Wright to Holics

Craigslist is not always the best advertising option but there are certain situations in which a business cannot afford not to advertise on Craigslist. For the purposes of this article we will examine two common scenarios where a business owner should definitely consider advertising on Craigslist because failure to do so can be detrimental to his business. These examples include small startup companies without a large advertising budget and existing companies whose direct competitors are advertising extensively on Craigslist.

Small Startup Companies Benefit from Advertising on Craigslist

Small startup companies often have a great deal of work ahead of them to begin competing with existing companies who are already thriving. These companies may already have established client bases and may have substantial funding budges for the purpose of obtaining new customers. Customer loyalty can be difficult to break and new companies either have to offer significantly better quality products or services, comparable products or services at reduced prices or a slick marketing campaign with consumer appeal.

However, smaller companies rarely have the advertising budget necessary to orchestrate an elaborate advertising campaign. This is when Craigslist becomes a necessity. Smaller companies can focus their energy on creating outstanding advertising copy without spending exorbitant amounts of money to run these advertisements in other forms of media such as newspapers, magazines, television or radio.

It is important to not that while free advertising is appealing, the advertising should be just as sophisticated as it would in markets where the business owners would be required to pay a fee to run the advertisement. This will help the business to maintain a professional image and will entice potential customer to try their products or services.

Don’t Let the Competition Corner the Market

Another scenario where a business cannot afford not to advertise on Craigslist is when direct competitors are making use of the advertising opportunities on Craigslist. This is important because businesses who do not advertise in the same locations as their competitors are essentially conceding potential customers who peruse those locations to the competitors.

Imagine you own a dog walking business in Portland, Oregon. If there are a large number of members of that community using the local Craigslist website to find dog walkers, you will likely miss out on these business opportunities because these individuals will likely select one of the individuals advertising on Craigslist for their dog walking needs. If you were to place a well written advertisement in an appropriate section of Craigslist you may find you are able to gain a market share of the available business.

There is, however, one caveat to placing advertisements wherever your competitors are advertising. This practice is not considered worthwhile when the market is already saturated with competition. Consider the above example of a dog walker in Portland. If there are a small number of competitors competing for business on Craigslist it is worthwhile to place your own advertisement here. However, if literally hundreds of dog walkers are flooding the website with their advertisement it is not worthwhile to post an advertisement because your advertisement will likely be lost in the shuffle. It is much more worthwhile to advertise in other locations. Checking Craigslist periodically may still be a good idea because those advertising on Craigslist are likely to not see great gain from this advertising and may resort to other options. When you notice a decline in competitor advertisements, it is a great opportunity to add your advertisement.
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As the marketplace evolves so do marketing strategies and advertising methods. Newer and better ways are devised to advertise or promote products and services to a consumer base whose expectations are getting harder and harder to meet and whose attention spans are getting shorter by the minute. Advertisers are met with these challenges as well as the added problem of people’s negative attitude towards advertising. Having been inundated by ads for so long and all the time almost anywhere people have grown to shun ads and are often feel irritated by their presence. Because of this traditional advertising methods are growing more and more ineffective and often do not get the desired results. People have grown quite adept in ignoring advertisements that all kinds of ad campaigns in whatever medium they are presented – be it billboards, magazines, TV, and even the Internet – are fast becoming a waste of money due to the minimal positive response they draw in comparison to the huge amount of money an ad campaign entails. Businesses are therefore growing wary of ad campaigns and realize that there is a need to find newer and more effective advertising methods. Advertisers are seeking answers to answer the problem in advertising and are finding more creative and technologically advanced ways to help their clients promote their product to their target audience.

Some people forecast the demise of the advertising industry in the future. This, however, is not going to happen. Advertising is necessary for businesses to thrive and will continue to be an important marketing tool. According to a paper on Thoughts about the Future of Advertising, “the question is not will advertising continue to be an important tool of business communication but simply, what forms will advertising take in the future?”

The future actually holds much promise for the advertising industry. With the new advancements in technology there are more hi-tech ways to advertise. The limitations when it comes to advertising in the future will not be due to limitations in technology but only come from limited creativity or even budget. But for advertisers who are inventive and creative, the future is bright indeed.

Smart Ads

The Future of Advertising is already here. According to David Freedman the future of advertising lies in smart ads. Smart ads are ads that target specific people, promoting products to them that they are already looking for or are interested in. Because smart ads allow advertisers to target specific people instead of having to show the ads to an entire mass-market, smart ads makes for cheaper advertising. Smart ad campaigns can be launched for a fraction of the price of advertising campaigns using traditional advertising.

Smart ads have actually already arrived. For people who think that smart ads are still a thing of the future the first few smart ads have actually been around for a few years. The Internet has revolutionized advertising and brought to us the first kind of smart ads, which started as simply targeted ads. A good example of this is the Google AdSense. Google AdSense uses the concept of contextual advertising. AdSense show ads depending on the content of the web page the Internet user is currently browsing. The textual content of the web page is analyzed by Google and depending on the keywords found in the content, AdSense will show ads related to those keywords. The concept is that people are interested in what they are reading about and is likely to be interested in buying products or services related to the topic.

Cool Companies

There are some advertisers who have brought smart ads to the next level by not only changing the medium but also the presentation of the as making for real entertaining and innovative advertising. Since the ads are still targeted the new smart ads make for effective advertising too. Some of companies, cited in an article called The Future of Advertising is Here, are paving the way for smart ads. The companies are:

• Claria – Claria offers behavioral targeting services which track the online habits of Web surfers and hits them with relevant advertising. Although the Internet is still the media of choice behavioral targeted ads is a big step forward towards the refinement of targeted ads.

• Enpocket – Sends ad messages, coupons, and branded video files to mobile phones—in some cases tracking the phone’s location. Although mobile phone advertising is the next big thing people are getting wary of it due to the high probability of text spasm emerging.

• Pulse – Online tools turn a photo of any person or animal into a lip-synched talking head for viral ad campaigns. Ads of this type ought to be fun and will surely be a success as a viral ad campaign because people are sure to pass it on.

• Zebra Imaging – Zebra imaging brings us closer to the future by producing large promotional holograms that make images of objects or people stand out in 3-D—no glasses needed.

• Experian – Although it may seem boring from the consumers’ point of view, what Experian does is vital for market research. Experian collates consumer data to predict which people are likely to be in the market for particular products.

• Reactrix – Reactrix like Zebra is uses new technologies that will surely impress customers and get people’s attention. Reactrix has developed a motion-sensitive projector that turns any surface into a crowd-drawing, brandable interactive display.

• Massive – Inserts ads via an online connection into video games while they’re being played. Coming is technology that will adapt the ads to individual players. Massive’s technology will help advertisers with their ad placements.

Future Smart Ads

In the future smart ads will surely be everywhere. Some of the foreseen “prime real estate” to show smart ads will be:

• The elevator – For lack of something to o in elevators, people will surely watch entertaining ads.

• Shopping carts/cards – More than a concept already. Shopping carts and swipe cards combos already exist wherein a swipe of the card will produce a personalized shopping list for the customer. The cart also gives out coupons for competing brands of products chosen by the customer.

• Taxis

• Digital billboards – Digital billboards already exist but billboards of the future will run smart as depending on the expected kind of traffic passing by during specific times of the day.

• Cell phones – Cell phones are considered to be the ultimate smart ad device enabling advertisers to target specific individuals anywhere at anytime of the day.