Back in the good old days you simply places an ad in the classified section of your local news paper, and waited for the phone to ring. If you had something special you might have advertised it nationally. Today with the advent of the internet. Advertising options have never been greater. Below we list a comprehensive guide to car marketing and how to get the biggest bang for your buck.
Facebook is currently #1
This is currently the fastest and most efficient way to sell cars in your local area. It beats classified websites, paper ads and all other forms of social media.
If you are simply flipping cars the you just need to join your local car selling or free classified groups. Most areas have several and I advise joining as many as possible.
You then simply write an advert and post it to one of the groups, facebook will automatically ask you if you want to post to the other groups you are a member of. You select the relevant ones and it automatically posts to the chosen groups. The real beauty of this is Facebook has made managing, posting and responding to your adverts super simple and efficient.
You can then manage all the enquires via Facebook messenger. Facebook allows you to manage your adverts across multiple groups all in one place. Without the need to juggle phone calls or email enquires form multiple websites. Once it’s sold you just mark it as so and it’s removed from the listing, anyone who has enquired receives a notification telling them its now a sold item.
I have had huge success with this form of marketing. It allows you to put your car right in front of potential buyers, super fast and it’s easy to manage.
But the best part is its absolutely free!!
Take look at our guide to selling cars on Facebook – How to sell cars on facebook (with tips).
Online classified adverts
Before Facebook advertising, classified ads have long been the marketing model of choice when flipping a car. You simply photograph a the car, write the copy and wait for the calls to flood in.
But since the overwhelming popularity of social media this form of advertising is becoming less popular with car flippers, and is often viewed as outdated. Its defiantly less effective in my experience and more time consuming and expensive.
You may find free advertising options in your local area and it isn’t a bad thing to try. But when it comes to paying for an online classified ads or using Facebook for free, Facebook is always the best option. These sites just don’t have the level of traffic that Facebook has.
Other options are national or specialist websites such as Autotrader, Pistonheads or cars and classics. But unless you have a specialist car or have been unable to sell your car locally. These sites are often very expensive and again not as efficient as Facebook for flipping cars. So we would advise you to avoid this style of marketing.
Local newspaper classifieds
When I first started selling cars this was basically the only option. You simply wrote some copy about the car including the normal things like colour, mileage, history, number of doors etc…
The paper would normally require the copy a week or a few days in advance. You had a limited number or words and they would charge a fortune if you wanted a double size ad, bold txt or a photo! Colour was normally the preserve or the rich or franchised garages. You then had to decide how long the ad would run for.
It was a time consuming process and the paper often got the copy wrong even if they provided a proof. You then had to wait for the print day and hope you got a call. You couldn’t alter the ad or cancel it so if you wanted to change the price or stop getting calls because it had sold, you couldn’t.
You can still run this type of advert and it still sells cars. However with all the disadvantages is it really worth the hassle compared to the other options? Well in some cases yes. But mostly if you are flipping a car aimed at older people who just aren’t looking for cars online. Apart from that its just not worth the effort compared to the ease of the online selling options.
Other options
You can also try work or postoffice notice boards or even a flyer in the windows of the car. All the old ways of selling cars still work. It’s just that they often get less attention and cost more than modern methods.
Conclusion
With more advertising options then ever it has never been easier to get a car in front of a potential buyer. But you also need to understand your local market, with websites like Craigslist working better in city locations than they do in rural ones. So it’s important that you understand where the attention is in your local area and advertise accordingly. Always remember the best place to advertise is where the most attention is, if you don’t have luck in one medium then try another.
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