Give em What They Want

There are a ton of sites and blogs out there that offer advice to the consumer on how to shop for and buy a car online.  You should be reading these.  If your customers are following the "commonly heralded advice" then you should know what that advice is being heralded (word of the day calendar, thank you).

Here's some of the more popular advice:  make a list of what you want, and what you need.

Who is it for, how is it being used?
1.  Do I want a new, used or certified pre-owned vehicle?
2.  Do I want a car, an SUV or a truck?
3.  Is this car going to be just for me or for the entire family?
4.  Do I have a favorite vehicle manufacturer? 
5.  How important is fuel economy? 
6.  Do I want a hybrid? 
7.  How important is the vehicle’s current mileage?
8.  What am I willing to sacrifice?
9.  Do I have any color preferences?
10. What’s my budget? 
11. Do I need a loan and if so, what can I afford per month? 
12. Am I a cash buyer?
13. Do I have money for a down payment?

Once you have the list narrowed down, it's easier to filter your searches to give you more targeted results to pick from.

This is where you come in as a dealership.  You can build your listings to hit the key components on customers lists.  If you know that certain variables are important to buyers, color, hybrid, payment, mileage, family then you can highlight those in your subtitles and descriptions.

On eBay Motors the sub-title is included in what's read by the search engine.  So if you wanted to highlight a low mileage family car with estimated monthly payments you could do that easily:

2007 Dodge Caravan, Silver w/grey, DVD, clean family van, low miles $198 mo.

If a customer searches on body style, color, family, DVD, mileage or payment - your listing will pop to the top!  If you just left the standard line 2007 Dodge Caravan, you'd miss out on a whole lot of serious buyers - the ones that took the time to make a list.

So be like your customers, do the research before you post your listings - a little creativity will go a long way toward selling your cars.