Marketing Your Business on Craigslist
e-Marketing Company
both online and off are realizing the marketing power of
Craigslist.org. Founded in 1996 by Craig Newmark, Craigslist.org gets
an estimated 10 million unique visitors per day. With an online
classified ads format organized by either region or city, Craigslist
connects buyers and sellers in more than 300 communities; for the most
part, posting on the site is free.
If you've never heard of Craigslist or never considered using the site
to market your business, the following tips will help you determine
whether it might be a good fit for you and offer another outlet for
marketing your products and services.
What Sells Best on Craigslist
>From services like tutoring, car repair and real estate to products
such as wholesale furniture, consignment goods and retail e-commerce,
Craigslist is the ultimate destination for online marketers. If you
manufacture goods, provide services directly or sell products
regionally, Craigslist is a marketing tool you should consider. You
can also easily promote an eBay store, a franchise operation or a
referral partner. And it's a bourgeoning business opportunity for
affiliates and webmasters looking for new ways to find customers.
Identifying Your Market
Like any other advertising medium, Craigslist requires some strategy,
though paramount to its usefulness is simplicity. To start, you need
to determine which city or cities you're going to post an ad. If
you're a service provider, you can identify available cities on
Craigslist that encompass your service region. Keep in mind that some
regions overlap. For instance, if you're a mobile groomer working in
Orange County, California, but service from Los Angeles to San Diego,
Craigslist reaches your service area across four cities. So you'd want
to develop your messaging and a posting schedule in each of these
regions to increase your exposure. If you sell a product or offer a
service nationwide, the opportunity to reach new customers is even
greater.
Posting on Craigslist, either nationally or locally, requires an
understanding of the rules. Craigslist has in place--a set of rules
that prohibits advertisers from over-posting or spamming users. You
can follow these rules and still get excellent exposure. To start,
develop unique ads for each city you post in, focus on specific
products and rotate them on a promotional schedule. Never post the
exact same ad within 48 hours, and be careful to delete your old ad.
Craigslist users are quick to spot businesses that misuse the system
and can be quite unforgiving. The Craigslist flagging system puts the
power of spam control into the hands of the users.
Building Ads
Building an ad on Craigslist can be as simple as typing in some text,
or you can incorporate html and images. Typically, what works best is
the direct approach. For instance, if you're a real estate agent using
Craigslist to promote properties for sale, build a text ad that
incorporates images of the properties for sale--you don't need to know
html to do this. Simply define what property specifications best sell
the property and keep the sales pitch to a minimum. Be sure to include
important search words, such as "three bedroom" or "condominium," as
well as regional identifiers including a ZIP code, city or community
name. You do this so that people who search for specific items find
you in the search results.
Craigslist's search function isn't based on a search algorithm;
instead, search results are displayed first by date, then by keyword.
This makes the text content of your ad extremely important. Ads with
images only increase ad effectiveness. And adding images to your ad
isn't difficult. If you're not web savvy, use the "upload image"
function available during the posting process. (If you want to feature
a large image or more than one, you'll need to upload your images to
your own web server and reference them inside your ad using basic
html.) Images, however, are not required. Often the best performing
ads on Craigslist are simple text ads that get straight to the point.
Tracking Results
If you plan to post in multiple cities and offer specific promotions,
tracking which ads produce the best results is important. You can
track a Craigslist ad by e-mail, phone number or website referral.
Each tracking mechanism should feature a unique component like a
custom e-mail address, telephone extension or website referral code.
How you choose to track should depend on your industry and the typical
methods customer use to communicate with you. Unlike eBay, Craigslist
does not provide you with any demographic or tracking data.
Regardless of whether you sell a product or service, it's important to
understand the competitive landscape on a daily or weekly basis.
Supply and demand for certain products or services will fluctuate.
Take the time to get to know the other players in your cities or
categories. If you see a rush on a certain product, focus on something
complimentary. For instance, if you're a mattress wholesaler and see
that a large number of a specific brand and/or size mattresses are
flooding your market, either price match or focus your energy on a
different size or bed frame until the market stabilizes. Also, take
into consideration the season and the demographic (both income and
recreational) of the cities in which you post. In the winter, a
snowmobile will not sell nearly as well in California as it will in
Vermont.
Community Commitment
As an open market, Craigslist welcomes sellers from all walks of life.
Keep in mind that as a business owner, you're just as likely to
compete with everyday people selling the contents of their attic as
you are a national brand retailer with sights on breaking into your
market. The community element sets Craigslist apart from its
competitors. Harness the power of your community by doing more than
just posting. The most trafficked area of Craigslist is the forums.
Use the forums to communicate with fellow sellers and potential buyers
or to establish an active, ethical voice for your business.
Selling Safely
Fraud exists in every corner of the business world, both online and
offline. The anonymous nature of Craigslist--the very thing that makes
it so popular--is also the reason you should take measures to protect
yourself against fraud. With no member or seller ratings system,
Craigslist can fall prey to scam artists. Make an effort to talk to
each new customer via phone, only ship items once payment is received,
and always use your best judgment when it comes to business
transactions.
Craigslist continues to experience rapid growth--additional cities
have come online in recent months and more are expected to launch
throughout the next year. The buzz about this great resource is
sweeping the nation, and every day people from all over the world are
visiting the site, looking to buy from trusted sellers and service
providers. Get in on the action by harnessing the marketing power of
Craigslist.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company
www.e-marketingcompany.com