Video Tutorial -
ASCII Subject Lines
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When looking to maximize traffic and leads with your Craigslist ads, there are three primary points to consider.

1. Make your subject line stand out.
2. Pick up keywords, cities, and other search terms.
3. Use strong call-to-action language.

Luckily, we can provide some tools, tips, and tricks to get the most out of your advertising.

1. Make subject lines that get noticed

Make sure your subject line stands out from the long list of Craigslist posts.  Many people simply place strings of unique characters like arrows (>), dashes (-), at symbols (@), or other keyboard keys to make their subject lines stand out.  You may wish to try this simple approach as well.

However, advanced users will place special ASCII characters in front of and/or behind their subject lines for a much higher level of visibility.  View the tutorial at the left for details on how to use ASCII characters to your advantage, then choose from the table of ASCII characters sets below.  

Note: Not all characters below have been tested for usability in Craigslist.

2. Add keywords, cities, and other search terms to your post

There are a lot of postings on Craigslist.  Often times, shoppers will perform a search with Craigslist's provided search functionality.  The most common searches are for related keywords and locations.  For this reason, it is prudent to add related keywords and a list of cities, counties, towns, townships, and boroughs to your Craigslist ad.

Keywords
For our program you'll want to make sure you include the following keywords somewhere in your post.  If you are just going to list them, we recommend listing them after your ad image or ad code.  If you are going to incorporate them into your message, we recommend placing them throughout the ad's introductory message appearing just before your ad image or ad code.

Critical keywords

• auto insurance
  
• car insurance
• home insurance
• homeowners

Less critical keywords

• savings
• save money

Locations
Most buyers on Craigslist are looking for local goods and services, so they often include their city or town in their search terms.  Here's a quick way to ensure that all of your location elements are included.

Create a master list of all cities, towns, counties, boroughs, etc. by copying and pasting information about your sales territory from Wikipedia.  View the video tutorial for details.

3. Use strong call-to-action sales copy for your posts

This is the golden rule of advertising.  Strong call-to-action sales copy includes powerful action-related phrases like the following:

• Get it now
• Try it today
• Do it fast
  
• Take 1 minute now

Good call-to-action language should do the following:

1. Be concise
2. Tell the prospect what to do next
   
3. Motivate them to take action

Your subject line, your sales message, and your ad should all include a call-to-action to be most effective.  You will notice all of the ads in our free advertising gallery include a call-to-action.

You are now ready to place advanced insurance ads on Craigslist and get even higher results.

For even more tools, tips, and tricks for advanced advertising, be sure to join our newsletter by clicking the RSS feed on our blog page.