Yelp Is a Cry for Marketing Help

Cézanne Skin Group in Sacramento attracts two to three new customers each week from a special deal it offers on Yelp.com.

Beatnik Studios, also in Sacramento, earned a caterer’s referral to host two other events after sponsoring a Yelp event.

And retailer Rack N Road is gaining marketing traction with customer reviews.

Despite its reputation as primarily a restaurant-review website, more than two thirds of Yelp’s 12 million-plus reviews are for non-restaurants, from auto-repair shops to doctors. And increasingly, companies of all sizes and types are using the site as a free or low-cost way to promote and strengthen their business.

Businesses that claim their page within Yelp—which is just a matter of a phone call and pass code—get a suite of free tools, said Olivia Loy, Yelp’s Sacramento community manager. Businesses can reply to reviews publicly or privately, announce special offers, upload photos, and view business trends.

While Yelp is gaining traction, some companies and individuals remain leery of the review site and question Yelp’s business practices and the authenticity of reviews. Critics have sued San Francisco-based company for everything from bad reviews to allegations of extortion.

A class-action lawsuit alleges that Yelp offered to remove or lower the page placement of companies’ bad reviews if they would advertise. Yelp says the lawsuit lacks merit and is vigorously fighting it. Yelp does not remove or manipulate reviews of Yelp sponsors, spokeswoman Stephanie Ichinose said.

But the bad publicity isn't deterring small-business owners from embracing the advertising push. “It’s one-on-one marketing,” Greg Bauer, chief executive officer of Rack N Road and Bauer360, a new-media and Internet consulting company, said. “Your customer is your best advocate to send other people to your store. That’s what’s working.

For more on how small businesses are using Yelp to reach out to customers, click here for the full story from the Sacramento Business Journal (subscription required).