Used car sales is one area of automotive content marketing that comes with certain inherent challenges. One such challenge, and one that ranks high in terms of importance, is trust. Trust-building is a vital part of any marketing initiative, and used cars represent a content niche where trust is a difficult thing to capture.
It’s even more of a challenge if your blog is tied to a specific seller or dealership. It will always be in the reader’s mind that you’re communicating ideas with your own best interests in mind. The thing is, they aren’t wrong. Whether you’re trying to convince them to buy a car or just keep reading your blog, there is a self-serving aspect that is difficult to get past.
That’s not to say that it’s an impossible task. In fact, it’s quite workable. How effective you are at building trust in this area has to do with how you approach and frame your messaging. That’s part one. Part two has to do with the types of subjects that are prevalent in your content. Since we are a copywriting company, I’m going to stay close to examples that include written content. Along the way, I will suggest other content areas aside from blog posts and the like that I think can reinforce your efforts to build trust.
So, let’s take a look at how to communicate good information that proves profitable while maintaining a level of integrity that gets people to pay attention to your messaging. Here are five ways to frame your automotive copy, so you steer readers into a place of trust.
1. How to Use Popular Resources
Plenty of used car buyers have heard of resources like Kelly Blue Book and Carfax, but many remain unaware of how to use them. Content that helps readers navigate the information contained in these resources and others like them helps them make educated decisions when they’re ready to buy a used car.
Explain in your blog the differences between the numbers. Explain how KBB assesses value based on the condition of the vehicle and what criteria they should be applying when making offers to buy. Offer tutorials on how to use other car-buying resources, like Carfax, that can provide specific information about the vehicle they want to purchase.
There are many, many subtopics present in these resources, so don’t just write one 500-word blog post and think that you’ve educated your audience. Really dissect the resources you choose and go into detail as you navigate readers through the various aspects of them. Screenshots and other visuals can also be very helpful; just be sure about copyright details before you post them if you intend to monetize your blog.
2. Questions to Ask the Seller
Buying a used car is about a lot more than the stereotypical “kicking the tires” approach. Educate your readers about the questions they should be asking. More importantly, educate them about what to look for in the answers they get from a dealer or private seller.
Explain the differences between questions they need to ask in each of those scenarios. Dealers are typically more transparent from the get-go, but that isn’t always the case. Knowing what to ask and what answers to look for is a great avenue of education for your readers. Capitalize on their need to be educated and provide them with good advice.
3. Dealerships vs. Private Sales
Since I touched on this briefly in the last section, let me expand a bit on this thought. Many consumers will approach buying a used car the same way whether they’re working with a dealership or engaging in a private sale.
You will need to tailor this to your specific situation. Do you run a dealership? Then weigh your messaging on the side of buying from a dealer and explain why it’s the better option. Are you a private seller? Then you should be addressing common objections to buying from a private seller and allaying common fears about it. Integrating information from the two previous sections here can also prove to be very advantageous.
If you’re just developing automotive blog content with no invested interest in either, compare and contrast is a good route to take with your content. Maintain a neutral stance and simply educate the reader on the differences, advantages, and pitfalls on both sides of the equation.
4. Assessing Used Car Values
Resources like Kelly Blue Book do an excellent job of explaining how cars are valued. Still, there is a lot of information there that most people don’t really know how to interpret. Develop content that helps them navigate through the process and explain how to read the numbers.
People tend to gravitate toward the lowest figure when it comes to buying and the highest one when it comes to selling. It goes without saying that there is a lot more to it than that, and it’s your job to educate people as to why that kind of surface assessment isn’t enough. You can produce entire series of blog posts just about how to read KBB data and how to negotiate a price that benefits all involved parties. Balanced information and education are great tools for establishing a foundation of trust.
5. Advice on Buying Used Cars Online
I don’t think there’s a dicier area of used car buying than the nebulous, often sight-unseen nature of buying cars from eBay and other sites with the same kind of buying and selling formats. That unstable nature of the subject presents an opportunity for you to test your trust-building skills.
If you’re an online seller, write from experience and be transparent about how you manage selling used cars online. If you’re an online buyer who has been burned in used car sales, you can use your blog to educate people from a “learn from my fail” standpoint.
There are also different ways to buy used cars online that involve more direct interaction between buyer and seller. If your blog represents a dealership, this is the likely way the transaction is going to go. Blog about your own practices and warn against tactics you know to be deceptive and harmful to the buyer. Then, when people walk into your showroom or onto your lot, make sure that the messaging in your blog is reflected in the service they get. People write lots of reviews these days. Be sure you give your customers reasons to write good ones.
Whatever your automotive marking content goals may be, BeezContent can help you strategize a plan to make your next campaign more successful. Contact us today to find out how partnering with Beez for your automotive copywriting needs can help you meet and exceed your content marketing goals.
