leveraging yelp to grow your practice
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| PRACTICE SOLUTION
Leveraging Yelp to Enhance Your Online
Reputation and Grow Your Practice
They love us on
www.patientpop.com
GET MORE LOVE
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They love us on
GET MORE LOVE
You know reviews are important, but did you know that 88% of people trust
online reviews as much as they would trust suggestions from a friend or
acquaintance? With over 102 million reviews, and 90 million unique pageviews/
month, people are definitely talking about your practice on Yelp.
Yelp can make all the difference in your practice revenue; according to a study
performed by the Boston Consulting Group, businesses that use their free Yelp
listing make on average $8,000 a year from the site, while those that
advertise on Yelp will make could additional average $23,000 a year.
And Harvard Business School completed a study that revealed an overall one-
star increase for businesses improved revenue by 9%.
Leveraging Yelp to Enhance Your Online Reputation and Grow Your Practice
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Yelp has even deeper implications for healthcare: Healthcare policy makers
are saying that Yelp reviews can is a better indicator of a healthcare
establishment’s quality than official surveys such as HCAHPS scores. In fact,
some are considering using Yelp reviews to pinpoint further issues a practice
may have.
So let’s get started optimizing your Yelp profile! In this eBook, we’ll teach you
how to get started with Yelp, use it to showcase your practice, edge out the
competition, as well as help you decide whether a paid account is worth it.
The Two Ways to Get Started
Option 1: Claim your business
The most recent (unofficial) estimate shows there are over 1 million unclaimed
business listings on Yelp; unclaimed means that you have reviews but you don’t
‘own’ the page.
Not claiming your listing means it could be populated with inaccurate
information and lack the personal brand you’ve built. Good thing it’s easy to
claim your business!
Navigate to biz.yelp.com and search for your practice by typing your name and
city.
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Once you’ve found your listing, click “Claim this business.”
Now, you’ll be asked to either create a new Yelp business account or log in with
one you’ve already created.
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Yelp will call the number on file with the listing to ensure you have the right to
claim this business. During the call, you’ll be asked to enter the 4-digit code
shown on the screen to ensure you are actually associated with the business.
Option 2: Start a new listing
If searching for your practice doesn’t yield any results, Yelp will give you the
option to add your business.
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Add your basic business information: name, address, website address, phone,
hours, etc.
Make sure you enter specific hours for every day you are open so Yelp can
notify the people viewing your listing whether your business is open at that
time or not. It also helps when someone is searching with filters.
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Choosing the Right Category
Categories tell Yelp when to display your business for particular searches. Your
goal is to choose the categories that best describe the entirety of the services
you offer.
To display the most options, type the broadest description of your business
possible. In this case, we typed “dentist.”
Yelp allows you to specialize as much as you need to in order to make your
listing as valuable as possible. If you’re a pediatric dentist, someone looking for
a periodontist doesn’t need to see your listing; be as targeted as possible.
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Find the best three categories for your business, enter your email
address, and then click “Add business.”
You will now be asked to write a little more about your business and to upload
photos. See the next section on how to best fill out this extra information
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The Anatomy of a Yelp Listing
Let’s break the elements of a successful listing down.
Optimize Your Review Header
The first thing patients see is the name of your practice and your star-rating,
then a map and content information. At a glance, they can tell if they want to
continue looking at your profile. They don’t even have to scroll through review
to contact you.
And, if viewed from a mobile device, the patient will be able to tap your number
and call you directly. This action is logged by Yelp and displayed on your
business dashboard, so that you can see your Yelp-to-booking conversion rate.
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A Yelp Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
Yelp emphasizes images in this section of your listing, so ensure that you have
some excellent photos to upload.
Upload the following photos at a minimum
• A professional face-shot
• Your lobby
• An exam room
• T he outside of your building (if you are in a single resident
building)
• Optional, but highly recommend: shots of any specialty
“hi-tech” equipment
Reviews on Yelp can help determine what other photos to submit. Add an
image for anything favorably mentioned; clearly that’s a strong point.
Competitor Ads
Directly under the header section of your listing, even before your first review,
visitors will scroll past ads for practices that might be competitors. You can
remove these as well as those in the sidebar if you upgrade to a paid account.
(More about upgrading later.)
