Advertising on Craigslist is worthwhile for almost any business offering services or products. Whether these products are available through eCommerce websites or physical stores, the business owners can easily see financial gains through advertising on Craigslist. Firstly unlike other advertising opportunities there’s hardly any risk involved in posting on Craigslist. With the exception of job postings and housing postings in specific markets, advertising is free of charge 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. What this means is those who post advertisements don’t 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

One more reason why posting advertisements for products or services on Craigslist is so worthwhile could be the likelihood of reaching a sizable 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 every month with ten million people using Craigslist every month. From these statistics it’s clear that advertisements put on Craiglist are likely to receive at least some attention from potential clients.

With so many visitors using Craigslist each month the advertising possibilities are limitless, however, there are no guarantee these visitors will be interested in your products or services. Like any marketing campaign, your advertisements on Craigslist have to be intriguing, informative as well as in a location where you will reach your target audience.

Finding Your Target Market on Craigslist

We’ve already discussed the quantity of visitors using Craigslist every month but the key 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 people who have no specific interest in your products or services. It is considerably more worthwhile to reach a small audience of people 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 real key to reaching your target audience on Craigslist is placing your advertisement in the most appropriate locations. Craigslist includes a specific 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 searching for computer help will naturally migrate to the computer section. It may sometimes be appropriate to place an advertisement in more than one section. This is acceptable as long as it doesn’t cross the line to spamming the section.

If there is not a specific section for the services or products provided by your business there’s a couple of options. Business owners are able to place an advertisement in the section for small business advertisements where it might be found by those performing a search within this section. Alternately the business owner can contact Craigslist to suggest adding a brand new category. They might be willing to oblige as long as they believe this category warrants an addition.

The Main Difference between Advertising and Spamming

Advertising on Craigslist is one thing but spamming is quite another. Placing an advertisement within an appropriate section of Craigslist is acceptable; however, placing exactly the same advertisement in nearly every section of Craigslist websites for many different geographical regions is considered spam. Spam is ineffective for a number of reasons. First of all potential customers who see a particular advertisement in many different locations will probably recognize the spamming techniques and be less inclined to patronize this business. Also, if Craigslist detects the use of spamming they may delete all of the postings and could potentially ban advertisements from the individual down the road.

Other Popular Websites

www.retireathomefranchise.com, www.retireathomeottawa.com, www.canadacardprocessing.com

Tagged as: Advertising, business, Craiglist, Marketing