Are you a Craig’s List Advertiser? We are, and we LOVE Craig’s List! When executed well Craig’s List can drive a pile of traffic to your communities, but know, ALL CRAIG’S LIST ADS ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL. Know that we DO NOT Love Craig’s List because it is FREE, that helps, but it isn’t the reason. We like to fish where the fish are, and we like catching fish, lots of fish. And to catch lots of fish, you likely have a lot of different lures in your tackle box. We recommend you have a few different Craig’s List Ads in your Marketing Arsenal too.
ITS NOT WHAT YOU SAY, BUT HOW YOU SAY IT
Industry-marketing leader Lisa Trosien posted recently about copy. Lisa has some excellent points.
What is the right copy length and content that will garner the short and brief attention of your prospect? You only have a snap flash to get your audience attention. Are you aware of what Craig’s Lists ads work and which ones don’t? And, assuming you get the prospects attention, will they click through to your web site? Heck, have you even thought through what you want them to do after they click on your ad? Perhaps that is an eminent place to start.
MAP IT OUT
As Jon Morrow, Associate Editor of Copyblogger so well out it in a recent post titled Your Blog vs. The World:7 Steps To Winning The War for Attention,
“When going into battle, a smart general doesn’t take a gun. He brings a map. Yes, guns and soldiers and tactics are important, but knowledge of the battlefield is a prerequisite to positioning all of those guns and soldiers and tactics appropriately. Whoever best masters the geography has an enormous advantage over their opponent. My advice: play to win”
Start by mapping out what you want your prospect to do once they do click your ad. For us, we want to get the prospect to our web site in the slightest amount of clicks. Our marketing goal with all our Craig’s List Ads are to get the prospect to fill out a Guest Card on our web site, in the straightest line possible, not the fastest, the straightest, there is a significant difference. As with romance, rushing through is not favorable. Nor is flying over your marketing ads, but grasping the prospects attention is a must.
NO CARES ABOUT YOUR APARTMENTS BUT YOU
Stop yapping about your product features, no one cares. People care about themselves, and they want to feel good. Try out snappy, short titles that evoke emotion. Try interesting, short paragraphs about fun times, sell short stories. They are far more interesting than your apartment features, which are most likely the same as the folks across the street.
STAY OUT OF THE RUTS
We regularly, but now sparingly use formatted programs like vFlyer. They are great, colorful and peppy, but……………, like all good things can become boring and complacent to your prospects. We got on the vFlyer kick last summer and fell into a bit of a rut and couldn’t figure out why. We started a combination different ads and quickly rebound our Craig’s List traffic. To that point though, a regular stream of vFlyer ads are great, and they populate many other sites, but similar to cocktails, just don’t over do it.
Mix it up, teach yourself how to use basic HTML, it isn’t all that hard, and you should know it anyway. You can then get pretty creative and fun with your ads. And then too, just some simple short ads with pictures are always a great hit. EVERY ad should have pictures.
IT’S NOT FREE, BUT ALMOST
I hear the argument that Craig’s List isn’t really free, and it isn’t, someone has to post regularly. And you can’t post the same ad everyday either, nor should you, that’s just boring. We have developed a stable of Craig’s List Ad’s that we mix and match. For our boutique property management business, we post five to seven Craig’s List Ad’s every day, six days a week, which takes about forty five to fifty minutes each day. It just isn’t as big of a deal as some folks want to make it. We drive over three hundred pieces of traffic a month, which seems to keep our portfolio buoyant.
Happy Ad Writing! Should you need help or direction, give us a ring, we would be happy to assist!
Eric’s background is rooted in the rental and real estate industries. He founded metro Detroit’s Urbane Apartments in 2003, after serving as senior vice president for a major Midwest apartment developer. He established a proven track record of effectively repositioning existing rental properties in a way that added value for investors while enhancing the resident experience.
He also established The Urbane Way, a social media marketing and PR laboratory, where innovative marketing ideas are tested. Eric has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Business Week Magazine.
You can connect with Eric_Urbane on Twitter.
Eric also writes regular articles for the following publications;
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