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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

sales@patientpop.com

www.patientpop.com