Yelp just gave small business owners another way to market to customers on the site.
Small businesses can now sell gift certificates directly from their profile pages on Yelp. The option, which was tested out briefly earlier this year, was announced Wednesday in a blog post.
Until now, companies only had the option to offer daily deal promotions on the website, but Yelp realized there was a market for full-priced gift certificates as well. "There were many cases where someone wanted to gift something, but the stigma about gifting something you purchased at a discount was a consideration," Yelp rep Stephanie Ichinose told Mashable.
What's more, as Yelp pointed out in the blog post, daily deals are a great option for attracting new customers, but gift certificates are useful for "turning your existing customers into some of your best promoters."