Monday, June 11, 2007

Tips For Writing A Successful Classified Ad

Write A Good Title
Your title is the most important part of your ad and a good title can make the difference between no connections and a flood of them. Your title should as descriptive and complete as possible. If you are selling a Mustang, your title should be “1995 Red Ford Mustang” rather than ‘Great Old Mustang”. However, don’t be too descriptive. Don’t say in 20 words what you can say in 5. There is a fine line between too general i.e. “Great Buy” and too descriptive i.e. “1995 Turbo Cherry Red with Brown Leather Ford Mustang GT”. Maximize the effectiveness of your classified ad with a clear, concise title.

Write A Good Description
A good description is paramount for a successful classified ad. Remember to put yourself in the shoes of your buyers. Tell them everything they would want to know about your item, house or vehicle without requiring them to connect. This will help them make up their minds - and you will be connected with well qualified and interested buyers. Short ads with no information rarely perform while successful ads are the ones with lots of information and great photos. The ad should answer all of the buyers questions without them having to ask. This approach will insure that when you get connected with the buyer - they are ready to buy.

Make Sure It Is Clear
The most successful classified ads are the ones with proper spelling and text formatting (i.e. NO ALL CAPS), good punctuation, a clearly stated price, great title and description and lots of high quality photos. Don’t forget to put relevant information about shipping policies and costs and your return policy. The more information the buyer has before the connection - the less time you will waste with the ‘lookieloos’.

Check It Out
Once you have created your classified ads, be sure to get feedback from your friends and family. Use our ‘Tell-A-Friend’ tool to send your ad to everyone you know so they can give you feedback on the information in the ad. And you never know, one of them might be interested or know someone who is!

Good luck and good selling!