The Power of Craigslist
Did you know Craigslist is the 15th most visited website in the United States? In fact, there is an average of 2 million visitors every day looking at nearly 1.6 billion pages. Due to this massive audience, Craigslist is a powerful multi-family housing marketing tool. While this massive audience is great, it can be hard to stand out in the crowd, especially with 120 ads on each page. Consequently, creating great Craigslist apartment ads is an important part of being successful.
Creating Great Craigslist Apartment Ads – Step 1
The first step in creating great Craigslist apparent ads is having them stand out. Most of all, you want to generate clicks onto your listing from the search results. Consequently, your ad headline is critically important to your overall success. Shout out your most important features in your headline and use every available character. Consider this headline, “$1500/2BR Beautiful Units with Great Amenities”. Now consider, “$1500/2BR Gorgeous Units in Luxury Building. Washer/Dryer in Units”. While this could be the same unit, which ad headline generates more interest?
Creating Great Craigslist Apartment Ads – Step 2
After creating a great headline for your ad, choose a great picture for your featured image. This picture will be shown with your headline in search results and can be the difference-maker in getting a click or being skipped entirely. Let’s look at two images from the same listing for an apartment in Baltimore, MD:
Which image would you choose for the featured image? Unfortunately for this listing, they choose image 1, while image 2 was on the inside of the listing. Not only is image 1 dark, but it also makes the space look small and confined. Image 2 shows high ceilings and a light-filled space, which is much more attractive to prospective tenants. In conclusion, just remember that choosing the right image can make the difference in generating clicks on your craigslist ad.
Creating Great Craigslist Apartment Ads – Step 3
While great headlines and images generate clicks on your ad, it is the inside information that turns clicks into leads. Therefore, writing great inside ad copy is the third step in our process. First of all, do not write long paragraphs. People will not take the time to read them. Start with a simple description, “Immaculate 2 bedroom apartment with tons of amenities:”. Next, use the amenities section to bullet out the reasons someone wants to live in your unit. People’s eyes are naturally drawn to bullets, so this is the most important place to convey your best features. After bullet-pointing your best features, make sure to choose great pictures. Highlight key features and try to avoid dark images.
Creating Great Craigslist Apartment Ads – Step 4
Finally, make sure to include important information about your rental terms and other policies in your listing. This can help save time dealing with unqualified applicants. If you require a one-year lease and do not allow pets, listing this information can prevent a dog owner looking for a 6-month lease from wasting your time. Here are common important rental terms to include:
- Monthly Rent
- Security Deposit
- Unit Availability
- Pet Policy
- Minimum Lease Requirments
- Smoking Policy
- Application Fees
- Credit and Background Check Requirements
Remember when writing your ads it is important to make sure your copy complies with fair housing act advertising guidelines.
Find Contractors Using BidSource
Property managers can use BidSource to have the Property Manager Insider team locate a qualified commercial contractor for their next project or service call. Just fill out the form with your project details and a member of our team will be in touch.