Yelp Advertising Strategy During Coronavirus
Features your business should take advantage of during COVID-19
As we all know, coronavirus continues to majorly impact businesses — both large and small. Social distancing and shelter-in-place rules have limited business operations, business offerings, and most importantly, foot traffic. Many businesses had to close their doors, as well as cut hours or even lay-off employees just to stay afloat.
It is no doubt that many business owners are looking for new ways to make up for lost revenue. Right now, having a strong digital presence can make or break a business. As more people are staying home, they are connected to their digital mediums more than ever. As a result, making sure that your business and business information is accessible and accurate online is key during this difficult time.
First of all, what is Yelp and why is it important?
Founded in 2004, Yelp.com and the Yelp mobile app is a popular online directory for discovering businesses. In Q4 of 2019, there were 36 million average monthly mobile app unique users. Users can view and write reviews, post images, videos, provide tips, order takeout, contact businesses, and so much more.
Yelp’s demographic is definitely one to brag about as the platform reaches people of all ages: 33% are 18–34 years old, 35% are 35–54 years old, and 32% are 55+.
Straight from the horse’s mouth, Yelp states on their website:
“Yelp connects people with great local businesses. With unmatched local business information, photos and review content, Yelp provides a one-stop local platform for consumers to discover, connect and transact with local businesses of all sizes by making it easy to request a quote, join a waitlist, and make a reservation, appointment or purchase.” — Yelp.com
Below are the most common types of businesses reviewed on Yelp.
Businesses who take advantage of social media platforms like Yelp, Facebook, and Instagram have seen massive success in rebounding sales.
This article will focus on how business owners can take advantage of Yelp’s new and old features — techniques that businesses should implement to maximize their Yelp profile and ads strategy to drum up more business.
Business Highlights
Yelp released a set of new COVID-19 business highlights for Yelp profiles. These badges provide a quick snapshot of a business’s unique offerings to potential customers. This allows businesses to feature special services that they may be offering temporarily during COVID-19. Also, customers can identify your services quickly via Yelp’s search bar.
In total there are 30 highlights to choose from and 11 are COVID-19 specific. Businesses should select badges that are most relevant to them.
For example, if your business is a restaurant and you are open during COVID-19, you may choose to utilize the “Delivery during COVID-19”, “Takeout during COVID-19” or “Curbside pickup during COVID-19” badges. Yelp allows you to choose up to 6 useful highlights during COVID-19.
COVID-19 Alerts
Quickly update your new and current customers regarding the state of your business with COVID-19 alerts. This feature creates a 120 character message on your business’s Yelp profile. The placement is an “above the fold” banner with a button for users to click to view additional details.
Within the message, businesses can add text up to 1,500 characters. This is a great way to relay your COVID-19 message, business hours, temporary closures, contact info, promotions, offerings, etc.
A great way for businesses to take advantage of this feature is to add custom text to let clients know that even though they may be closed, they are still accepting future appointments as well as selling gift cards during COVID-19. That way once you open your business opens their doors again, you will have clients lined up!
Business Attributes
Make sure that your business attributes section is thoroughly completed and up-to-date with your current offerings. Business attributes provide a quick update for your business to show customers what services you now offer.
This is highly imperative as it impacts search results on Yelp. Meaning if I were to type “restaurants that offer takeout” in Yelp’s search bar — businesses who include “Offers takeout: Yes” as an attribute will most likely show up compared to businesses that did not include this as an attribute. Take advantage of the attributes section and maximize your business potential on Yelp.
Some other attributes that you may want to update include Offers Delivery and Business Special Hours. Communicate with your potential and current customers online… save everyone the hassle of a phone call… and time!
Service Offerings
Service offerings are more detailed information based on the category of your business. They highlight what services your business provides. For example, a plumber might include on the profile services they offer including Drain Cleaning, Drain Installation, Bathtub & Shower Repair, Water Heater Installation, and Water Heater Repair.
COVID-19 specific offers are available to help businesses feature special services that they are offering at this time. Some examples are listed below:
Once again, make sure your business clearly defines their service offerings as it impacts Yelp’s search algorithm. You will want your business to show up for relevant services. Quickly update customers on what you now offer without having direct contact.
Call-To-Action for Paid Search Ads
What are Yelp Paid Search ads? These are similar to Google’s Paid Search ads. Yelp will show relevant ads to potential customers based on the keyword they are searching for. For example, if you search “Chinese food” in the Yelp search bar… you will see listings for Chinese restaurants who pay for ads first… then organic results for Chinese restaurants. It is a great way for businesses to position themselves above competitors and stay “above the fold” in search results.
Below is an example of a plumbing business running Yelp Paid Search ads and how they appear for the consumer.
Ad goals are call-to-actions (CTAs) that live within the ad copy of a search ad. This allows your customers to easily take action on your Yelp ads without having to even go to your business profile.
The call-to-action should relate to your marketing objectives. As shown in the example above, if you want to generate more phone calls — utilize the Call CTA. If your marketing goal is to generate more website traffic — utilize the Visit Website CTA.
Call-To-Action for Yelp Profiles
Call-to-actions are also important for Yelp profiles. Once a user clicks on your profile, you will want to make it easy as 1, 2, 3 to book or purchase your services. These are customizable banners across your profile and encourage transactions.
There are many call-to-actions you can implement depending on your services. Yelp also released new COVID-19 appropriate pre-set options. Customers can find and book your services quickly. Below are some examples of call-to-actions you can place on your Yelp profile. These are fully customizable based on your services.
Final Thoughts
Yelp can be a powerful tool to drive new and returning customers — before, during, and after COVID-19. The platform continues to grow in popularity and makes improvements for users and businesses.
As described above, there are multiple features your business can take advantage of during this time. The COVID-19 features show Yelp’s consistent dedication to helping businesses over the past 15+ years.
Please reach out if you have any questions regarding your business’s social media strategy. Good luck and stay strong!
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