Craigslist.org top 103 cities & the Guerrilla Marketing Method to Using this data.

Personally I think that Craigslist.org is a under utilized resource in the business community.

According to Craigslist FAQ page they get “Over 20 billion” pages views a month and according to Alexa the site has moderately educated visitors.  Here is what Alexa says about criagslist.org  ”Compared with all Internet users, the site’s users are disproportionately Caucasian, and they tend to be moderately educated, childless women earning over $30,000 who browse from home.”   Now I’m not sure how exactly accurate Alexa info is but it doesn’t need to be dead on to be useful.

The underling point is that Craigslist.org gets a but load of traffic and the site is predominately free to use.

My experience has shown me that the majority of the sites traffic is in the jobs and for sale sections.  So there sits the issue, we are not allowed to post ads outside of the services section and that section really doesn’t get that much traffic.  We all know that Craigslist is policed by it’s users, so how do you capitalize the free or low cost traffic of craigslist without violating their rules or getting busted by the “C List Patrol”.

This is where we get a bit Guerrilla.  Now before one of you send me an email claiming that this is not “Guerrilla Marketing” I like to clear it up.  You’re wrong, re-read the book.  Guerrilla Marketing is about Low Cost, High impact marketing strategies that get results.  (Time, Energy, Imagination, & Knowledge to replace big budgets).   That being said,  the trick is to post something that serves two purposes.  One to fulfill a need, Second to promote your business.

In Guerrilla Marketing we believe that everything we do is marketing, from the way we answer the phone to what our job descriptions say about our business.  Are you starting to see where I’m going.   When you post to craigslist “FOR A VALID POST” include a bit more about who you are and what you do.

Example 1 Job:

TITLE: Intern needed for 3 day Marketing Workshop

MarketingToTulsa.com is seeking two Marketing Interns to assit with our event on Jun 3,4,5 2011

You will be working with some of the leading marketing professionals in the Tulsa area.

This event is for business owners who sell a service.  Real Estate Agent, Doctors, Dentist etc. Anybody who runs a business where getting and retaining a client base is critical.

The attendees including you will get to learn:

* How to create a simple but highly effective marketing plan.

* How to use the marketing plan to train staff, advertising representatives and referral sources how to better find you clients.

* How to not only retain clients but grow the business relationship so that  these clients expand their use of your services and provide great referrals.

Requirements:

** You must be graduating from a marketing program in the next 12-18 months and have a passion for learning what works in marketing.

** In addition to 3 pre-event meetings, You must be able to work all day Friday, Saturday, and from 12-7pm Sunday.

** You have experience in social media, graphics, copywriting or some other key area of marketing.

If you have questions, Ronald Skelton @RonaldSkelton on twitter  will be hosting the event and be a primary speaker, he’ll answer your questions via email, twitter, or phone.

Respond via email or call 918-512-1214

(shortened considerably from the ad that will be placed)

I would also post a description of this in the services section and the events section.   Each being a unique write up about the event and our business.

Example 2 For Sale:

Title:  Dell Laptop Loaded with Graphics editing Software

Here at ABC Design company we are predominately Mac based shop.  One of our designers recently made the conversion to our side of the world now we’d like to sale his box.

Why:   It just takes to long to produce images like (link), (link), or videos like (link), (link) on a pc when all the other team members working on the project us a mac.

Here are the specs:  (Model / Speed / Software it comes with)

You know its in good shape because it was just retired yesterday,  and here at ABCdesign.com we expect the best from our team and provide them with the best tools.

Call 555-555-1212 for more info or  hit us up on twitter @ABCdesign:

Do you see what’s happening in these posts?   I’m looking for an intern but I’m giving enough info about the event that businesses who are peeking in can be interested.

I’m selling an item but giving examples of my work and statements of the quality and integrity of what we do so that a small business owner who may be looking for a laptop for their business can learn more about ours.

Next time you need to sell something or hire someone, I hope you think of using craigslist and put a little Guerrilla Marketing into the post.

Here is the list.

This data is an estimate based on Alexa data and craigslist FAQ statement that they have over 20 billion page views per month.

I’m often asked what traditional marketing method someone should replace with Social Media.   My answer is always the same.

When Marketing is done right, replacement is rarely needed.

I’m aware that statement says a lot with very few words, but it’s true.   Marketing done right tracks ROI (return on investment). Unless it’s become so ineffective that it’s too low and not worth the time or heaven forbid negative , why in the world would you “REPLACE” it?

The correct way to use social media, or any new marketing method for that mater, is to augment existing marketing with the new technology to leverage the value of each.

I don’t want to go to far into this as it will be a spoiler for attendies at the “Social Media Tulsa” Conference:

http://socialmediatulsa.org/smtulsa-conference2011/

Want to see some companies doing integration well?  Start off by looking at State Farm, or Tempur-Pedic I’ve linked to their social media sections.

I’ll be blogging more about this topic after the conference.  Until then please ask questions about social media integration or provide examples where you’ve seen it done well in the comments section.