Why yelp is successful

TechCrunch reports the site has "1. February: Yelp introduces business owner accounts, allowing business owners to contact reviewers privately. The New York Times quotes a research analyst who says "smart business owners would get involved in Yelp, listening, responding and being an active part of the dialogue, some going so far as to place signs on their physical doors requesting reviews. July: The App Store launches via iTunes. Urbanspoon and Yelp launch iPhone apps.

November: Yelp shares analytics with TechCrunch that show TechCrunch writes: "Not bad for a company that was born just four years ago. TechCrunch cites Comscore's report that Citysearch had The race between Yelp and Citysearch continues.

Citysearch releases its own app. February: Yelp is hit with a class-action lawsuit. Plaintiffs claim "that they were contacted by Yelp for ad sales in exchange for erasing unfavorable reviews from their pages. In some cases negative reviews were allegedly added after sales offers were declined. April: Yelp introduces "public commenting" for businesses, allowing business owners to reply to reviews on their pages for free after they've claimed their business page.

Stoppelman would later tell the WSJ : "Yelp's continued success as an independent company suggests we made the right choice and nothing is more rewarding than charting your own course. Jeremy Stoppelman talks to Charlie Rose, June: Yelp integrates OpenTable reservations, allowing users to check availability and book reservations directly from a restaurant's Yelp page. Yelp takes another step closer to becoming a one-stop-shop for restaurant information on the web.

Eater's analysis of the news : "Yelp claimed that this integration was based on user feedback, but really it was necessary for Yelp and OpenTable to partner and compete against Urbanspoon who just last month announced their RezBook iPad application that allows restaurants to book and manage reservations, as well as a pilot program in Seattle and Los Angeles called Rez that allows diners to book tables Rez is to go national in TechCrunch reports he will remain in an "advisor role" and that he "remains a 'significant' shareholder in the company.

A parody of compulsive Yelping. September: Google acquires Zagat and is now in the local review business. Stoppelman calls the purchase "a funny move. Later this month, Stoppelman testifies about Google in a Senate antitrust hearing.

He puts his written and oral testimony on the Yelp blog. Quote: "In some instances, Google simply excludes competitor results as a matter of design, not as a matter of objective, algorithmically-driven analysis. Yelp Testimony by Luther Lowe. Yelp gets such job done with its largely UGC-oriented system where every consumer can post reviews with unique perspectives. As of Dec 31, , consumers had contributed It has partnered with Eat24 and GrubHub, two prominent online food delivery companies and integrated both of them into its ecosystem.

Similarly, Yelp has incorporated online reservation and waitlist, and service quote requests into its platform. Business owners are incentivized to promote their presence on Yelp, as the platform exposes them to a massive user base, many of whom with an intent to make a purchase when using Yelp. The higher the Yelp rating, the more revenue a business can earn. Because of the impact Yelp could have on their financial performance, many business owners opt to pay Yelp an advertising and promotions fee to increase their chances of getting displayed on the platform.

Consequently, advertising has been a primary source of revenue for Yelp. Finally, with the active engagement of both individual consumers and business owners, Yelp has managed to create a virtuous cycle and benefit from a growing network effect. As the repository for reviews builds, more customers go to Yelp as their trusted source for information on local businesses.

With the increased traffic on the platform, business owners become more willing to promote their Yelp profiles by paying for advertising and providing better produces and services.

Ultimately, Yelp sees its revenue and profit go up and can deploy more capital to improve the platform in exchange for higher customer satisfaction rates and a larger market share. Your response should specifically map to the type of review. This is especially important in the case of negative customers who offer suggestions for improvements. Below is an example of a restaurant owner with a great response to a customer complaint:.

Customers who are venting and outraged merit a simple apology—you should not engage with them any further no matter how badly you want to do so. And you should never respond in a manner similar to the example below:. No matter the tone a customer takes, you need to stay positive! This is an amazing opportunity to represent how your business approaches customer service.

Finding a cadence to respond to reviews is up to you. Obsessively checking Yelp every day may not be good for your psyche or worth your time depending on the size of your business. We recommend taking the time once a week to read and respond to reviews in batch, so that you can respond to feedback quickly. Reviewers who are more active on the platform more posts, more friends are less likely to get caught in that section.

Just the way it is: Yelp funnels customers to paying businesses. Yelp advertising with an Enhanced Profile included at no additional charge for modest advertising budgets has an additional benefit on the page itself: no competitor ads show up. Yelp also has its own data aggregation section that shows you how many impressions you were getting before and after you started advertising with them. By tracking the clicks that convert to leads throughout your campaign, you can make an informed decision whether this form of advertising is generating a positive return on advertising spend ROAS.

One of the key elements to any great content marketing strategy is knowing who your audience is and where they spend their time online. This gives you the knowledge to direct your time and effort in the right channels, getting the most for your time invested.

The good news with Yelp is that any local business in any industry can expect some of their potential customers to be on this platform searching and comparing their options — and as mentioned before, Yelp consumers are qualified and looking to buy. Searcher intent for SMBs reveals that Yelp is ideal for small to medium-sized businesses.

While certain sectors will be more competitive to play in, such as the fast food and restaurant industries, most industries realize excellent returns on their Yelp advertising spend. Most local businesses — including ones without a physical storefront — can dramatically increase qualified leads with a Yelp advertising budget.

In rare instances, however, we may determine that a Yelp advertising campaign might not be appropriate for your company. B2B businesses often have a smaller market share as well, and might have limited budget opportunities, depending on the local market. If you have a strong negative presence on Yelp, driving traffic to your page is likely not going to produce a good ROI.

Yelp consumers are looking to make informed decisions, and they will read reviews. This also likely indicates an issue with your business that merits analysis. Not quite ready for Yelp ads?