'Net Features : yelp

Yelp Unveils Revenue Estimation Tool for Local Businesses

Allison Howen — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:15:00 GMT

A new Yelp tool is helping local businesses figure out how much of their monthly revenue can be credited to the Yelp platform.

The Revenue Estimate tool is launched after the recent release of a Boston Consulting Group study that claims local businesses with a free Yelp account obtain an average of $8,000 in annual revenue from the location-based platform. It is important to note that the tool is free to all businesses that have claimed their Yelp profiles.

According to the Yelp blog, Revenue Estimate multiplies customer leads sent from Yelp each month by the business’s average revenue per customer lead. Additionally, Yelp includes the average spend per customer for each business category as a reference, which is based on the Boston Consulting Group study. Business owners simply need to login to their Yelp account in order to start using the tool.

Yelp Hits 100 Million Users

Allison Howen — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 16:15:00 GMT

Ever since Facebook launched the beta version of Graph Search, there has been some speculation around the ’Net that the social network’s new feature could end up being a Yelp and/or Foursquare killer.

If that is the case, Graph Search will have some big shoes to fill, because Yelp has announced that it received more than 100 million unique visitors in January 2013 (not including the 9.4 million users who used the mobile app during the same timeframe). While 100 million is still far from Facebook’s membership numbers, it does prove that Yelp has a very dedicated user base. Moreover, the engagement that came from these visitors was equally impressive.

Yelp reported that there were more than 4.5 million calls and more than 5.6 million directions generated from the Yelp mobile app in January alone. Additionally, the site received more than 1 million new reviews and had 475,891 local business listings submitted last month. It is also interesting to note that on average, customers who leverage Yelp spend $101.59 on their first visit.

The data seems to show that Yelp is helping millions of people make spending decisions each month, and business owners who are not already managing and monitoring their company’s presence on this platform are likely missing some valuable customers – who are ready to make spending decisions.

Check out Yelp's infographic below, which is based on metrics from Google Analytics and comScore, to discover more data about the local review service.

Yelp Adds Health Scores

Allison Howen — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 15:00:00 GMT

Would you eat at a restaurant that scored less than perfect on a 100-point health score? What would be your cut off; ninety, eighty? Thanks to a recent Yelp announcement, you may have to decide.

According to Yelp’s blog, the company worked with the cities of San Francisco and New York to include restaurant hygiene scores onto Yelp’s business pages. While the Health Scores can already be seen on some San Francisco business pages, similar scores will also be coming to restaurants in New York soon.

“This is huge news in itself, but perhaps the bigger news is what we’ve created to enable this new business attribute: a new open data standard – the ‘Local Inspector Value-entry Specification’ or, simply, LIVES,” states Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman in a blog post. “The LIVES standard was co-developed by Yelp and the technology departments of the cities of San Francisco and New York. The standard was created with the guidance and encouragement of the White House.”

With LIVES, local municipalities can display their hygiene inspection data as a business attribute on Yelp. Although San Francisco and New York will be the first cities to have this functionality, Yelp hopes that other cities will follow suit.

The Health Score is featured directly below the menu option on a restaurant’s business page. Moreover, consumers also have the ability to click on the score to discover additional inspection history data.

2012 Local Holiday Marketing Guide

Allison Howen — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 19:30:00 GMT

It is time to get serious about the holidays, because as of today, merchants only have a month to prepare for the busiest shopping day of the season – Black Friday.

While most merchants are putting the finishing touches on their 2012 holiday marketing plans, there is one strategy in particular that shouldn’t be overlooked, which is location-based marketing. This marketing strategy has become of utmost importance due to the growing use of mobile – especially among shoppers who use these devices to locate nearby stores.

In fact, a new report from online advertising network Chitika reveals that a quarter of Google searches are local, and 16.37 percent of those local searches come from a mobile device. This means that more and more consumers are using their devices as a tool for discovering nearby services and businesses, and this number will most likely increase during the busiest shopping season of the year.

