Restaurant Marketing Tips -
Advertise Online for Free! Part 2
by Rudy Vener
The Internet is full of sites where you can advertise for free. In fact, the problem facing many businesses is not where to advertise, but where NOT to advertise. There are so many possibilities that the sheer number of advertising sites can be overwhelming.
This overabundance of possibilities illustrates both the Internet's greatest strength and its greatest weakness. The strength of course is its sheer abundance of resources. Its failure is that by and large the vast majority of them are worthless. The reason is simple enough, copy cats. When an original web site becomes popular, a horde of look alike sites spring up like toadstools, trying to duplicate the original's success. They typically fail, but their death throes can be long and protracted, adding confusion and clutter to an already chaotic Internet. A good rule of thumb is to look at the original web sites before you consider one of their duplicators. The first site on the scene has the best chance of achieving success and popularity. One such original web site is Craig's List.
Craig's List is probably the most popular classified ad directory on the Internet. It has local sections for most major cities and virtually all regions of the United States. Tens if not Hundreds of thousands of people visit Craig's List every day. For this reason, it is one of the best places to post a classified ad.
You can and should use Craig's List to tell your local community what is happening at your restaurant.
For example, post the news of your restaurant's Grand Opening. I do this for all my clients who open a new shop.
Other happenings could include a Ladies Night, Singles' events, a Dine For Free promotion or the introduction of your restaurant's online ordering service.
Whatever your event, be sure you post it in the right category. Grand Openings could go in either the Community News or Community Events. A Ladies Night event might fit in one of the singles sections, and a Meet The Candidates pizza party you plan to host, will probably work in the local politics section. Give it a little thought and you will come up with dozens of great ideas.
So how do you actually post an ad on Craig's List?
Let's assume your new restaurant is going to have a grand opening in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Your first step is to visit http://www.craigslist.org and select N Carolina. From there select Charlotte.
Once you have navigated to your community, select your posting category. For a Grand Opening Events or Local News might work. Both are under the Community section. When in doubt, visit the category and check the ads there to see if yours would fit in.
Once you are certain you have the right category, click on Post while in that category.
In most cases, Craig's List will take you to a page where you select the type of post you wish to create, e.g. Local News and Views. When you click on that, you will be in a page where you can edit your posting, including title, specific location and description.
Your title has to do a lot of work. It must tell the reader who you are, what you do and what is so special about you that they should immediately read your ad.
Which of these titles would make you read further?
- Grand Opening of Joe's Pizza
- Come to Joe's Pizza's Grand Opening and award winning Pizza Tossing Exhibition
- Come to Joe's Pizza's Grand Opening and Enter to Win Free Pizza for a Year
In the description, give the details. All the details. But keep it short and to the point. Include your complete web address, this means the http://www.yourrestaurant.com format. This format is automatically converted into a link by the software that posts your ad. You will have an opportunity to test it before making the final confirmation and publishing it on Craig's List.
Craig's List will ask you for an email address which you may choose to include as a contact address, use anonymously or not include at all. In any case, it is the address that Craig's List itself needs in order to send you a link that lets you publish your classified ad, so be sure it is correct.
Once you have finished editing your posting, click on Continue. You will be shown your ad as it will appear on Craig's List. Check your web address, be sure you can click it to navigate to your own web site. If it doesn't work, check that you used the http:// characters before the remainder of your web address. You may make corrections by clicking Edit, otherwise, if you are done editing, click Continue.
You will be shown the terms of acceptance and asked to accept them. Once you click on Accept Terms, Craig's list will send you an email containing a link that lets you publish your classified ad on their site.
When this email shows up, open it, and click on the link provided. It will take you to a page that lets you publish, edit or delete your ad. Click on Publish and you are done.
You may want to save the email to revisit that page and delete the ad. Ads will expire after some fixed period, usually a week to 45 days depending on the size of the city.
At Pizza Galaxy, we typically post ads on Craig's List for our clients for their grand openings, new service announcements or other events.
This is just one of the many ways a restaurant can take advantage of free Internet advertising to reach the local customers in their community.
Remember though that Craig's List, like other free venues, should be treated with respect and consideration. You can demonstrate this by posting your ads only to categories where they would be appreciated and welcomed.
About the Author:
Rudy Vener is owner and founder of Pizza Galaxy. He has helped many independent pizzerias and restaurants reach new customers and increase their sales with Internet marketing and online ordering. If you would like to learn more about how he can help your restaurant, call (203) 230-9662, or visit his website at http://www.pizzagalaxy.com.
