10 Craigslist Marketing Tips:
- Be A Super Spy – Google your product or service, find the best websites and research what they are saying, use this information to write your own awesome descriptions, titles and include all the features, then search for your product or service on Craigslist, what is your competitor saying, selling and for how much. Make sure that your ad has all the benefits of your product or service and list every single feature. People will assume that if you don’t mention it, it doesn’t have the feature.
- Don’t Skimp on the 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 all caps, exclamation points or anything that might seem ‘spammy.’
- Do your keyword research – Know the various keywords that someone will use to find your service or product, and the variations. How? Most users filter before searching, making keywords very important. Keywords should be used throughout the title and body of your ad. Here are two easy to use website to find keyword suggestions wordtracker.com/search and neilpatel.com/ubersuggest/
- Keep It Simple but include Lots of Pictures: 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. 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. Don’t want emails and just want to talk to people? Hike the “reply to” field and put your phone number in the ad, with a strong call to action bolded like: Call us to learn more xxx-xxx-xxxx
- 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.
Did you happen to notice that this article ranked #1 for your search on Craigslist marketing tips?
That’s because we know SEO and we can help you get more business by improving your website and your ranking too! So don’t forget Google, read our SEO and Marketing tips below to learn more.
SEO AND MARKETING TIPS FOR APARTMENT RENTALS & REAL ESTATE
- Make sure your website is amazing. Here are some great examples of great apartment rental and real estate websites.
- Make sure you have a score of 80% or higher for local SEO presence, if not hire a professional to get your site found on the “MAPS” Google maps and Bing maps. Optimization of your Google maps with special coding on your website, directory submissions, and optimization of your listings on Google and BING is the most effective advertising for local businesses. Want to know how you rank and your local SEO score? Contact us for SEO service pricing. To improve your ranking, local maps improvement program is just a one time $750 fee. Want to chat about this service, call Sara at 518-743-9424 ext. 220.
- Google your region for “town + real estate” or “town + apartment rentals”, pay for a listing on the websites that have top placements for your keywords.
Need to lower your occupancy, we know local marketing, call us at 518-743-9424 or contact us, we’ll chat for five minutes and you can find out what we can do for you for your budget.
SEO AND MARKETING TIPS FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES THAT MARKET HOME SERVICES
House cleaning, Professional Organizers, Handyman Services
- The first thing you need to do is Google your service, Are you in the MAPS results? If you are not, call us at 518-743-9424 or fill out contact form, and we’ll call you back to talk to you about what it takes to come up on the first page in the maps results on Google. We recommend a complete local optimization program that is a one time $750 fee.
- If you have a website, is it set up properly for the search engines 10x more people will look for your service in Google than they will on Craigslist, so don’t miss the most effective form of marketing. Ask us for a free consultation, it takes 15 minutes and we can show you how we can help you. We can show you that on top of the maps optimization program there are other opportunities that can grow your business. For local businesses that need to grow their client list, we also recommend an affordable 3-month intensive marketing program called the SEO BOOST. For more info, call us at 518-743-9424 or fill out contact form
About Craigslist and Local Marketing
It’s not very often that powerful marketing tools are offered to the masses for free. Whether you are looking to rent an apartment, sell a home, 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 most visited sites worldwide.
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 but it shouldn’t be the SOLE marketing you do, Google is still the leader and the #1 most visited site on the web, it’s where most people who want to buy a product or service go first. Need help growing your business, Mannix Marketing offers affordable SEO and marketing programs for local businesses and we’d love to help you get found, and be successful. We’d love to chat with you, call us at 518-743-9424 or fill out the contact form.
