ensure you are getting a good return on your investment.