TIPS for Marketing for Wholesale Deals on Craigslist???

Question

Hey BP community,I have been sent out two rounds of yellow letters with a measly response rate and wondering about diversifying my marketing efforts to other free online resources like Craigslist and backpages. Does anybody have any tips of which categories to post in, subject titles for adds, posting body content, pictures, frequency, etc???Also, any Do's and Don'ts especially to not get flagged or worse based on the wrong verbiage, posting frequencies tactics?Lastly, good resources to automate this process so I can free up an hour a day for more productive, profitable activities.All input is much appreciated!Cheers,Billy BellPhoenix, Tempe, Scottsdale, Arizona, Wholesale, Marketing.

Jerry Dengmanivanh · Answer

@Billy BellI am in Central Illinois and have been advertising on Craigslist for over a year consistently. I started out with mostly flashy "big business" looking ads (as an ex graphic designer that is sufficient in Photoshop it was easy). I did get responses (which eventually led me to my first deal), but not at a rate I would've hoped for (considering I was posting 3-4 adds daily and manually might I add). So just this past month I decided to try something different. I changed my whole advertising scheme to something more personal and trusting. I simply put 1 picture of myself in the images and titled my post "My name is Jerry -- I Buy Houses". I went on to put some facts of my business and how I'd like to help owners with the Real Estate needs.And WOW has things changed! I have a response rate at least 10 times better than my flashy ads. I now only have that 1 ad posting once a day 6-7 days a week (tip: create the same ad twice so you can just simply login and "renew" each post everyday with out making new ones since Craigslist allows you to renew an add every other day). I do post them in many categories, seems spam-ish, but I try not not to flood each category. That's why I only post once a day. They are in pretty much any category related to housing; services; and financial.I was the first (to my knowledge) to do this in my area, so if someone has done this in yours already, not sure how well it would do then. But I do believe that being honest, genuine, and personal will get you better responses than the flashy big business ads and hiding behind a web add or google voice number. Just my two cents.Hope this helps! And best of luck to you in your REI journey!

Rick H. · Answer

I'm referring to people providing prospects a plethora of plausibilities. (Say that fast three times). @Neil G. My Great Grandfather own Signal Hill in the late 1800's but could not afford to keep property taxes current and ultimately lost it all during depression era. The story keeps me grounded.

Rick H. · Answer

An absentee owner does not necessary have any trigger that motivates their interest in selling unless you find, agitate the problem and exploit the opportunity.Too many would-be marketers try to tell all in their initial contact direct response nail piece. I think it better to have a series of touches over time and focus on a single issue. Then, the objective of the mail piece is to contact you in a particular manner, i.e. Call, etc.If you want To learn what the masters do, watch TV gadget sales people and pay special note of their proposition and how they direct you to reach them.

Gerardo Dominguez · Answer

@Billy Bell the website that @Joshua Swanger mentioned is shown below. Along with the page from craigslist that explains how to use advanced searches. The IFTT recipes only allow you to use one search at a time. So you either need to create a separate recipe for each keyword you want to look for, or create an "advanced" search that encompasses multiple keywords. It definitely takes some tweaking so keep playing around with it until you get the results you'd like. Otherwise, look around youtube for a video from some wholesaler that explains the process and sells his searches for ~$100. I'm cheap so I'd rather figure out how to do it for free :)Good luck!https://ifttt.com/craigslist/recipeshttp://www.craigslist.org/about/help/search

Joshua Swanger · Answer

I wouldn't stop mailing letters or postcards to those same people. However there is a program I've heard of on the podcast called if this then that you might want to look into for automating your craigslist searches.

Billy Bell · Answer

Hey Nick,I couldn't agree more. There are few things i hate more on the internet than obnoxious craiglist scammers. It's gotta hurt more than it helps! I was thinking one post a day, posted mid-late morning.Thank you,Billy Bell

Billy Bell · Answer

Steve,Thank you for your input, i sent you a colleague request and a message to learn more.Cheers,Billy Bell

Billy Bell · Answer

Hey Rick,Great points and tips!! I am interested in what you meant by too many marketers try to "tell all" in their initial letter? I inderstand the value of the tease effect you're using here, but what do you suggest should be included in the initial letter, and the subsequent follow up letters/postcards, to execute this strategy effectively? I will definitely check out the gadget salesmen from tv to learn some of the relative skills! Great tip!Thank you,Billy Bell

Billy Bell · Answer

Awesome! I will check that out thank you! I have had a single ad up with all the usual and recommended info since I posted this back in august and havnt had a single call. But I will try the clautopilot to see if that makes the difference.

Michael Biggs · Answer

I have 40-50 ads loaded up in CL AutoPilot (http://clautopilot.net) at any given time. You need to create 10 separate accounts for that kind of volume but there's instructions how to do that. Phenomenal leads.