💥Effective craigslist marketing:
It’s not very often that powerful marketing tools are offered to the masses for free. Whether you are looking to sell a vehicle, real estate or furniture or offer cleaning or childcare services, Craigslist is an extremely valuable marketing platform that should be included in your digital marketing campaign.
For those of you who aren’t aware of the power of this highly trafficked site, consider that 60 million Americans use Craigslist each month, and that the site ranks in the top 50 of most visited sites worldwide (comScore).
Convinced you should be using CL to market your business or product? Then read our top tips for effective Craigslist marketing below so you can begin posting ads for your offer today!
10 Craigslist Marketing Tips:
*Catchy Title – The title of your post is undoubtedly the most important component of your ad. Be clear and descriptive when including price and key details of your product or service, and avoid using too many characters, exclamation points or anything that might seem ‘spammy.’
*Keyword Rich Text – Most users filter before searching, making keywords very important. Keywords should be used throughout the title and body of your ad.
*Keep It Simple – Craigslist sees heavy HTML code as a sign of spam or fraudulent post. Keep your ad mostly text based, with simple code only and working in creative bolding.
*Include Pictures – While Craigslist users prefer text ads, they also love pictures. Many times, visitors will use the filter to exclude posts without images. Use the photo uploader provided by the site, or upload images to your own site and embed (This is also useful for getting your images above the fold.)
*Include A Link – Somewhere in the text of your ad include a link to your website. This link should not go to your homepage instead link directly to a specific product page.
*Post Often – It has become widely accepted Craigslist practice to post and re-post often – in extreme cases multiple times daily in order to say on the first page of results. Be Warned: Craigslist’s policy states that the same ad may not be re-posted within a 48-hour window. If you do so your ad will not show within search results – known as ‘ghosting.’
*Delete Old Ads – Once 48 hours has passed, you may post a similar ad, but remember to delete your previous post to avoid being flagged for removal.
*Use Varied Ads – To avoid being marked as spam and flagged for removal it is helpful to use varied ads. Do not use duplicate content, switch up the title, etc. It’s helpful to have multiple variations of your ad ready in advance, which will make posting throughout the week a very simple and efficient process.
*Track Results – Keep track of which versions of your ads are getting more clicks. There are many Craigslist tracking services, but the most popular tracking service is Craiglist Ad Tracker, which offers free and premium account options.
*Test – Use A/B testing to create the best possible performing ad. To get started, post an ad for your product/service and track the results over a given period of time. When you’re ready to re-post the ad, make sure this newer version incorporates a few subtle changes (e.g. tweak only the title or one component of the ad), keeping the rest of the ad as similar to the original version as possible. Once posted, be sure to track the results over a specific time period, and then compare the results of the new version to the results of your original to determine which one generated more click-throughs to your website and ultimately more inquiries.
With a little preparation and a consistent posting and testing strategy, Craigslist can be an effective source of clicks and leads for your business at little or no cost.
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💥In the past, I worked with a business that made its decisions on where to advertise based entirely on which publications and stations actually called up and solicited an ad. While plenty of publications are cold-calling potential advertisers in hopes of getting a little ad revenue these days, I Wouldn’t really recommend taking a similar route. Instead, approaching advertising like any other business project can guarantee that your advertising budget actually has the affect you want in the long-term. An advertising project Isn’t so different from buying a new office or designing a new product: with the right process, you can complete your project efficiently and with great results.
Here are eight steps you can follow to keep your advertising campaign on track and successful:
Market research: Before you even start thinking about where you might want to place an ad or even what it could look like, it’s important to do at least some basic research. Even if you Aren’t in a position to bring in an expensive research firm, you can ask your current customers questions about why they come back to you, as well as taking a close look at your target demographic’s needs and interests.
Budgeting: Your business probably has a set advertising budget for the year — but how do you divvy it up between your various advertising projects? For each project you’re planning, you need to be clear on just how much money you’re willing to spend. You’ll almost certainly change exactly how you divide it between costs like copy writing and design, but you can treat the overall amount as set in stone. Write it down and put it in your project folder.
Setting goals: The aims you have in mind for a particular advertising project need to be written down ahead of time. While it’s good to be ambitious, it’s also important to decide what constitutes a successful advertising campaign for your business. Sales can be the simplest metric: if you’re advertising a particular product, how many units will you need to sell to pay for that campaign?
Advertising venue: The website, tv station, newspaper, radio station, magazine or other advertising venue you place your ad with is a crucial decision. You’ll need to look at not only the cost of your preferred venues but also whether they reach your target demographic. Ad buys can make up a significant portion of your budget. Deciding on where you will place your ads first tells you how much money you’ll have left over for actually creating your ad.
Choosing creatives: Unless you’re planning to write, shoot and design every part of your ad, you’ll probably need to bring in some help. Finding the right freelancers for each aspect requires checking through portfolios and rates — if you can find a business or freelancer who can handle all aspects of creating your ad, even if that means subcontracting, it can save you a lot of time. You’ll also want to make sure that you find any talent you’ll need for your ad (voice actors for radio, models for photography and so on).
Design and wording: While you may not have a lot of actual writing and designing to do for your ad, during the creation process you will need to review and sign off on different stages of the project. When starting with a new designer or other creative, make sure that you both know any expectations for timelines and progress checks.
Placing the ad: Once you have a finished ad in hand, it’s time to actually place it with your preferred advertising venue. You may have a few contracts to sign and a check to hand over. You’ll also want to make sure you actually see your ad once it’s run — from a newspaper, for instance, you’ll want to see the tear sheets of pages containing your ad.
Evaluation: Depending on your ad, how you evaluate it can vary. If it included a coupon, for instance, you can simply count how many customers brought in the coupon. For other ads, you may be simply comparing sales before, during and after your advertising campaign. Spend as much time on analyzing how your advertising campaign worked as you can. That information can point you to more effective uses of advertising in the future. While following such a set process may seem like it would stifle the creativity necessary to put together a new ad, following these steps can actually make it easier. You can minimize confusion and make sure that everyone is meeting the necessary deadlines — and you can ensure that you’ll be able to measure your ad’s actual cost and responses during each step. You’ll be better equipped to tweak your ad or move it to another publication in the future.
