Would you like to put yourself in the shoes of a prospect receiving lots of marketing messages and deciding which ones to respond to? Try this: place an ad in the “free” stuff of craigslist.org.
I recently gave away a big kids’ playhouse and two perfectly good laser toner cartridges. Got over 40 responses in the playhouse (in about an hour), several each for the other item. So how did I decide who was the lucky recipient?
Some of the respondents disqualified themselves immediately with obviously automated responses that sounded like they might have been generated from some mailbot within the Russian mafia. “I want you item for my purposes. Please call my cell now 415-555-1212.” I don’t think so.
But there were lots of legitimate respondents who didn’t rise above the pack. I got a dozen or more “My kids/grandkids would love your playhouse!” so how to choose? Another issue was that I needed to know that getting rid of the item was going to be quick and easy for me. Some people said they had a van or a truck (mandatory and stated in the ad) to pick up the big playhouse; those who didn’t were automatically kicked to the curb.
The winners were a/a single mom who wanted the playhouse for her daughter who was just coming out of the hospital, and had a friend (a fireman!) who would come over right away with his truck; and b/another single mom who wanted the laser cartridge because her printer was streaking and making her kids’ homework look bad.
See the chosen motivations at work here? First they echoed the business proposition, then showed how they could uniquely meet my need to place my item in a good home. As writers, we need to be just as good at presenting our own products and services.
Would you mind sharing your experience, if any, on “non-free” classified ads on craigslist? Have you sold anything successfully?
Oh wait. Yes, I have. I’m sorry, but I just don’t have it in me right now to type it all out again. Besides, it was just ramblings anyway. You didn’t want to hear me go on and on about this, right?
When I had a crib to give away, the best response I got was from a San Mateo County social worker who wanted it for a client/family with a child coming out of the intensive care nursery. Played right to all my buttons, plus she had a van to come and pick it up the next day.
I did not realize that I had not responded to Rolf… sorry if you are still waiting. My experience with selling things on Craigslist is interesting: there will be one or two people who will respond, and one of them will be very serious and end up buying the item. This is my experience with at least half a dozen ads/sales. Very interesting.
And fitness, no, that’s ok. You don’t need to tell us again.
call me @ 347-829-4199 or 347-871-1893 I am moving need to get rid of furniture Brooklyn NY area.
Tad, hope you got rid of your stuff by now. But you didn’t read the post very carefully. Motivators need to be on the side of the get-ridder-of as well as the prospective acquirer.
When you say you want to “get rid of” it sounds like you don’t value your stuff very much and it’s not in good shape. Instead, you should romance it, “queen bed in near-mint condition, free to good home”.