7 Tips for Using CraigsList to Generate Leads for Your Business

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I’m always looking for new ways to generate leads for my business and although CraigsList is hardly new, it’s definitely something I hadn’t tried before a few weeks ago. CraigsList is the king of online classified ad websites, they have over 50 million users in the U.S. alone, and with more than 20 billion page views per month it’s a genuine traffic source you should consider. However, there IS some creativity involved with generating leads through CraigsList since they don’t seem to care for network marketing much. After doing some testing and generating a nice stream of leads from CraigsList, I’ve compiled the following 7 tips to help you get started with this very powerful lead source.

1 – Focus on quality instead of quantity. Many marketers start out on CraigsList with the idea that they have to post a ton of ads every single day. CraigsList doesn’t really appreciate that approach so although you can definitely post multiple ads daily, it’s best to focus on quality ads instead of quantity. I’ve personally found posting 2-4 ads per day works well, but it does depend on what type of ads your posting and what categories you’re posting in.

2 – Track every step of the process so you know what’s working. This tip actually applies to all marketing and advertising efforts you engage in, not just CraigsList. It’s always important to track the following:

• Ad Impressions – This is how many times people view your ad. This means the CraigsList user needs to click your ad title first, so be sure your ad titles are unique and inviting.
• Link Clicks – This is the number of times they click the link in your ad (which assumes you are including a link in your ad, rather than having them email you or call a phone number). It’s best if you can add tracking to your website links so you can keep track of the number of hits you get to your website from your CraigsList ads as well.
• Conversions – This is the number of website visitors that take the desired action after following the link from your ad. The desired action could be opting into your mailing list, taking a free tour, or making a purchase from your website.

3 – Use images instead of text ads. Creating an image ad doesn’t mean you just post a picture of your product, it’s about creating an nice looking image “ad” that includes the text you would normally type into the ad itself. Doing this helps to prevent keyword blocking by CraigsList (apparently they have a list of keywords that raise a red flag for them). Image ads reduce the chances of your ads getting automatically “ghosted” (which means your ad appears to be live and “active” but when you go to the city you posted in and search for it manually it doesn’t show up).  You can use Photobucket or Image Shack to host your images for free if you don’t have a blog or website where you can do that.

4 – Rotate the links you use in your ads. When you post ads with links, it’s best if you can change the link you are posting as often as possible. The reason for this is if one of your ads gets flagged for removal – or your domain gets flagged as spam – then your ads may be automatically blocked or ghosted after that based on your link alone.  By rotating your links, you have a good chance of avoiding these types of issues. This can obviously be a challenge if  you don’t own a bunch of domains, but you can look into the different URL shorteners (like Bitly, etc.) and free URL rotators services as well.

5 – Post only within your region. When you register for a CraigsList account, they usually associate your account with your city and the region surrounding it. They then geo-track certain categories so that they ensure members only post ads within their region. Basically, your ads should be within your region based on your computer IP address and Phone Verified Account (PVA) or you run the risk of your ads being automatically ghosted.

6 – Use different titles, text, images, and links as often as you can. Posting multiple ads is something you can do on CraigsList but you have to do it right to avoid any issues. Making sure that each ad is unique and different than your other ads as often as possible is a really good way to reduce your chances of getting ghosted. So be sure to change the title of your ads each time you post, change the text (if you’re posting text ads), and the links to your website and your images, etc. Make each ad as different as possible from your other ads.

7 – Be consistent for maximum effectiveness. Like any other marketing method, consistency is key. If you keep all of the above tips in mind, you will begin to notice a nice stream of leads being generating for your business on a daily basis. Post a few ads every day, but limit the number of ads to 2-4 ads per day and try to  spread out the times you are posting your ads whenever possible.

If you’d like an all-in-one solution to tracking your ads on CraigsList, hosting your images, and rotating your links (including your image links too), then checkout CraigList Ad Tracker. I’ve been using their service and am very pleased with the results. To make things even better, I’ve even secured a very special discount on CraigsList Ad Tracker just for MikaylasWay.com guests!

I’d love your feedback on this article and what you think about using CraigsList to generate leads. Please leave me a question or a comment below!

To Your Success and Prosperity,

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