Promote your marketplace

Every marketplace has the same first problem: buyers come for listings, and sellers come for buyers. Nobody wants to be first. The good news is that you can solve it one side at a time, starting small and local, and most of it costs nothing but your time.

Start with listings, not visitors

A visitor who lands on an empty marketplace doesn’t come back. Before you promote anything, make sure there’s something to see.

• Post the first listings yourself, or with friends and early partners. Real, good-quality listings with photos.
• Import what you already have. If you have a list of products, properties, jobs or members in a spreadsheet, import it.
• Go to the sellers. Contact the people who already sell what your site is about — on Facebook groups, in local newspapers, in shop windows — and offer to post their listings for free. Many marketplaces were built this way, one seller at a time.

Aim for at least a few dozen live listings in your main categories before you push for buyers. Sites with more listings get far more visitors coming back.

Pick a niche and a place

“Everything, everywhere” is the hardest marketplace to grow. “Used tractors in Ohio” or “rooms for students in Leeds” is much easier: you know where your users are, what they search for, and who to talk to. You can always add categories and places later.

Free ways to get the word out

Be where your users already are

Find the Facebook groups, subreddits, forums, WhatsApp and Telegram groups, and local noticeboards where your audience buys and sells today. Be a useful member first: answer questions, give advice. Mention your site where it genuinely helps, not in every post. Many groups have rules about promotion; read them.

Local media

Local newspapers, radio stations, community magazines and news sites are always looking for local stories. “Local resident launches free marketplace for farm equipment” is one. Write a short press release, send it to the editors, and offer an interview. Check your own network too: a friend who works in local media can open doors.

Partners

Clubs, associations, schools, shops and businesses connected to your niche can recommend your site to their members. Offer them something in return: a free featured listing, a banner, or a page about them. Links from their websites also help your SEO.

Offline

Flyers and posters in the places your users go (a farm supply store, a university noticeboard) still work, especially for local marketplaces. Put your web address on them in large letters.

Your own content

Write blog posts that answer the questions your users search for: buying guides, price guides, checklists. They bring people in from Google and give you something to share. See Blog.

Yclas features that help

Feature	How it helps	Where
Sharing buttons on listings	Sellers share their own listings with their friends, which brings you new visitors for free.	Listings › Settings › Listing details › Show Sharing Buttons
Share image	The picture shown when someone shares your home page on social media.	Design › Theme Options — see Logo, favicon and sharing image
Auto-posting	New listings are posted to your X (Twitter) account automatically.	Auto-post listings to social media
RSS feeds	Feed new listings into social media tools, channels or partner sites.	RSS feeds
Email digest	Members get the newest listings by email and come back to see them.	Email digest
Newsletters	Announce news, events and offers to members.	Newsletters
Saved-search alerts	Visitors get an email when a listing that matches what they want is posted.	Notifications and alerts
Add to home screen	Members can install your site on their phone like an app.	Add to home screen
Free featured listings	Give early sellers a free featured listing with a coupon as a thank-you.	Coupons

Make sure it works on phones

Most visitors to a marketplace use a phone, and most sellers post from one, photos and all. Every current Yclas theme adapts to any screen size, so there is nothing to switch on. Do check your own site on your phone after changing the design, custom CSS or widgets, and post a test listing from your phone before you launch.

Measure what works

Add Google Analytics before you start promoting, and use a different link for each channel (for example ?utm_source=facebook-group) so you can see which ones bring visitors who post and reply. Then do more of what works and drop the rest.

Related guides

• Launch checklist — be ready before you promote.
• SEO for your marketplace — get found on Google.
• Ways to make money — once the traffic comes.