Craiglist

Advertising on Craigslist is worthwhile for just about any business offering products or services. Whether these products are offered through ecommerce websites or physical stores, the business owners can see financial gains through advertising on Craigslist. Firstly unlike other advertising opportunities there is very little risk involved in posting on Craigslist. With the exception of job postings and housing postings in specific 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 guidelines when posting advertisements but there are no financial 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 place will meet their expectations in terms of sales generated.

Reaching Potential Customers on Craigslist

Another reason why posting advertisements 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 information regarding the amount of traffic the website 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 advertisements placed on Craiglist are likely to receive at least some attention from potential clients.

Deborah Schultz has one of the best graphics I’ve ever seen up on her blog (courtesy of Brand Identity Guru), explaining the difference between marketing, branding, public relations and advertising far better than anything I’ve run across. This puts quite a few things into perspective:

Notice several things…for example, marketing is represented as nothing more than a less-annoying version of advertising. However, the one thing that jumps out at me is this…notice how branding and marketing are very similar. The only difference is who holds the opinion.

This goes back to what I’ve said before…lead your customers to form an emotional connection with you, and before you know it they’ll be telling you how great you are.

Instead of the other way around.

Everyone wants marketing for nothing and their traffic for free. (My apologies to Dire Straits.) And there are a lot of ways to get it done. But sometimes you want more for various reasons:

• You’re launching a new product.
• You’re offering a new service.
• You need your overall traffic numbers up.
• After months of using free traffic-building methods, you still have that “lonely” feeling every time you check your stats.

If so, it may be time to take a trip into “Business ClichèLand”…”To make money, you have to spend money.” And there are a lot of ways to do just that to increase your online business presence.

• Buy pay-per-click advertising from services like Google’s Adwords.
• Purchase an opt-in email list for a marketing campaign.
• Offer an affiliate program to increase your marketing efforts, using a service such as Clickbank…or make your own! (The good side of this is that, for the most part, it only costs money when sales are made!)
• Purchase posts or reviews on popular blogs. (Yes, this can be done, through services like PayPerPost, ReviewMe!, etc.)
• Purchase signature links from members of forums in your target niche.

Of course, it’s more than possible to become very successful without spending a dime, but it’s just as possible to spend a lot of money to become a dismal failure and wind up living under a bridge in a cardboard box. Do your research. All advertising is not created equal, especially for your product.

The above is a very small list of different types of advertising you can spend your hard-earned money on. What methods have you used that were successful? What methods were a failure for you, and why do you think that happened?

Sheryl Crow’s hit song “Soak Up The Sun” has a wonderful line in it that we can take a lesson from.

“It’s not getting what you want, it’s wanting what you’ve got.”

This is a definite key to peace and happiness, and it should also be a cornerstone of your marketing campaign.

Your potential customers think they know what they want, but sometimes they feel cheated after they get it…whatever it was that they thought they wanted didn’t turn out to be what they needed, whether it be a consultant, a piece of software or the latest gadget from late-night television infomercials. This is something you should keep in mind when crafting your marketing message.

Don’t spend time explaining how you have a wonderful product or service, or that you have the “next big thing”. Instead, your message’s time in front of a potential customer is better spent explaining how your product or service is what they need to solve a problem in their life or business.

When you sell someone what they “want”, if they’re let down after the purchase…well, let’s just say any referral you get from them won’t be glowing. However, if your marketing message explains how you’re going to solve their problem (and then your product or service performs as advertised), you’ve just added a member to your sales force. They’ll spread the word about what they purchased, who they purchased it from, and what it did for them.

And that is the kind of advertising that can’t be bought.

Try to remember…don’t try to make the customer get what you want them to…make them want what you’ve got, by explaining how it will make their life easier in some way.

Which is marketing in a nutshell, when you think about it.

There’s one word that can carry quite a bit of power when used as part of your marketing message:

“Free”.

Admittedly, “free” doesn’t carry the weight it used to. With everyone reaching the point of becoming over-saturated with marketing messages, something that has the word “free” attached to it has almost become a turn-off…especially online.

But it can still be a very effective tool, when used correctly; for example, as an inducement to opt-in to your newsletter or email list.
In many people’s minds, a successful marketing message has lots of exclamation points, underlines and flashing messages. These things were all adopted to make the message stand out; the tables have now turned, however. The messages that stand out are the ones that don’t scream at the reader, but instead offer value in return for their time or business.

Giving someone a free gift for signing up for your newsletter can still be an effective tool, as long as the free gift is relevant to the reason they wound up at your business site to begin with. If your business is financial advice, don’t offer a free report on advertising tips to your visitors. That’s not why they came to your site, and it won’t entice them to sign up.

However, if they came to your site to find information on financial advice, an offer of a free report on basic investment tips would be useful to them, and a much more effective enticement.

“But Dave,” I can hear you say, “I’m trying to sell them financial advice…why would I give it to them?”

For the same reason anyone offers free samples…to earn the customers’ trust in your product or service. If they like the free information and find it useful, they are becoming sold on you.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be a free report. You can offer a free trial of your software, a free ebook…anything that will help build your image as a business your customers can trust to help them with their needs.