When first impressions matter: How to create impactful advertisements to sell your car directly to a buyer?

With technology becoming ubiquitous in everyday life, people no longer head to a used car dealer to shop for a car. Instead, they go to portals like Carousell to search for the car make and model that they are looking for. How then should you get people to click on your listing and pick up their phones to call or sms you?

Car owners should always take good care of their vehicles as far as possible. Doing so will be beneficial to you if you intend to sell it in the future. To do so, you should ensure that you abide by the servicing and maintenance schedule. This ensures that any potential problems can be identified and fixed before it gets worse.

For more tips on how to improve your car’s valuation, read: 6 tips to improve your car valuation

Just like how property agents stage homes to present a beautiful photograph, car owners, can too, stage their cars to have an attractive photograph. Used car listings usually first show people a thumbnail of the vehicle. As such, it is extremely important to take a good photograph that will attract potential buyers to even click on your listing.

Firstly, car owners will need to spring-clean the exterior and interior of their cars. Wash and wax your car to bring back its shine! For the interior, rid your car of all the interior décor, pillows, hanging ornaments, et cetera. Not everyone has the same taste and preference as you do and it would be better to photograph a clean, neat, and tidy picture of the car.

Then, after you’ve completed all the cleaning works, drive your car to an open space or the rooftop of your HDB carpark in the day for the best lighting. These are some of the photographs that you should take of the car.

Photograph the front of your car.

Rather than taking a full frontal shot, you could also consider photographing your car at a 45-degree angle. It is also important to do so as you will not be able to post unlimited number of photographs. Should you deem other aspects of the car as more important, a 45-degree angle that can capture both the front and side of the car will help you to cut down the number of photographs.

Photograph the side profile of your car…

…and the back of your car. Again, it is better to photograph it at a 45-degree angle.

If your car has special features such as neat-looking headlamps, zoom in to take a photograph of them.

For the interior, take a photo of the back passenger seats. Potential buyers would want to assess the condition of the seats. This is where the cleaning is important. Vacuum your seats if you must!

A photograph of the dashboard would be good as well! Car owners spend most of their time at the wheel and they will surely want to know the condition of the driver’s seat.

Then, include one photo of your car boot. Having a spacious boot could be one of the criteria for some car buyers. All clutter has to be cleared in order to show how spacious your boot is.

You may also want to include a picture of the engine to show that it is neat, without any leaks, and in good condition!

While photograph speaks a thousand words, having a good advertisement copy is important as well. These are some phrases to use when listing your used car. Do pick only those that are applicable to your ride!

- 100% accident free

- x number of owners

- Full servicing by xxx

- xxx PARF value

- In original paint condition

- Low mileage at xxxx km annually

- Still under warranty by agent

- Lowest depreciation in the market

- Call for test drive now!

- Full servicing records available

With these three tips, you will be able to list your car on portals like Carousell easily and sell your car directly to a buyer. If you still wish to save your time from all these hassle of photographing and listing your car, consider using SwiftQuote for the fastest and most convenient way to sell your car!

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