Placing an Ad on Craigslist
Advertising on Craigslist is helpful for just about any business offering products or services. Whether these products are offered through ecommerce web sites or physical stores, the business owners can see financial profits through advertising on Craigslist. Firstly unlike other advertising chances there is very little risk involved in posting on Craigslist. With the exception of job postings and housing postings in particular markets, advertising is free on Craigslist. Users are asked to agree to the terms of service of the community and are expected to follow specific instructions when posting ads but there are no monetary obligations to those placing advertisements on Craigslist. This means those who post advertisements do not have to be concerned with whether or not the advertisement they post will meet their expectations in terms of sales generated.
Reaching Potential Customers on Craigslist
Another reason why posting ads for products or services on Craigslist is so worthwhile is the likelihood of reaching a large audience of potential customers. A review of the Craigslist fact sheet reveals pertinent info regarding the amount of traffic the site receives. According to this information Craigslist receives approximately four billion page views each month with ten million people using Craigslist each month. From these statistics it is clear that ads placed on Craiglist are potentially to get at least some attention from possible customers.
With so many visitors using Craigslist each month the advertising potential are limitless, but, there are no guarantee any of these visitors will be interested in your products or services. Like any marketing campaign, your advertisements on Craigslist must be interesting, informative and in a section where you will reach your target audience.
Finding Your Target Audience on Craigslist
We’ve already discussed the number of visitors using Craigslist each month but the answer to taking advantage of these numbers is to target your advertising in a way aimed at reaching your target audience as opposed to a wide audience of individuals who have no specific interest in your products or services. It is much more worthwhile to reach a small audience of those with a keen interest in your products or services than to reach a much larger audience of those who are not interested. Those who have an interest in your products or services are your target audience.
The answer to reaching your target audience on Craigslist is placing your ad in the most appropriate places. Craigslist has a certain section for businesses to advertise their services. This section is broken down into a number of categories. Those who are in the business of computer repair would be wise to place their advertisement in the computer section as opposed to the automotive section because individuals looking for computer help will naturally migrate to the computer section. It may sometimes be appropriate to place an ad in more than one section. This is acceptable as long as it does not cross the line to spamming the section.
If there is not a certain section for the services or products offered by your company there are a couple of choices. Business owners can place an ad in the section for small company ads where it might be found by those doing a search in this section. Alternately the business owner can contact Craigslist to suggest the addition of a new category. They might be willing to oblige if they believe this category warrants an addition.
The Distinction between Advertising and Spamming
Advertising on Craigslist is one thing but spamming is quite one other. Putting an advertisement in an appropriate section of Craigslist is acceptable; however, putting the same advertisement in nearly every section of Craigslist sites for a number of different geographical regions is considered spam. Spam is ineffective for a lot of reasons. First of all potential customers who see a certain advertisement in a number of different locations are probably to recognize the spamming methods and be less bent to support this business. Also, if Craigslist detects the practice of spamming they may delete all of the postings and could possibly prohibit ads from the individual in the future.
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