When starting up your business, it is important to take advantage of every opportunity you have to spread the word. Word of mouth is great, and creating your social media accounts is a must, but to instantly boost your recognition and to draw in more customers, you need to consider listing your business with online review services such as Yelp, AngiesList and YellowPages. We spoke with Don who works in the digital marketing department at High Level Marketing to get some insight into their recommendations for small business owners. Yes, it does take a bit of extra work getting everything up and running, but when you operate a brick and mortar location, the more ways customers can find you and discover you the better off you are.
What is Yelp, AngiesList and YellowPages
All three of these services are designed to provide insightful information to potential customers. They can look up your business specifically or simply look up the services you provide. If you own an Italian restaurant and someone looks for an Italian restaurant in your given city online, you want your business to show up. By having your business listed with these three services, your company immediately becomes listed and customers can not only look at your business but can compare it to the others in the area. As these are three of the top business information providers online, you should see a boost in Internet traffic, which is all you can really ask for.
What is the Difference Between the Three?
As for the differences, each provide a slightly different service to customers. Yelp and YellowPages are similar to one another. You can have your business address, hours of operation, website, some photographs and even social media connections listed with these companies. With Yelp, you can have specially designed video promos produced for your business as well, which can act as desirable online advertising. Yelp also allows user reviews, so customers who have interacted with your business can log on and rate you. AngiesList is more specially geared towards reviews. It also requires reviewers to create accounts and provide background information. This way, the reviews are generally more accurate and provide the most insightful information. While not often used by restaurants, if you are a contractor, lawn care specialist or another service provider, this is an excellent way for you to spread positive word of mouth online.
All three of these websites are great tools for spreading the word of your business and increasing online traffic to your own website. With more Internet traffic, you should start to see more direct traffic to the business itself, which is extremely important for any company.