I can’t remember exactly when I first mentioned the possibility of selling my 1985 Saab 900 T16 Aero, but I think it was as far back as 3 or 4 months ago.
Yesterday I finally bit the bullet and placed an ad on our big car selling internet service here in Australia – carsales.com.au
Click here to view the ad.
I placed it around 6.30pm and the notice I got at that time was that it would be reviewed and would take up to 24 hours or so to appear online.
At 8.30pm – just 2 hours later – I got my first call. The guy is a Tasmanian and will hopefully come around and look at it tomorrow.
Today I got an email from a guy who’s heading overseas next week but if the car’s still around in 10 days time, he says he’ll come down from Melbourne and pick it up.
I don’t know if either of these leads will result in a sale, but it’s encouraging. Whilst it’s obviously the car and the details I provided that’s prompted enough interest for them to make contact, I’m pretty sure the reason they clicked on the ad in the first place was this photo:
You can spend all the time in the world writing a great, descriptive ad, but to get people to read that ad, you need a hook.
On web-based car sales sites, I think that hook is the photo (or photos) you associate with the ad. If someone’s looking for a Saab 900 and they see that photo, how likely is it that they’re going to pass that photo without clicking?
If you’ve been hanging around here long enough, you know that I love good car photography. I’m not a great photographer, but that’s one of the photos that I’m proudest of and I really think it’s going to help generate interest in the advertisement.
If you’ve been hanging around here long enough, then you’ll also know that I’ve bought a few cars in the last few years. I can’t believe how poor some of the photos on car ads are. All it takes is a half-hour of your time and a half-decent location to improve your photos and your chances ten-fold.
So that’s my car-selling tip of the day. I absolutely hate selling cars, by the way. At least photographing them is an enjoyable part of the experience.
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Anyone else out there selling a car at the moment?
Got any tips to share?
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