by Vince Villegas
I must get at least one email a week where someone informs me that they saw a program teaching how to generate leads with Craigslist in a “Rip-Off Report” online, and they want to know if it’s true…
I just got another one today…
Now let’s put aside the fact that there is no screening on a lot of these “Rip-Off” sites preventing anyone from posting anything on them. Nonetheless, I believe there is value in websites that provide people with truthful reviews of products and services.
Evaluating the value of “Rip-Off” review sites, though, is not what I wanted to talk about here, though. Do I think that Craigslist is a “rip-off?” No…absolutely not.
Getting that email today did make me think about WHY someone might think that Craigslist (and programs that teach how to advertise and generate leads on Craigslist) is a “rip-off.”
I think that most likely the person (or people) who end up feeling like Craigslist advertising is a “rip-off” probably aren’t using it effectively.
I personally use Craigslist every day in my business, and it consistently generates me 3 or more sales a month every month . . . for free. So I know it’s a great way to consistently generate high quality free leads.
If you have never tried using Craigslist, or if you have tried and not gotten good results from using Craigslist, here are some simple tweaks you can make to your ads that will help you to get better results:
Ad Tweak #1 – Have The Right Objective: Before you ever write a word of a Craigslist ad, make sure you have the right outcome in mind. Your goal is NEVER to sell on Craigslist. Your goal is to drive a high number of quality leads to you. When you post the “usual” type of ads that are posted on Craigslist, you are giving prospective leads reasons to opt OUT, not to opt IN. You want to generate the most LEADS, because the person with the most quality leads gets the most sales. If you post the “usual” ads, your lead count will be very limited.
Ad Tweak #2 – Ditch The Generic: A lot of people will craft their Craigslist ads so that they are as general and generic as possible. This does not throw out a wider net (and net you more leads). Instead it will cut your clicks down by a lot. You always want to be sure to CUSTOMIZE the ads for you and your market (utilizing your city, your properties, your company, your website etc). I also recommend that you make some minor word changes to the ads when you post them each time, as Craigslist will notice if you post the same ads verbatim over and over again. These don’t have to be major changes, but a general rule of thumb is to change about 20% of the wording in order to avoid Craigslist’s scrutiny.
Ad Tweak #3 – Track ‘Em!: Once you’re out there posting a lot of ads you think are great, you need to keep track of how well each of your ads is converting. A lot of people will keep posting the same ads over and over again, and will never take the time to see which ones people are actually clicking on and which ones aren’t getting much action. Why would you waste your time putting up an ineffective ad over and over again? So be sure you track the performance of all the ads that you’re running to maximize the number of leads you’re generating. Once you know an ad performs well for you, it’s okay to repeat it as much as once a day.
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