I know people feel really passionate about Craigslist. I’ve met Leasing Professionals who would seriously DATE Craigslist if it were a person. Most everyone I know is completely enamored of it. And quite honestly, I’m getting a little tired of it. (Well, in the interest of full disclosure I never get tired of the Best of Craigslist or the Missed Connections. Those are always way entertaining)  Why, you ask, am I growing weary of hearing about Craigslist? I’ll tell you.

Because in the same breath, everyone always says the SAME THING:

ohmygodwelovecraigslistitgetsussomanyleasesanditsfree!!!

Hey, guess what? It’s far from free. And before you argue with me, hear me out, okay?

1. Labor: Someone’s got to put in those Craigslist ads. It takes time. And if you’re ‘refreshing’ and changing things up to get around the TOS (terms of service)you’re putting up those ads pretty regularly. You’re also going online to check them to see where you are on the pages. I know you want to be as high as possible. So tell me the truth…you go on and look when you aren’t even adding an ad. You’re also checking out the competition. I’ll let that time slide.

2. Copywriting, photography, getting your floor plans digitized and more. Hmmm…that takes time, too. And if you don’t have the right photos and you need more taken, that take time and it will definitely take money if you hire a photographer. And digitizing those floor plans? You probably didn’t do that in-house.

3. Using VFlyer, Postlets or an advertising agency to post your ads.Last time I looked, all of those cost money. And with VFlyer and Postlets, you still have to upload your materials, so see #1 above. And having an ad agency do it for you? Great! Their Craigslist ads are beautiful, but those most certainly weren’t created for nothing. Cha-ching!

4. Last but not least: Opportunity cost. Please, please track your prospect calls, emails and visits accurately. Make sure you really KNOW what is working for you. Why do I say this so emphatically you ask? Read on…

In a terrific presentation at last year’s Apartment Internet Marketing Conference, Todd Katler of Level One presented on ‘Lead Accuracy’. Now Todd’s stats were dead on; they were take from recorded Level One Multifamily Call Center calls and had been accurately tracked via the toll free numbers provided for each ad. And even with all of this amazing reporting, sites still recorded the originating ad source incorrectly 67.4% of the time. And guess which source was the most ‘over reported’? You guessed it: Craigslist, receiving credit for almost 41% more leads than it generated to the site.

I’m not telling you to stop using Craigslist. But I am telling you to make sure you have a handle on the cost of doing business. Carefully evaluate your cost per lease and cost per lead. Be careful of scammers; Craigslist is full of them and several properties have passed along stories to me about them. Smart marketers know what their costs truly are; please examine your costs and remember, Craigslist is not free.  

Didn’t your parents ever tell you if it seems to good to be true, it probably isn’t? Well, they were right. And they didn’t even know about Craigslist.

So feel free to tell me your experiences with Craigslist. And if you’ve tracked your costs, wow, please share them! I’d love to see them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Basically Personal But with Some Good Content, Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.