This post is intended for those who have never advertised their business with craigslist or have yet to see the benefit of creating a craigslist advertising campaign.
8 Reasons for advertising your business on craigslist
1.) It’s Free. The magic word. It’s hard to beat free. With the exception of a few categories and cities on craigslist, business owners are able to post their ads for free. Of course there are limitations, such as the number of ads that can be posted per account within a certain timeframe (3 ads per account per day).
2.) Search engines and craigslist are friends. Craigslist gets alot of traffic from the search engines. Roughly 25% to be more accurate. See for yourself. This means that when you post an ad in craigslist, it has the potential to be listed in the Google, Yahoo! and MSN. This can also help improve your overall search engine ranking.
3.) People are looking to buy. If someone takes the time to sit in front of their computer, open their web browser, type in “mycity.craigslist.org” click on “services” or “for sale”, search through the ads, find an ad they like, then pick up the phone or click on a link, chances are they’re looking to buy. If not, they really should consider getting a hobby.
4.) It’s popular. Craigslist is the 10th most popular website in the United States. It’s popularity dwarfs it’s competitors. This means that when you advertise your business on craigslist, alot of eyeballs are going to see your ad.
5.) It’s visual. With craigslist, you can post images, custom-coded HTML and basically make your ad look like a webpage. This is powerful in that you can have multiple links in your ad or juice it up with snazzy graphics to quickly get a viewers attention.
6.) It’s easy. Ok, maybe the title of this bullet is a little misleading. Getting a system for posting ads into craigslist that works for you can be a little tricky. This is especially true if you’re planning to go beyond posting a basic ad and use HTML. In any case, once you’ve got your system in place and a little practice under your belt, the process becomes more natural and you can complete an ad in a matter of minutes.
7.) It’s measurable. Wouldn’t it be a bummer to go through all of the trouble setting up a craigslist advertising campaign and have no idea who (if anyone) is coming to your site? Luckily there are a whole slew of tools in place that can shed a little light on the results of your efforts. Google Analytics is free and can send automated reports that details your craiglist ad’s performance directly to your inbox. A neat little tool I like it Cligs.
8.) It works. The bottom line is craigslist works. We have had several days where more than a dozen leads were generated through craigslist for our company. In a single day! We have used this amazing site for years with steady, unwavering success. If you have a business, I highly recommend doing the same.
If you enjoyed this post, add us at twitter.com/sophic – thanks!