In order to take advantage of the mobile mania, merchants should use location-based marketing tactics to help bring in more traffic at their brick-and-mortar locations. To do this, merchants must first claim their venue on some of the Web’s most popular listing websites, such as Foursquare and Yelp. (Check out Website Magazine’s “Get Listed – Merchant Marketing for 2012” for a full list of discovery websites.)

Not only will listing a business on these sites provide retailers with more visibility on the World Wide Web, but many of these sites also offer tools that can help merchants connect with their customers, as well as can be leveraged to implement location-based marketing campaigns. So once your site is listed, check out the tips below for bringing in more local traffic to your stores:

Launch Local Advertisements

Since many consumers discover nearby locations through search, it is a no-brainer that merchants should spend time and money on increasing their local visibility within the search engines. While the best way to do this is by making sure your business is listed on popular discovery platforms like Google Places, merchants can obtain additional local visibility by starting an advertising campaign with Google AdWords Express. This service helps small businesses get discovered by customers who are looking for specific local services both on the Web and on their mobile phones. To run an advertisement, merchants simply need to set their budget and provide the business information that they want their customers to see. Then, the ad is displayed either above or below relevant search results, and the merchant’s business is also marked with a blue pin on Google Maps so that consumers can easily identify its location. Additionally, it is important to note that with Google AdWords Express, merchants only pay when someone actually clicks their ad.

Run Foursquare Specials

Merchants must provide consumers with incentives for shopping at their business on busy shopping days like Black Friday. Luckily, Foursquare makes it easy for merchants to do just that. In fact, once a venue on Foursquare is claimed, merchants have the ability to run free promotions, including discount specials, freebie giveaways and loyalty rewards. For example, last year, Sports Authority offered $25 cash cards for customers that checked-in with Foursquare and spent $100 or more. That being said, merchants can also consider using a flash special in their Black Friday Foursquare promotions. This is because a flash special enables merchants to set a number of specials that can be unlocked per day. Similar to a door buster sale, merchants can use the flash special to reward a specific number of customers on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Target Local Fans

Merchants can captivate the attention of their local fans by launching promotions and advertisements on Facebook during the holiday season. In fact, a recent Marin Software study revealed that launching a Facebook advertisement campaign during the holidays can provide merchants with a high return on investment (ROI). This is because many consumers search the popular social network during their hunt for deals around Thanksgiving time. Merchants can take advantage of this by using Facebook’s targeting features to narrow in on a local audience when creating a social holiday ad campaign. However, that is just one way that merchants can leverage the world’s most popular social network to target a local audience. Aside from running display ads, merchants can also run daily deals through Facebook Offers, which allows merchants to create a promotion or deal and send it directly to their fans’ newsfeeds. These deals can also include barcodes, which makes it easy for customers to redeem at in-store checkouts.

Get Help with Yelp

More than 78 million people visited Yelp in Q2 2012 to make purchasing decisions, which makes this a very valuable platform for local businesses. Not only should a merchant make sure their business is listed on Yelp, but they should also use the platform’s tools to connect with their customers. One way that merchants can do this is with Yelp Deals, which, similarly to Facebook Offers, allows merchants to offer discounts to their customers. The deals are displayed on the merchant’s business page, and customers can purchase the voucher directly on Yelp. It is important to note that although there are no upfront costs with these deals, Yelp retains 30 percent of the price for each deal sold. That being said, these deals can be a good way to bring in more local traffic during the holiday season. However, merchants can also target local customers by launching an advertisement campaign on Yelp. Ads can be set up to be placed on Yelp’s search result pages or on related businesses’ pages. For instance, the search ads are displayed above Yelp’s natural search results to users who are searching for businesses in a specific area, while the related business ads take direct aim at the advertiser’s competitors. This is because these ads are placed on the business pages of the advertiser’s biggest competition, which can lure the traffic out of a competitor’s door and directly into your store.

Seek Professional Assistance

Although merchants can implement all of the aforementioned local marketing techniques by themselves, they can also seek out the services of a professional platform, such as Geotoko or Silverpop’s PlacePunch. These platforms not only help merchants launch location-based marketing campaigns, but also provide analytics for monitoring the campaigns. For example, Geotoko helps merchants build and launch location-based promotions on Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter, as well as provides real-time analytics and insights that can be leveraged for optimizing strategies. Conversely, PlacePunch helps merchants launch local offers and contests as well as loyalty programs, which allow customers to earn rewards through frequent check-ins.

