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Marketing On Yelp And Other Review Sites
Review websites like Yelp.com and Review.com have become widely used in a lot of areas,
mainly due to the huge growth in mobile internet devices like the iPhone and iPad. These smartphones
and other portable devices let people access these sites on the go, which is when they
are often looking for reviews and ratings.
As a business owner, you need to be sure that your company has a presence on these sites.
In this article, we're going to look at several strategies for getting the most out of review
sites.
The first step in the process is to create an account for your business on the site(s)
you plan to use. This lets you ensure the accuracy of your business listing by correcting
any errors. It also gives you the ability to interact with anyone who posts on your
profile.
It's important to engage people on these sites. Some of those people will be existing customers,
while others will be people who might be considering doing business with you and are looking for
more information.
Either way, if they see that you're active on the site and especially that you respond
to questions or complaints quickly, that will help to reassure them.
Complaints, bad reviews and low ratings are especially important to respond to. If you
show a genuine interest in correcting problems, it's going to go a long way towards building
trust.
In fact, having a negative review with a positive outcome is often more valuable than having
no bad reviews at all. That can look "manufactured" as if you had friends or family leave a bunch
of good reviews.
Another effective way to use these sites is by offering deals or coupons to their users.
You can offer exclusive deals to users on these sites, so anyone who checks out your
listing can get the deal.
This can be a good way to generate more business, particularly if you are in a business where
this makes sense. For example, it would work very well for a restaurant or pub, where you
could offer some sort of discount or other special to anyone who brings in the coupon.
Many of these sites, such as Yelp.com, also offer a feature called "check ins". This lets
anyone who is using their mobile app on an iPhone or other device check in when they
visit your business. You can tie your coupon offers to these check-ins so they only get
them when they check in.
The advantage here is that those check-ins will be seen by other people in their network,
creating a type of viral marketing for your business.