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Craigslist Marketing
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Study Your Competition With Craigslist
It's common knowledge that there is constant and direct
competition between businesses that offer similar goods and
services. It doesn't matter if the marketing and selling
of said goods and services happens offline or online. The
people who become really successful in business know they have
to constantly study, and learn from, their competition.
This article looks at why it's essential to study your
competition to achieve success in business. It will also
show ways that Craigslist can make this process easier for those
marketing online.
Why Study Your Competition?
The study of your competition is among the most vital aspects to
any businesses success. Regardless of whether you market
goods or services, it's important to be aware of what is
currently available in the marketplace. It is important
because it ensures that what you whatever you are offering is
comparable to what your competitors offer. After all, a
customer probably won't buy (or keep buying) whatever you are
offering if your competitors are able to beat you on quality or
price.
Let's use a new yard care business for an example to show why it
is worthwhile to study your competition. Now imagine that this
yard care company, within a specific geographical area, starts
to offer lawn trimming for a price of $45 for the average size
yard plus an added fee of $15 for lawn edging. Perhaps
there's a couple of other established yard care businesses in a
local area that offer lawn trimming and edging for a combined
fee of $40. In this situation, it's likely that the first
yard care business in this example will struggle. Any
business owner does not constantly evaluate their competition
may not understand why their business is not thriving.
However, some time spent in the study of the competition would
make it plain that business may be suffering because the
competition offers higher quality, lower prices or better
service.
The example above illustrates how new businesses can suffer if
they fail to evaluate their competition prior to opening the
business. However an established business may also suffer
if they choose not to evaluate their competition regularly.
Again, the established business could unknowingly be offering
inferior goods and services, or charging too much. In this case
it's not very likely that they will stay financially viable.
Studying The Competition With Craigslist
Craigslist can be used in different ways by people looking to
market their goods and services using the internet. On
thing that makes Craigslist a popular marketing option is that
the vast majority of ads can be posted for free. Plus, it
is possible to efficiently reach large audience because
Craigslist receives billions of page views on a monthly basis.
Even though it is natural for any business owner to take
advantage of the advertising value at Craigslist, it is
necessary to understand that your competitors are likely to be
aware of that same value.
At the same time this increases competition it also means you
can research your competition more easily. The simplest form of
research on Craigslist is to search for terms relevant to what
you offer and look at those results. In this way you're
likely to find any other business that offers comparable goods
and services.
After becoming aware of who your competition is, you will be
able to take the time to evaluate their ads. Key information
that can be collected from competitors' ads include: type and
quality of what they offer, how much money they charge for them,
and what keywords they use in promoting their goods and
services. If possible, you may want to hire an SEO (search
engine optimization) consultant to get everything you can from
your keyword.
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