Yelp Gift Certificates for Small Biz

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:00:00 GMT

It’s been quite a while since we last covered Yelp, but the local Web darling made an announcement last month that may just bring it back to our collective attention.

Yelp, which already offers a deals solution, introduced a new advertising/marketing product for small businesses that won’t be wholly unfamiliar – gift certificates.

Those businesses with a Yelp profile are now able to sell gift certifications direct to consumers through their profile page. Unlike its Deals product where items are discounted, gift certificates from Yelp are full-value cash equivalents – e.g. buy something for $50 and it’s worth $50.

The daily deal trend really through a lot of businesses (and users) into a tizzy. During testing of the gift certification option, Yelp found that while deals are a good way to present a new customer a reason to try your business, gift certificates were helpful for turning existing customers into advocates.

Get Ready for More Fake Online Reviews

Michael Garrity — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 21:30:00 GMT

Identifying – let alone actually combating – fake online reviews has been a constant source of angst for many business owners and marketers with an online presence. Now, I hate to break it to you guys, but it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. That is, at least, according to some new research unveiled by Gartner.

In the last few weeks, the publishing industry was rocked with news about authors creating fake accounts on Amazon and other sites to pad their product pages with phony positive reviews. The shock and awe, while upsetting to many in the field, was met with a blasé rolling of the eyes by restaurateurs, however, who have long had to deal with embellished (if not completely fake) online reviews, both good and bad, on sites like Yelp. Just ask the owner of a pizza restaurant who was photographed bear hugging President Obama, only to have his Yelp profile take the brunt of users upset by his encounter, who took to the page to post fake negative reviews to ruin his reputation on the site.

Unfortunately for pretty much all of us, this practice doesn’t seem to be going away. In fact, it will likely become more popular. Gartner predicts that by 2014, somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of all online reviews will be paid for by companies seeking to build bigger follower bases, generate video views, get Facebook Likes and, of course, display more positive online reviews. And they’re willing to solicit these things by offering coupons or special promotions or, in some cases, just straight cash.

With so many avenues on the ‘Net that businesses can use to deceptively control consumers’ perception of their brands, it begs the question, “Who can we trust online these days?”

Bing and Yelp Team Up to Take on Google Places

Michael Garrity — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 22:00:00 GMT

Last week, Microsoft’s Bing search engine announced a huge partnership with user review and recommendations site Yelp that could help position both companies to overthrow their common nemesis, Google, and its Google Places service, in particular.

Local businesses will likely benefit from this pairing, as it gives them an alterative or additional way to present their companies on a search engine and to increase exposure without relying solely on Google. In addition, having a Yelp listing could now get a business that is not currently in Bing’s database added to Bing Local, although this isn't a guarantee.

It should be noted that Bing is only using Yelp content from six different business categories: restaurants, arts and entertainment, beauty and spas, home services, shopping and local services. Right now, only about 30 percent of the business listings on Bing use Yelp content.

For the foreseeable future, the search engine will be using three types of Yelp content in its business listings: review snippets, business attributes and photos. The content is laid out with the attributes first (labeled as “Features”), Yelp photos interspersed with other images Bing has of the business and Yelp review snippets below the pictures.

However, while Bing will acquire basic business information like names, addresses and phone numbers from Yelp – mostly to ensure that it is showing reviews for the correct business – the data shown in its local listings will still come from the Bing Business Portal, InfoUSA and standard Web crawls, among others, so simply having a Yelp presence won’t replace the need to work with these sources.

While the partnership will only partially impact Bing Local business listings for the time being, I would expect to see deeper and more complex integration between the two services sooner than later.

Want Fair Reviews? Go to Yelp.

Mike Phillips — Fri, 27 May 2011 16:14:00 GMT

According to a study titled Anonymity, Social Image, and the Competition for Volunteers: A Case Study of the Online Market for Reviews, by economics professor Zhongmin Wang, Yelp.com offers the most balanced business reviews when compared to those of Citysearch and Yahoo Local.

