Tips 
On the average day, CLASSIC.COM features over 5,000 classic and exotic vehicles for sale from over 250 auctions and dealers around the world. As a dealer or auction, how can you ensure that your listings are set up to get the maximum amount of exposure possible? After all, it’s free to have your listings featured on CLASSIC.COM so why not do everything possible to maximize your exposure!
Here are our top 5 tips to enhance exposure for your listings on CLASSIC.COM – dealers who follow these guidelines see approximately 30% more views and clicks from Search results, Market pages, Vehicle comps, and Market alert emails than those who do not.
1. Include VIN with every listing
In order to provide transparent and accurate information to our users, we require that all sources include VIN for their listings. In addition to providing the potential buyer with historical events for the vehicle, VIN also provides key data points that allow us to ensure proper categorization for the vehicle.
But more importantly, vehicles without VIN are typically viewed as suspect by prospective buyers. At a minimum, it raises a red flag in the mind of the prospect: Why isn’t this seller providing a VIN for this car? With limited attention span, where access to information is expected, you’ve lost that prospect to the competition.
Note: Vehicles produced after 1981 have a standard 17-digit VIN. For vehicles produced prior to that time, the number used for VIN on CLASSIC.COM is typically the Chassis or Frame number, which can be less than 17 digits. If you have any questions as to which number to provide for your listing, your Account Manager can help.
2. Provide an accurate vehicle title
Providing a full, accurate vehicle title for each listing helps us to properly identify and curate the vehicle into its most relevant Market. A Market on CLASSIC.COM is a grouping of comparable vehicles that have, at a minimum, the same Make, Model, and Model Generation. When relevant for purposes of valuation, a Market may be further segmented by Model Variant, Trim, Transmission Type, Body Style, and other factors.
There is a vast difference between a “First Generation Ford Mustang” a “1972 Ford Mustang” and “1972 Ford Mustang Mach 1” – while each of these can be used to label the same car, the last title is the most complete and, along with accurate and complete photography, will result in the best Market assignment for the listing.
From a user’s perspective, more accurate titles typically result in more volume and more relevant visits from our website to yours. Because of the accuracy of your titles, users will find it easier to engage with your listings and eventually will learn to trust your listings more than others.
3. Provide a detailed description (without superlatives)
Just the facts ma’am, just the facts. While the descriptions that you use for your listings on your website are not shown on CLASSIC.COM, they are utilized by our curation system to appropriately identify mileage, conservation status, and other important specs that allow your listing to be appropriately categorized and displayed in Search results, Market pages and Vehicle comps. The more fact-focused your description is, the easier it is for us to determine important specs that improve your exposure in those placements.
Beyond that, from a user’s perspective, words like “spectacular” or “coveted” are not as useful as terms like “two-owner” or “original paint”. It’s a proven fact that using “sales-y” language will actually deter users in the long term. Stick to the facts and focus on generating trust. Users will keep coming back.
4. Update listings as soon as they are sold
When a listing is sold, the status on CLASSIC.COM is updated and the listing moves to the top of the “sold” listings for that Market. In addition, if a sold price is included, that listing will be reported in the Market alert emails that go out daily to all market followers. When followers see that you have sold a vehicle in a Market that they follow, they are more likely to contact you for future listings, especially if they have an example that they want to sell.
In addition to that, stale listings will eventually cause your entire inventory to get demoted in our search results, and that is because our users are turned off when they encounter a listing that says “For Sale” when in fact it’s already sold. Bad for your brand, bad for ours.
5. Report Sold prices
We saved the best for last. While many dealerships focus on the exposure they can gain while inventory is for sale, they miss out on the vast amount of exposure available by providing sold prices for their listings.
When you report the final sale price that a vehicle sells for, your listing increases your dealership’s exposure in our Market charts, Market listings, and Vehicle comps. These 3 areas are the most referenced areas of our website, and having historical sale prices increases the number of listings that are seen from your dealership, especially for those users who reference our Market charts to determine the best venue to sell their classic or exotic car.
Simply put, if you’re reluctant to provide sold prices, you’re giving up business to the competition.
There you have it – the top 5 tips to increase your exposure on CLASSIC.COM! If you are already a dealer or auction integrated with CLASSIC.COM, contact your Account Manager for more information on how to improve your exposure.
If you are not yet integrated with CLASSIC.COM, learn more about how to have your listings included here.
