How to make money with Yelp (and other local sites)
Yelp and Foursquare are huge for Local - they work great on Mobile and their results often appear higher in Google than your own website. In the ideal world you'd have claimed your business on both networks, added some great photos, updated the business information and of course have loads of positive reviews, check-ins and tips left by happy customers.
Big Caveat - Don't Ask For Reviews on Yelp
Yelp (in particular) are really picky about how you generate reviews. You can't ask for them outright and if you suddenly get a load of random positive reviews, their algorithm will probably squash them. So what do you do?
File under "Duh!" but:
As part of the sales process, have a conversation with them about technology, about smart phones, about how everything is changing:
- Ask them what kind of phone they have
- Ask them if they use social networks
- Ask them if they have Yelp and Foursquare on their phone
- Ask them if they've ever "checked in" somewhere before
- Ask them what they think about all this
- Share your own experiences with the networks
"Win, Win, Win"
The point here is to put the idea of Yelp and Foursquare into the customer's mind when they're interacting with your business. If you are enthusiastic about these services then they'll be more inclined to check them out, and if they're already a user, to interact with you online. Yelp wins, the customer wins and in the long run, you do too!
You have to change your mindset
I know to most people working directly with the customer this doesn't make sense, but think of it like any sales training and just implement it in your business. It might feel a little uncomfortable to start with but if you make it an habitual part of your interaction with customers your traffic will go up and you will make more money.
If you want to chat about this and see how it can be implemented in your business, email me here or call me on 310 980 2499
Written while listening to: God Knows Violas - music2work2
Image Credit: Picture Unrelated by Amadeus Varadi on Flickr (just 'cos it totally cracked me up!)