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The reviews
Yelp sorts reviews based on their algorithm, or what the platform believes will
be most helpful to the user. It defaults to what it calls “Yelp Elites” -- those who
have completed their own profile and left many helpful reviews.
Excellent Elite reviews will “stick” to the top for quite a while, but, unfortunately,
so will mediocre or poor ones.
Yelp is a Conversation
Every Yelp business should interact with their reviewers.
Public responses should add to the conversation. If someone has praised you
for something, and you can describe or further elaborate on what they loved
about you, do it publicly. If they referenced a helpful questionnaire for instance,
take some time to describe how you developed it, and how that survey reveals
issues that should be addressed during the exam.
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If they gave you a great review, and there’s nothing to add, thank them privately
— even send them a token of your gratitude like a personal email from you or
some ‘schwag.’
Negative Reviews
Negative reviews need to be handled calmly, empathically, and immediately.
We’ve written how to navigate these situations — check out our tips on how
to respond to negative reviews… and look good in the process.
Introduce Yourself
Yelp is very focused on user input in comparison to review sites like Google My
Business that place more emphasis on how the business chooses to present
itself. Other than photos, the one section that you really have control over is
how you write your “From the Business” (FTB) section.
This section will be displayed in different areas depending on how many
reviews you have. If you don’t have as many reviews (the number of reviews
needed is not disclosed), then your FTB section will be at the bottom,
underneath all of your reviews.
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As you gain reviews, your FTB section will move to the side-bar where it will be
seen by everyone.
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How to Optimize Your ‘From the Business’
Ensure you emphasize the benefits of the practice within the first 178
characters -- which is all you can see when Yelp moves it to the sidebar.
You have a little more space than a single text message to position your
practice as the one that will provide the best service and experience for your
patients. Consider using the following:
• A Headline -- Use a statement or a question that will catch the
eye of your ideal client
• Talk to them -- You’ve caught their eye with the headline, now
address them directly using “you.” This is where you can show
that you understand what they need by listing off what they
are looking for and how you deliver.
• Focus on benefits -- Features are what you offer, benefits are
what your patients get because of what you offer. Instead of
“We have a wonderful playroom for your kids,” write “You can
rest easy knowing your kids are having a great time in our
playroom while we enhance your beautiful smile.”
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Should You Ugrade to a Paid Account?
A Yelp listing offers the business owner an opportunity to post information, but the free
listing doesn’t emphasize how you want to present your business over and against how
the reviewers present your business.
For instance, you can upload photos for your business, but so can the public and there
isn’t a way to distinguish your images from those of your patients. If you decide you
want to take a little more control of your listing, Yelp gives you two paid options.
Self Service Ads
The first tier of Yelp advertising offers the following benefits:
• Image Slideshow -- You can showcase your photos (and only yours)
in a nice photo carousel. This might be helpful if there are photos
posted by the public that you’d like to de-emphasize
• Yelp Deals -- Special deals or discounts that are exclusive to Yelp. It
entails Yelp taking the money for the deal (and a cut).
• Ad Real Estate -- Highlight your listing with an ad..
Full Service Ads
This next tier offers additional benefits:
• Competitor Ad Removal -- Eliminate competitor ads.
• Yelp Account Manager -- Have questions? A Yelp account manager
will help you optimize your listing.
• A Business Video -- Yelp will send a professional videographer to
help you capture the benefits of your practice and highlight it on your
listing.
www.patientpop.com
We hope you’ve enjoyed learning all about the basics of Yelp.
As a busy healthcare provider, though, do you wish someone else could just create,
optimize and maintain your Yelp profile? Maybe even your entire marketing strategy?
If so, check out PatientPop. We’re the first all-in-one practice growth platform
designed for healthcare providers — and, among many other robust features, we’ll
take your Yelp profile to the next level.
Our Solution
PatientPop is reinventing the way physicians marketing and grow their practice.
Our smart technology provides an automated, all-in-one solution to enhance your
online visibility and reputation, patient acquisition and retention, as well as business
insights.
Diagnose your practice’s online performance today with our free practice scan.
This powerful diagnostic tool scours the internet for your practice’s online visibility,
reputation, and directory profiles to show you how you’re performing and where you
can improve.
If you’re interested in seeing how our platform can transform your marketing and
practice growth, request a demo or contact our sales department.
Contact Us
1-844-487-8399
www.patientpop.com