|
What it'll take is a hyperlocal focus. Taking on CL head-on for national listings is daunting and inefficient. It would be much better if PL would go after a specific, narrowly-defined area, for example Brooklyn. Be the very best and definitive source on Brooklyn apartment. Contact landlords listing on Craigslist and offer them the chance to cross-list for free. Promise them higher quality leads. Add a showing/scheduling tool so prospective tenants can make viewing appointments online. Have a message center where clients can ask questions (which are then just emailed directly to the landlord.) Make it were the landlord doesn't have to do anything at all. You do the postings yourself. Do it for every quality Brooklyn apartment, continue doing it, day in, day out. Once you have a sizable number of listings flyer the hell out of Brooklyn and Union Square (or your local equivalent.) Post flyers for 3 hours every day in every coffeeshop, bar, bike shop, barber, on every light pole you can. If you don't have time, hire some kids to do it for you. Once you are THE place for Brooklyn, add some listings for the East Village. Rinse and repeat. Research how ZocDoc did what they did. Just going all scattershot isn't going to do anything. What PL needs is a high listing density for a particular area rather than just a few apartments here and there. No one wants to visit an empty nightclub, so rather than opening a stadium-sized place, open a small basement place and make it the hottest place around, using that success to grow. Also, if you can show great metrics in a Brooklyn-type place, you'll have some solid investor interest that can drive even more growth. Whatever the city -- hypertargeting is the edge that could push you past craigslist. After all, that's exactly how craigslist got started in the first place. Use their strategy to beat them. You start getting some traction in a particular area, then you can start charging for preferred listings or some other value-added thing. I'm far from an expert, but if you want to beat CL, that's how you do it. |