Think quality, not quantity.
The “common wisdom” is that you need to post to Craigslist multiple times per day for it to be effective. That, pardon my French, is a load of crap put out by Craigslist posting service companies that want you to pay for more and more ineffective Craigslist ads and reinforced by people who haven’t done the research. It seems like more is better, but not only is not “better” it can hurt your business.
Craigslist users are not idiots. They know how to use the Search feature to narrow their choices. Nobody, and I mean nobody, simply browses the list from top to bottom in a busy category. That’s just stupid. And people don’t look at just the first listing they see. We’re information junkies, so we’re going to shop around and compare.
What do the Stats Tell us?
I’ve done the testing and research. Posting once per day is about all you need to be effective. For example, I recently had a client contract with me to post a house for rent in Tampa Bay, Florida. Unfortunately, within a couple of days I had a post flagged and removed. Since my ads are rarely flagged (about 1 in 750), I did a little research to find out why.
It turns out that my client was also posting ads for the same rental using a couple of different Craigslist accounts. People were seeing my ads along with several other ads for the same property on the same day. It’s no wonder they were flagging the posts. Whenever I get a post flagged, I stop posting for two days to let things “cool down” for a bit, which is what I did here. Unfortunately, my client didn’t stop posting the other ads, so when I started up again, my new ads were flagged and removed.
I have a system for tracking how many times my Craigslist ads are viewed, and in this case, over 40% of the people who viewed my ads viewed them more than once. And remember, I wasn’t able to post my ads every day or have them stay on-line until reposted because of the flagging problem. We didn’t need those other ads, and by coming across as a spammer, my client was losing credibility with prospects.
Sales and Marketing – Two Different Words
You may be thinking, “Marketing experts tell us our ads need to be seen multiple times to be effective.” That’s true when it comes to push media, like newspapers, television and radio. Craigslist is a pull medium, which means that you have hot prospects actively looking to spend their money. Multiple ads don’t help you. Craigslist is less about marketing and more about selling. You’ve already got the reader’s attention, so make good use of it.
The key to getting the most out of Craigslist is having an effective ad. You need to get your message to pop out to the viewer. Your ad should give the viewer the information he needs and wants while at the same time convincing the viewer that you’re a reputable business. If you’re known in the community, your ad should reflect your brand because recognition builds confidence. If you run multiple ads for different homes, your brand should be recognizable in all of your ads.
I use my marketing and web design expertise to create ads that – I know this is crazy – actually work! My goal with each and every ad is to get the visitor to stop looking at other ads and make a call, send an e-mail, or drive by for a visit. They know what they want, and my job is to make them say, “This is what I’m after, and it looks like a business I can trust.” Anybody can put together a text-based ad in ALL CAPS with spelling mistakes, but what does that say about your business? An attractive, HTML based ad that’s informative and easy to read tells the prospect that you’re serious about what you do.
It’s important to make a good first impression in any business transaction. You wouldn’t wear cut-off jeans, flip-flops and a ratty t-shirt to show a home, so why would you create a Craigslist ad that’s just as sloppy? You wouldn’t mumble and speak in half-sentences while talking to the prospect, so why create ads that are difficult to understand?
Wanted: Amazing Headlines
There’s one other factor that is often overlooked: the headline. Spammers are well known for putting all sorts of odd symbols in their headlines, but does it encourage people to click the links? In my experience, no. They make they headlines harder to read, and it makes the ad look like it was posted by a spammer. Do you see ads in magazines and newspapers with these odd symbols? Of course not. The headline needs to grab the visitor’s attention and indicate what your ad is about. They should be easy to read, which means not using ALL CAPS because IT’S JUST NOT EASY TO READ SOMETHING WRITTEN IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
I use my statistical analysis tools to tweak headlines by changing them around to see which ones work best. It’s amazing how much difference a headline can make. I use Google Adwords (search advertising), and the software tells me how many times each ad was served and what percentage clicked on the ad. I always run two ads at the same time with different headlines to see which one does better. Through experience I’ve learned to write great headlines to get high click-thru rates. I do the same for my Craigslist ads.
Craigslist is a valuable marketing tool, but there’s more to it than just slapping together an ad and “spamming” a category.
About the author: Jim Carr is a Phoenix based website designer and programmer who offers a Craigslist Posting service for his many real estate clients.
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