Used Car Photos - Wow Factor

An easy way to make a good impression on potential customers that are shopping on your website, is to have great photos of your used car inventory. Having a game plan and sticking to it, will help ensure that this never happens to you:

When did WENDY's start selling used cars???

This happens for one reason: no one is paying attention. So, here are some helpful hints that will help your inventory photos look more like this:

1. Decide between training and paying someone at the dealership to take pictures OR hiring an outside vendor to do them.

2. Decide on a location. We recommend taking the pictures indoors so that you don't have to fight weather conditions or changes in lighting. Adding your dealership name, web address and phone number to your photos (like the example above) is a good move since your photos are uploaded to other sites like Cars.com and AutoTrader. However, if you don't have the space to take the pictures inside, designate a spot outside and at least have a sign or banner in the background.

3. Invest in a tri-pod. The value far exceeds the expense in this case. Mark on the tri-pod one level for cars and another level for trucks and SUV's. Take the photo at 'steering wheel height'... it make the vehicle look bigger! This will give your photos consistancy and send the message to customers that your dealership pays close attention to detail.

4. Only one vehicle per photo, please. Don't give potential customers any opportunities to focus on other things in the picture. Pull each vehicle aside and make it look its best. Let's use this as an example of what NOT to do:

As you can barely see, this is a Solara convertible. This car should be pulled away from everything else and photographed with the top down on a sunny day. This photo isn't very motivating, but by making a few changes, customers could picture themselves driving down the road, with their hair blowing in the breeze.

5. Inspect the final results. Remember, the purpose of your used car photos is to motivate that shopper to become a buyer. Based on the quality of your photos, would YOU be motivated to buy your used cars and trucks?