The findings show the proportion of 5-star ratings at Yelp (24.4 percent) is less than that at Citysearch (50.3 percent) or Yahoo Local (58.8 percent). The same holds true for 1-star ratings, with Yelp showing proportions of 5.9 percent, compared to Citysearch (16.4 percent) and Yahoo Local (6.9 percent). In other words, where Yelp is more balanced, Citysearch and Yahoo are more extreme.

Another interesting finding was that Yelp reviewers are much more active. Just 9 percent of Yelp reviewers had posted only one review. Compare that to Citysearch, where 71 percent of users posted only one review, and Yahoo Local (56 percent).

As business owners, it appears that Yelp is the place where you can get the fairest, most trusted reviews of your business. Not only is this important for your own research purposes but also a sign that Yelp is trusted by other consumers, making it a site that must be monitored. On the other end, Citysearch and Yahoo Local might not be as popular, but be on the lookout for extreme reviews.

The entire study can be found here.

20 User Review Websites Critical to Small Business

Mike Phillips — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:00:00 GMT

According to an internal analysis of small business search results, Marchex – a provider of small business marketing products – found that more than 80 percent of results did not point to the websites of those businesses. Instead, they pointed to social network results and consumer reviews.

The businesses surveyed were those of restaurants, travel, legal, beauty, plumbing and automotive – all highly susceptible to consumer reviews. These businesses and similar consumer-facing companies need to be aware of where they stand in search results with their own websites, compared to the rankings of reviews and comments from social media users.

"Marchex has seen how consumer reviews are impacting the bottom line of our small business customers, and we wanted to highlight how big the impact really is," said Ryan Fritzky, Director of Small Business Product Development at Marchex.

Increasingly, however, every business is being reviewed by consumers. Oftentimes the reviews and ratings might not even be justified. So, not only is it important to know where you stand on these sites but also to have resources ready to speak out (or type) on your behalf. That means recruiting brand advocates. Of course, the best way to do that is to provide quality experiences for your users and to respond quickly to any problems before they become viral hate campaigns.

Some obvious places to look for your small business reviews are social sites like Facebook, Twitter and Yelp.com, and Google Maps, Bing, Yahoo Local, City Search and Local.com. Below are a dozen more places where your business or products might be getting reviewed.

InsiderPages.com
Mainly focused on rating those in the medical and health care field. Insider Pages also features reviews on restaurants, beauty and home & garden.

MerchantCircle.com
MerchantCircle focuses on promoting businesses by using online user reviews via a pseudo paid advertising system. Businesses can create their own local coupon book.

JudysBook.com
Judy's Book provides review guides to users, such as "Top 10 Auto Mechanics" and so on. Businesses can create their accounts and get help with promotion and SEO.

AngiesList.com
Angie's List is a paid service for consumers to get certified, unbiased reviews of local businesses. It is a large and trusted network, claiming more than one million members.

TripAdvisor.com
As the name suggest, TripAdvisor helps users filter travel destinations via user reviews. A must-know for travel businesses.

OpenTable.com
Because OpenTable.com allows users to make reservations immediately, good reviews on this site can help restaurants take advantage of the convenience factor.

BBB.org
The Better Business Bureau is a relative newcomer to the user review scene but its trusted reputation makes it a must-monitor for every business.

Buzzillions.com
Buzzillions' focus is products -- electronics, computers, sports equipment, clothing, etc. Manufacturers and retailers would be wise to research their products here.

Epinions.com
Part of the Shopping.com family, Epinions solicits reviews on just about anything a person can buy online -- from autos to office supplies.

Wize.com
Wize reports "the best & worst products" by matching products based on consumers' needs. The main focus is electronics and appliances.

PowerReviews.com
In tandem with Buzzillions, PowerReviews looks to connect consumers with reviews about the producty they care about, through SEO, mobile, social networks and more.

SiteJabber.com
SiteJabber provides reviews of websites as a whole. Obviously, every online property should make sure good things are being said about them, or find a brand advocate to get the ball rolling. They claim more than 450,000 people search websites for reviews every month.

