9 Aggressive Craigslist Marketing Tactics – Part 1

A Fitness Marketing Guest Post By Zach Hunt

WARNING: Some of what I'm telling you breaks the user submission guidelines at Craiglist, use at your own risk.

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*IMPORTANT* A quick word from Chris's Assistant Del -

"Hey, before you read this post, check this out, if you'd like access to a secret video breaking down Chris's entire Craigslist Annihilation strategy step-by-step… and how you can post tons of ads daily in just a FEW minutes a day, email me, his assistant Del, at positivelyfitassistant (at) gmail ( dot com ) and ask me how you can qualify to access this super detailed secret video… it won't cost you a thing… I'll even help explain solutions to "ghosting", a sneaky little thing Craigslist does to trainers that could end up KILLING your marketing efforts… plus I'll jump on the phone with you if needed to make sure you get everything right" - Del

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Alright, I'll let Zach take it from here…

Craigslist is one of my favorite free marketing methods for my fitness training business. Not only is it free (a HUGE plus), it also works really well, if you know the tried and true tactics for CL obliteration =)

The only issue with craigslist marketing is most people are far too submissive when formulating their posting schedule. I was like that myself when I first started, posting 1 or maybe 2 ads a day in like the general section or the services section.

While it worked to some extent, certainly not to the level it does now, and it’s wasn’t near as fun, you'll see what I mean

Here's Part One my top 9 tips to top notch Craigslist postings, and when I say aggressive check this out…

1. Don’t be afraid of posting too much

As long as you follow the strategies and tactics I outline here, posting too much is never an issue.

Keep in mind, you may have people flaming you and cc’ing you to craigslist abuse… its part of the fun =) And while it shouldn’t be a goal, it’s certainly not something that should bother you.

I’ve gotten over a dozen web submissions with cussing and bad mouthing my name (check the image to the right), and well I just find it entertaining. I know it’s from a craigslist enemy because he uses the same terminology as he emails me on responding directly to the post. I find it kinda of entertaining myself.

Who knows if it’s just some high school kid wasting time, some competing personal training studio, or maybe someone is just having a bad day (their wife burnt their toast that morning).

Really, this shouldn’t be much of a problem, but if you do encounter things like this… mostly inevitable when you post as much as I recommend, just realize you did nothing wrong. And it won’t hurt you one bit.

I have between 10-20 posts going up each day, in a bunch of different categories.

2. Some of your posts should have a hidden identity

One way to get around posting a lot on craigslist is to not have your brand / name in the subject or even the copy of the post.

Just present a solution. Basically having the solution with emotional stirring copy pointing back to an unbranded web domain.

It’s real simple to get multiple domains. I have around 50 with the word Spokane, in them for all sorts of purposes, craigslist being one of them.

Yes, some of your best posts will obviously not have your identity in them, this will make sure that people seeing this ad will not relate it back to your company and all the other posts you are doing.

They don’t care if they see fitness posts, but if it’s related to your business all the time, then that may anger some people and cause them to flag.

Some people are regular visitors to the site, and will notice your themes.

Which brings up another important point, to use different keywords and themes in your unbranded ads. Meanings don’t use the same slogan or sales copy. Make sure every ad has unique copy and unique wording.

Another great tactic is to tailor the posts to the category you post in. Meaning if you post in the vacation category have the post mention how to get in shape for your summer vacation, or for your cruise, or for beach season, or whatever, you get the picture.

If it’s in the groups section, mention something to the fact that here’s an exercise / accountability group that’s new to the area. New being relative, “newish”, in the past 5-10 years  =)

So some of the postings will be like the following…

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Title: How to Get Real, Visible & Lasting Fitness Results (W/ 100% Certainty)

Body Copy:

Spokane, WA - You want to get rid of the fat, lose the weight and have a great body so you look great and feel great. Like most, you’ve probably tried some things and they haven’t worked. WHY?

Because you are being lied to.

Like everything worthwhile in life, health and fitness results take effort. And cookie-cutter ‘secret’ solutions don’t work. You know that already. (But are you willing to admit it?)

If you want real results, as quickly as possible, with 100% certainty, there is only ONE solution that works every time. What is it???

Just go to this page to find out…

Click Here to See Fitness Myths Exposed

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This is an example I've used in the past and have variations of it now.

3. Have multiple Craigslist accounts

There’s no way to properly do this strategy using just one craigslist account, you’re gonna have a way overloaded account, which will be flagged by their system and likely get you banned within a weeks, if not sooner. The solution is to simply have multiple accounts, not 2, 3 or even 4, but 10 or even 20.

It’s not hard either. All you need for each craigslist account is a unique email address and a phone number. You can use your own phone number, house number, assistant’s phone number, and multiple Google voice numbers and so on. I got by with mostly just that. And by the way, if you haven’t checked out 'Google Voice' it’s pretty cool, I believe they are open for registration now.

So you just register those accounts, even if just 7 of them.

Then when you do your postings use a different account for each day of the week or every other week if you have say 14 accounts. And if possible, if you know the technical side of things, do it from a different IP address each day, or even different computer.

It’s possible to change your IP on the same computer if you know the technical side of things, although not really that hard.

So in a way creating a posting calendar, to where which posts go to what categories on what days. This should be one massive document that encompasses all your craigslist posts and strategy.

4. Have someone else do the posts for you

One reason Craigslist is so effective is because it’s always going on and new people are constantly searching for things to take up their time and money. Meaning you need to do your posts consistently each and every week.

So, optimally like the subject says, you should have someone else doing the craigslist postings for you, rather than doing them yourself. This can save you 20 to 40 minutes a day. This is one of the easiest things you can delegate out, cause it’s pretty easy to do.

Just make sure you keep whoever is doing the posts accountable to doing the posts. I’ve had assistants / helpers in the past who I gave them the project and find out a week later they were doing any of the posts.

The way I’ve done it is having all the confirmation emails forwarded from all their accounts to my email account. Then 8those emails are auto-filtered into a separate label in my Gmail.

You can use folders or whatever you have depending on your email program. I can then check on that label and see all the confirmation emails for that week / day and so on.

Only takes seconds to do, and it’s not like I check this every day, more likely on a weekly basis. But most of all I have a great person that helps me out with this and can trust her to keep on top of this.

Stay tuned for Part Two of the 9 Aggressive Craigslist Marketing Tactics and my best 5 methods for blowing up your Craigslist marketing efforts.

I'd love to hear your comments below

Zach Hunt is a Personal Trainer In Spokane WA and fitness studio owner.

A quick word from Chris…

And if you'd like access to a secret video breaking down my entire Craigslist Annihilation strategy step-by-step… and how
you can post tons of ads daily in just a FEW minutes a day, email my assistant Del at positivelyfitassistant (at) gmail ( dot com ) and ask her
how you can qualify to access this super detailed video… it won't cost you a thing… she can even help explain the solution to "ghosting" to you, a sneaky little thing Craigslist does to trainers that could end up KILLING your marketing efforts… and she'll even jump on the phone with you if needed.