The power of opinion is perception.
The power of opinion is perception. And action is one of two moves: moving forward or moving backward. Yelp.com is all about opinions. In fact, the power of Yelp is not so much opinion as it is curiosity, or rather, information. People use Yelp to find restaurants, massage therapists, stylists, boutiques, and, believe it or not, plastic surgeons and aestheticians.
Despite being 20 years old, Yelp is defying most of the flash in the pan lifespans of media sites. Forbes reports that Yelp has expanded well-beyond the expected growth, despite a short-term drop in 2021. In fact, the expected revenue for 2022 is an estimated 1.2 billion dollars. The reason for the growth – localization.
And that is where Yelp becomes a huge part of your digital media strategy. It would be simple to sit back with your current media strategy and not consider your Yelp presence, well, Caledon Virtual just can’t, in good conscience, allow that to happen. We know the importance of the growing community of health and medical reviewers taking to Yelp, especially when it comes to elective surgery and procedures.
Do you know that if you haven’t already found and claimed your profile and verified it, someone else could possibly claim it?
Do you know how many other specialty services are like yours in your zipcode? So one thing that you can do to begin your experience with Yelp is to go in and claim your profile. It is as simple as going through the Yelp verification process, which requires an email and other general information.
But once you are on Yelp, there’s more to optimizing your presence than just waiting for reviews. Being active on Yelp can be time consuming, and you are going to need help. Caledon Virtual can help you with managing every aspect of your business on Yelp. With the ability to respond to reviews as a business, managing both the good with positive affirmation and the not-so-good with class and empathy, Caledon Virtual can efficiently handle all aspects of your Yelp presence.
Yelp can be the unexpected jewel in the crown of your marketing strategy?
And it isn’t just handling profiles and reviews. With opportunities that come with your free profile , your business can offer a “menu” of specialties like specific procedures or products, up to an extra 1,500 characters which provides your business with a profitable opportunity to utilize your searchword optimization.
Another option is creating a check-in service for your customers. When clients check in via their mobile app to their business, you can have immediate offers on specials such as a percentage off of a specialty product or brief procedure. The most valuable aspect of the check-in feature is that all people in the network of the client can see that they have checked in and through basic posts, they can share the specials that come with checking in to your business.
Yelp can also let you personalize your business as a specific stand-out cultural segment.
So if you are a minority business owner, offer services that appeal to the LGBTQIA+ community, or make special accommodations for people with disabilities, these are all segment markets that Yelp recognize and encourage users to utilize as Yelp offers directive marketing to these demographics.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but Yelp encourages all business owners to use photos with captions on their profiles. This is a major boost to your searchword optimization within the Yelp community. Caledon Virtual can help write your captions utilizing searchwords that will bring potential clients to your profile page with your photos.
Utilizing Yelp to enhance the perception of your business is so vital because of localization. Yelp is going to hit that demographic that is in your area and engaged in the act of seriously searching for what you have to offer. The Yelp consumer is prime to purchase and prepared to make contact, make an appointment, sit down for a consultation, and spend their dollars on the service or product they went to Yelp to find.
Caledon Virtual has put together a strategy that circumvents any Yelp policy that would have us negate the importance of putting our client’s needs first.
Yelp is unlike any other service offered. And while the free features are more than most providers offered, there are more services to be had through their paid advertising platforms. Oddly enough, Yelp’s advertising partnerships are offered to agencies, not to businesses and what the partnerships do, in essence, is tie the hands of the agency when it comes to helping their client manage their Yelp profile. It is, in fact, a status offered to agencies to try to sell you on their products to assist you with Yelp. Of course you’d want someone who is a “partner” or a “premier partner” of Yelp to handle your account. But those partnerships are based on how much revenue the agency brings to Yelp. At Caledon Virtual, our goal is not to gain elite status with any person or platform. We put clients before status.
So, to counter the seemingly backwards policies of Yelp, Caledon Virtual has put together a strategy that circumvents any policy that would have us negate the importance of putting our client’s needs first. The strategy is governed first by ethics, second by a commitment to using every tool that we have to elevate the client, and third, by a tried and proven system governed by what you value most.
Yelp can be yet another powerful tool in your advertising tool box. It requires attention and marketing savvy. And Caledon Virtual can help with your public perception, because that is the power of opinion and the power of a marketing agency that puts your needs before a desire for status.