Be sure not to miss Website Magazine's May edition, where we tackle the subject of crisis control for online businesses! Subscribe or renew now and get a free copy of our new book, Web 360!

The Yelp Factor

Pete Prestipino — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 17:30:00 GMT

Have you been doubting Yelp? It's certainly got its fair share of competition in the check in and review spaces, but despite some hiccups related to its review practices, Yelp is growing at a rapid clip.

Yelp released some growth statistics yesterday on Twitter (status) and while the 41 million monthly visitors is certainly impressive it is the number of reviews (15 million and counting) that makes Yelp an increasingly important player.

Another interesting point derived from the information released is that half of all reviews on Yelp fall into the restaurants (26%) and shopping (24%) categories. Beauty and fitness (9%), Arts-Entertainment-Events (8%) and Home & Local Services (8%) account for half of the remaining reviewed businesses.

Some interesting demographic information is also included - 82% are under 50 years old, 68% have either a college education or attended graduate school and over 50% earn over $60K.

If you're a business owner (of the brick and mortar variety) you should definitely consider promoting that business on Yelp.

Yelp Gets Check-In Rewards

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:35:00 GMT

Local review site Yelp has joined the location-aware craze and unveiled Check-in Offers.

The new feature, available within the business owner dashboard, allows business owners to rewawrd customers with a coupon when they check in to their business. Yelp users have been able to check-in to businesses for over a year, but this is the first time that business owners can reward their patrons for doing so. An interesting aside is that Yelp has offered its clients metrics for how many people check into their busienss each week.

The Check-in Offers feature is available to Yelp for Business Owner clients in the US, Canada, UK and Ireland. A few businesses categories are excluded from participating, including those type of businesses that are "on the go" and don't provide services in one physical location, like plumbers or locksmiths.

Check-in Offers works much the same way as other location-aware services. The feature enables business owners to reward customers with a coupon when they check-in to a business. If a consumer chooses Yelp's Use It Now option on that visit, the coupon will disappear automatically from their smartphone devices in a few hours. If a consumer chooses to save the offer, it will be saved several places within the app, including the Avoue Me page, at the top of the business page and on the check-ins tab.

Is Facebook becoming the new Foursquare or Yelp?

Administrator — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 19:30:00 GMT

How companies need to re-think their customer review strategy

: By Scott Esmond and Tony Felice :

In a matter of weeks, Facebook became much more than a place where old high school friends keep in touch or talk about things that they “like” with one another. The introduction of Community pages combined now with the location-based Facebook Places service it launched just last month has put the relevancy and longevity of other outlets like Foursquare and Gowalla into question seemingly overnight. Moreover, the popular social media site’s current testing of ratings and reviews functionality in their ads changes the playing field for the likes of Yelp and other similar outlets. In short, Facebook has become a bona fide, real-time, lead generation and customer feedback tool for companies around the world and in their backyard.

Organizations that are savvy and flexible enough to capitalize on this trend have much to gain in terms of increased brand equity, lead generation and customer loyalty, but only if they take certain steps to ensure that it happens. Here are some examples:

• Posting boring pictures or “hey guys” status updates won’t cut it anymore – Simply blasting out the latest company updates won’t increase followers or drive community engagement. While that may not be a new revelation, organizations now need to take it a step further by crafting their Facebook status updates and page content in such a way as to invite conversation among various target groups.

For instance, a trendy retail clothing chain can offer its fans a five percent discount if they provide reviews and feedback for a particular outlet in Downtown Denver. Such promotions can be not only fruitful, but packed with real-time trend data that the company can use for similar initiatives in other markets.

• Pay closer attention to feedback – Facebook’s upcoming ratings and reviews feature will become a staple on the social media site in short order. Using the Denver clothing outlet as an example, people can now tell their friends to what degree they “like” the store, going so far as to qualify that on a rating scale and comment section. The expanded physical dimensions of Facebook’s newest tentacles will create powerful waves online – shifting the focus from attitude to action.

