Last modified on June 4th, 2014
By Alexis Hammond

Yelp isn’t just for reviews anymore; Yelp can also be used as an extremely effective lead generation technique with minimal effort. Property management companies will find that they can use Yelp not only for reputation management but also for targeted PPC advertising campaigns.

Why Yelpers Yelp

Advertising on the Yelp platform is more effective than advertising on many other sites for two major reasons: the ability to target your audience and the quality of the audience itself. The average Yelp user is already interested in some sort of product, be it a lovely dinner at a restaurant or a property from which to rent an apartment. When advertising to the average Yelp user, you already have a consumer who is primed to buy; you simply need to give them the information they need and make yourself available.

Even better, Yelp allows for direct targeting. Your PPC advertisements can show up to users who are already looking for property management companies or apartment buildings within your area, and this is an extremely effective way to increase conversion rates. With a PPC advertising campaign, you’re only paying for the users who actually click on your link and get to your site. After that, all you need to do is seal the deal.

While Google, Bing and Yahoo all offer PPC advertising campaigns, these campaigns are much broader and less focused than a Yelp campaign. The competition can also be far more fierce when on a search engine because of the sheer amount of companies vying for attention.

Increasing Conversion With Yelp

Once your audience has actually made their way to your site, you’ll need to actually convert them. Yelp lets you bring in users who are already interested in your services, but a targeted landing page that is specifically designed to draw in Yelp users can make your advertising campaign even more effective. By directly tying in your landing page to your Yelp campaign, you’ll be able to better focus on the information a Yelp user would need and to coax them into giving you their contact information or requesting more data. As a property management company, you want to focus on getting the user to contact you directly. Once you have this contact information, you’ll be able to secure a deal or at least bring the user in for a consultation.

Developing Your Yelp Reputation

Apart from advertising on the Yelp platform, you do need to complete some basic reputation management. Reputation management on the Yelp platform is quite simple: keep your business information updated and respond in a professional and timely way to any complaints. Consider posting pictures of the properties you manage with notes explaining how you have helped in developing and maintaining the property throughout the years.

Yelp is a particularly valuable center of lead generation because of its audience. Yelp has an extremely valuable audience comprised of individuals who are already looking for your service and are already interested in taking the plunge. The ability to post targeted ads towards the services consumers are currently looking for is invaluable. With a little effort and some marketing savvy, you can easily use Yelp to funnel prospective leads directly to your site. Once procured, all you need to do with your leads is keep and convert.

Interested in more ways to leverage Yelp and boost your business? Join our next webinar with host Darnell Holloway, Sr. Manager of Local Business Outreach at Yelp.