RV Listings Online.com

It’s no secret that the housing, high gas, and other current economic factors have had an impact on the RV industry.  Sales are generally down, and it’s often taking longer to sell RV’s.

For RV Dealers, lower revenues means lower advertising dollars available, which typically led to a cut-back in newspaper expenditures.  This cut-back, in turn, could also result in less sales, thus futher perpetuating the downcycle.

Fortunately today, RV dealers have alternatives to the traditional (and expensive) newspaper and television advertising, though which they can reach as many or more interested buyers for a much lower cost.

Internet Marketing sites, such as ours, allow a dealer to show their entire inventory accross a newtwork of top sites for an entire year for about the cost of a one-time small ad in a local paper.  According to a 2007 study, over 50% of households now have broadband access, and this number increases to 92% for households with incomes over $75,000. 

Other internet possiblities include directing ads to specific websites where an RV dealer’s audience may tend to visit often.  Through Google’s AdWords program, such sites can be targeted, and ads can be presented, often for a cost ranging from $1.50-$9.00 per thousand impressions.  When compared to newspaper and television advertising (and the actual views seen by members of the target audience), internet advertising is extremely cheap.

Lower advertising dollars available, therefore, doesn’t mean that dealers can’t reach the same number of people as before.  The same target audience can be reached for a lower cost, however, other marketing avenues need to be used. 

There is a common perception that once a used rv is listed with one website, than it is “listed on the Internet”, and that everyone using the internet looking for RV’s will now see it.

This is not the case.

There are millions of websites, and billions of web pages.  Categorizing all of these pages are dozens of search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft Live, and Ask.com. 

Each of these search engines uses different algorithims to rank websites and web pages.  A search for “used rv’s” on Google, for instance, will turn up very different search results than the same search done on Ask.com.

Additionally, there is no one single term commonly used when searching for a used RV.  Intead, thousands of different search terms are used, such as “rv classifieds”, “rv search”, “rv want ads”, “used rv’s for sale”, “recreational vehicle listings in AZ”.  Each of these search terms used on the SAME search engine (such as Google) will ALSO lead to very different search results.

Due to the different search engines and the different search terms used, thousands of unique search result lists are generated, each of which may contain different websites, and/or websites ranked very differently.  Top-ranked websites on one list might not turn up until many pages later on in another search results list.

What does this mean for the RV Seller?  It means (1) that RV buyers are going to a number of different websites based upon their search results, and (2) that there is no “one” website that is visited by all rv purchasers. 

At RV Listings Online, our RV’s are marketed on our website to those searching for RV’s, and, through 55-Alive! (www.55-Alive.com), a top-rated baby boomer website and retiree website, to those over age 50, the largest demographic of rv purchasers.

Although this coverage provides a fair amount of exposure to RV sellers, because the Internet is both tremendously large and fragmented, we nonetheless still urge RV sellers to consider listing with at least one other website, especially for expensive RV’s.

With a $50,000 RV, for example, listing on our websites and one or two other top sites can be done for about $150.  This equates to a selling cost of only .3% of the RV sales price.  As the sales price increases, this percentage declines (for a $150,000 RV it’s only .1%).

Even with three websites, these sales costs are low in comparison to the sales costs for other exepensive items, such as homes, where the selling costs can be 6% or more of the final sales price.

Ask yourself a question - will it be worth it to spend a little more money to ensure a broader coverage for marketing my RV? 

It’s important that an RV be priced correctly if a quick sale is desired.   But does this mean setting the same price as an identical RV at a local dealership?

Perhaps not.  It’s important to recognize that local dealerships have a number of competitive advantages that individuals sellers don’t have.  Some the these advantages include the following:

1. Number of RV’s from which to choose.  A dealership may have a 100 or more RV’s from which to choose, while an individual will only have one RV.
2. Service after the sale.  If a problem develops with an RV purchased from a dealership, the purchaser may have better luck getting the problem resolved for a better price than if the purchaser bought an RV from an individual.  This is especially true if the dealership is providing a warranty.
3. Dealer financing.  An RV dealer may be able to provide below market rate financing, which normally would not be available when an RV is purchased from an individual seller.
4. Perceived Expertise.  As the local dealer is in the business of selling RV’s, there may be a desire by individuals (especially those new to RV’s) to purchased from an “expert”.

RV dealers know that these are important attributes to an RV sale, and that they can command a premium in the price for these advantages. 

In setting the RV sales price, individual RV sellers should recognize that these RV dealer advantages exist, and that they may need to price their RV lower than a comparably priced RV at a local dealership. 

A good question for an individual seller to ask themself is how much they would be willing to pay for identical RV’s - one of which would be bought from a reputable dealership, and the other from an unknown stranger whom they are likely to never see again.  In all likekihood, most people would choose to pay more for the RV from the dealership for the reasons noted above. 

Additionally, because many buyers look at the sales price in terms of the monthly payment (rather than the over-all price), a $500-1,000 difference in sales price might only equate to $15 or so in the monthly payment.

To combat some of these dealer advantages, an individual might consider purchasing an extended warranty to give the potential buyer added comfort.

It almost goes without saying that your used RV ad should contain digital pictures.  At RVListingsOnline, we provide space for up to 8 separate pictures of your RV

There are some important do’s and don’ts for taking the right pictures to get your RV sold.  Here are a few of the most important tips:

1. Don’t include people in the pictures of your RV.  Often RV pictures are added that were taken at the family BBQ or some other event, and which show people generally lounging around the outside of the RV.  Pictures of people are not good because (1) they distract users from focusing on the RV, and (2) they remind the user that the RV actually belongs to someone else.  When buying an RV, we don’t want to think that it had a previous life with a different owner, we want it to be all ours.
2. Minimize Background Distractions.  Again, the focus should be on the RV, not the owner’s house or garage.  When taking pictures of the RV’s exterior, zoom in close so that almost all of the background is eliminated.
3. Don’t take Pictures of Your RV at Night.  As strange as it may sound, people often take pictures of their RV’s, particularly interiors of RV’s, at night, under the assumption that the camera’s flash or the RV’s inside light will provide sufficient light.  It won’t.  Only use pictures of your RV that have been taken in the daylight.  Even then, it’s still best to use a flash, especially for pictures of the inside of the RV.
4. Minimize the file size of the Pictures.  Many affordable digital cameras now take 5 megapixel pictures or more.  A picture at this size (5,000 kbytes) is WAY to large to load quickly.  Ideally, an RV picture for an ad should be about 30-75 kbytes in size.  At this size, the picture will look great, and will have plenty of detail.  Most digital cameras come with picture re-sizing software.  Use it.  First, set the resolution to 72 dpi, then, the width of the picture to about 300 pixels.  This should produce a pictures that will look great.  If the picture is not re-sized, it will take a long time to upload, and may even result in a “time out” (or internet disconnection), especially if dial-up is being used.  Worse yet, for a listing that features 8 pictures, the listing will take a long time to load, and buyers are likely to skip the listing and go on to the next listing.   
5. The more pictures, the better.  Provided, of course, that the pictures show different attributes of the RV.  Use the 8 Picture slots to show 8 different views of the RV.  If there is an important item that you would like to show, take a picture of it.
6. Make sure that the Exterior and Interior of the RV are Clean.  Don’t use pictures with dishes lying around, or the RV covered with snow in a lot.  These types of pictures can indicate that the RV may not have been cared for properly.