There are five parts to writing a good Craigslist ad. If you carefully craft each part, using the fundamental laws of copywriting, you have a good chance of selling your product or service to your reader.
Here are the five basics of a good Craigslist ad:
1. Must have a specific and catchy title– Without a good headline, the client will not open your ad and all the rest of your work will be for no reason. This is one of the most important rules of copywriting. Focus on your customer’s wants and needs and create a headline that focuses on them.
2. Write to one person at a time– Make the ad sound conversational, as if you are talking to the customer over a cup of coffee. Don’t speak in general terms as if you are speaking to a group of people. Use the word “you” frequently.
3. Focus on the benefits of your product, not the features– The benefits of a new car can be more safety for your family, higher status among your friends, and more money in your pocket due to better gas mileage. The characteristics are the type of tires, the number of engineers it took to build it, and the number of bolts it took to mount it. People buy with emotions based on the benefits they will get from buying the product, not on the features it contains.
Four. Make it easy for the customer to buy– There are too many Craigslist ads that make it difficult for the customer to buy. Use friendly ways to contact you. Include your phone number and multiple payment options. Not all customers want to contact you in the same way, so the more options you offer people, the more chances you have to win their business.
5. Include a photo of the product– In every ad you create, even if it is for a business, you must include a photo. Mobile apps that support Craigslist have ranking capabilities that can prioritize ads that contain images. You want to make sure you have all the benefits that your ad opens as wide as possible and the image will.
Using the basic rules of copywriting, you can take some of the same principles that are used to create valuable sales letters and build on them with your next Craigslist ad.