Why Advertising Your Online Business on Craigslist Is a No Brainer

Craigslist provides a valuable opportunity for just about any business offering products or services. Along with physical products, Craigslist offers a platform to advertise your e-commerce websites at no cost directly to its huge customer base right in your area. 

Let’s have a look at why advertising is truly a no brainer: 

• Advertise for Free on Craigslist!   

Unlike other advertising opportunities there is virtually no risk involved in posting on Craigslist. The only postings that require a fee are for jobs and housing. For all other advertising the only requirement is to agree to the Craigslist terms of service and to follow their posting guidelines. 

As there is no financial obligation to the Craigslist advertiser, there are no minimum sales quotas. 

• Reach Millions of Hungry Shoppers on Craigslist 

Craigslist reaches a large audience of targeted customers. The Craigslist fact sheet reveals pertinent information regarding the amount of traffic the website receives. 

An average month brings approximately four billion page viewers and over ten million subscribers per month to Craigslist. Those are impressive statistics demonstrating that advertising on Craiglist reaches a multitude of potential clients. 

With so many visitors using Craigslist every month your advertising potential is limitless. However, there is no guarantee that any of these visitors will be interested in your products or services. 

• Find Customers interested in your products on Craigslist 

Although the Craigslist audience is huge, the key to taking advantage of it is to target your advertising to specific searchers hungry for your product.

Like any form of marketing, in order to get optimal exposure and click-throughs, it is important to post intriguing, keyword rich, and informative ads on Craigslist. They need to stand out from the rest for maximal exposure to your target audience.Those interested in your products or services are your target audience. 

• Reach your target audience on Craigslist 

The key to reaching your target audience is placing your advertisement in the most appropriate locations. 

The beauty of Craigslist is that it has a specific section for businesses to advertise their services. This section is broken down into a number of categories. An ad for health related products, for example, should be placed in the section designated for that.

If you cannot find a section specific to your products or services, you could consider placing an ad in the Small Business section or in a general, broader section. You can also contact Craigslist to suggest the addition of a new category. They may consider adding a new category, if there is sufficient demand for it.

Certain products and services can also be advertised in more than one section. This is acceptable as long as you do not spam.

Be mindful that, although advertising on Craigslist is easy, economical and lucrative, spamming is not! If you do not adhere to the Craigslist Terms and Conditions you stand the chance of being blacklisted permanently! Placing the same advertisement in multiple sections and/or geographical regions in Craigslist is considered spam. Spamming is unproductive and unprofessional.