• Control the message even less – As if marketers weren’t having enough trouble controlling their message, Facebook just made its users even more powerful with these few features to now take over a brand by offering far greater opportunities for folks to discuss, review, comment and complain about the brand away from the company’s corporate Website. Organizations will need to join in these conversations in a more frequent and personal manner than ever before, and avoid the perception of broadcasting. Listening and responding to questions and comments will be more important than ever before. Above all else, companies should respect customers for their new found social media capabilities.

• Dedicate Resources – Of course, organizations should establish solid social media policies up front, and clearly define the company’s online voice. The executive team should seriously consider designating a seasoned Community Manager to track and converse with customers and interested parties on Facebook and other social media platforms. The ability to monitor and quickly respond to online comments is of even greater importance now, and shows no signs of waning. While Facebook’s entrance into Yelp and Foursquare’s territory won’t necessarily mean that the other sites will go away, it does mean that marketers might want to adjust their thinking and approach to include Facebook places. It will be a matter of winning or losing business.

About the Authors: Scott Esmond is the Director of Business Development and Tony Felice is the Senior Strategist at Red Door Interactive, an Internet Presence Management firm with offices in San Diego and Denver that helps organizations profit from their Web initiatives. Clients include Petco, Garden Fresh Corp, California Avocado Commission, Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill and Cricket Communications. Follow Scott and Tony on Twitter: @sesmond and @tonyfelice

Yelp Makes Changes, Reacts to Complaints From Businesses

Linc Wonham — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:00:00 GMT

In response to increasing criticism from small businesses dissatisfied with Yelp’s review practices — including a class action lawsuit and widespread “conspiracy theories” — the community ratings and review site has made some changes.

Moving toward a more transparent platform after accusations of “extorting” ad revenue from businesses in exchange for positive reviews — or the absence of negative reviews — Yelp rolled out the new policies on Tuesday. Readers can now follow a link to find reviews that were filtered out through Yelp’s automated system, and they will no longer see the “Favorite Review” feature that was part of Yelp’s advertising package for the past four years.

“I hope that these changes will debunk some of the myths and conspiracy theories out there about Yelp and its advertising and whether those are linked,” said the company’s co-founder and CEO, Jeremy Stoppelman.

The lawsuit, filed by an Illinois bakery and a California veterinary clinic, has been at the the heart of the controversy but many other businesses were reportedly accusing Yelp of posting biased reviews based on which companies were buying advertising from sometimes threatening-sounding salespeople. Yelp has denied any wrongdoing, and Stoppelman has said the complaints are indicative of the challenges faced in reviewing and rating local companies that are in fierce competition with one another.

Starting today, people can see the reviews that have been filtered from the site and make their own judgments about any biases toward advertisers. The advertisers, meanwhile, will no longer have control over which reviews appear first on their pages. If the accusations are true, we can also assume that Yelp’s sales staff will be proceeding with a softer touch than what’s been reported in recent months.

Social & Local; Now More Than Ever

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:14:00 GMT

Just a quick note: Yelp announced a new feature which makes social media more relevant to your offline (local) business than ever before. The new feature lets users share Yelp reviews with Facebook and Twitter.

It's easy to imagine that many Yelp users were already doing this but with a direct integration count on it being a much more prominent activity now. Upon completing a review, users are presented with an option to choose sharing the information they just posted.

Quick look at Yelp growth year-over-year:

In Focus: FeedbackJar, Crowdsourced Support Community

Pete Prestipino — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Reviews are an important component for all businesses on the Web.

While Yelp has the local business review niche all but wrapped up, there are other companies out there that are innovating in the space and aiming to make a significant impact. One of those providers is FeedbackJar, a site which provides a way for customers to communicate with each other and with local merchants. More than a review site alone, Feedback Jar is a "crowdsource customer support community."

The service differs from Yelp in that customers can help answer questions, share ideas, and resolve problems with products and services they use in their community. FeedbackJar encourages merchants to join the conversation with their customers. Businesses can create and claim a profile (and manage it), receive feedback on their business products or services and eliminate repetitive customer support tasks (as users can search popular topics). FeedbackJar is limited to 96 local areas, but covers all the major cities and even a few decent sized towns as well.