6 Quick Tips To Optimize Your Boat Listing

Even in today’s hot boat market, you’ve got to make your listing stand out from the rest to get the most desirable buyers in quick time and coming with the best offers. Here are six quick tips on how to be sure when you sell your boat that your listing is the one that gets the most hits, and that quick sale.

Leave little to the imagination in your listing.

The fewer interactions you need to have with a potential buyer, the better. When writing your listing, feature everything a buyer would need to know before making an offer. Sure, the engine hours, boat make and boat type are easy, but what aftermarket accessories have you added? What are the details of the A/V system? What type of trailer is included, if at all? With buyers wanting to move faster than ever, be sure a buyer has no stone unturned before they reach out to you for the first time.

The price is most often a make-or-break detail.

With every interaction the seller has to have with you online, they begin to fall off. By including your desired price, you are pre-qualifying anyone who might connect with you about a purchase. Be sure to do your homework when valuing and pricing your boat. In today’s hot marketplace, you might even get over your asking price.

Approaching your boat listing from the buyer’s perspective is the best way to match what they’re searching for.

Leverage filtering tools so your ad is found in search results.

On Boats For Sale, or any marketplace, there are fields with drop-down or fill-in options. Do not leave any of these out. Not only are they essential details that tell buyers about your boat, they’re used in filters and as keywords to generate boat search results. For example, if someone ticks off a box for a stern drive and you didn’t include this in the drop-down, your boat will be excluded from those stern drive listings. 

Simply put, the best boat photo is going to get the most clicks.

We’ve already told you how to best photograph and even shoot a video walkthrough of your boat for sale. When it comes to your first photo, which is most often your featured image, choose the most aesthetically pleasing. Is it a shot of the boat in the water at golden hour after it’s been all cleaned? Does it feature the beautiful wood hull boats of its make are known for? Is it an offshore fishing boat? Choose the photo with all the fishing gear featured. Do your best to capture the boat’s essence. They’ll click through to see the rest. 

After all the essential details have been added, try to depict your experience aboard so the buyer can, too.

Use the terms most likely to be searched for.

Before you write your listing, take a browse at a few to see what common terminology they use. You can also browse your boat manufacturer’s website. The goal is to be sure you’re using the most popular words to describe your boat’s most important features. You’ve probably got boating terminology on lock, but just be 100% sure you’re saying what buyers are typing in. Using words like “galley” instead of “kitchen,” or  “fish finder” rather than its more technological term, “sounder” could be the words that land that buyer on your ad. 

Let potential buyers envision your boat as their own.

The best listings not only give a detailed run-down of the boat, they set the stage for the next owner of your boat to already get a feel for it before they set foot onboard. Add details that speak to the experience behind the console. Speak to the ride, its handling, the variety of activities you can do with it, and include a photo against a setting that best depicts boat life aboard. 

When it comes to quick boat sales, the best boats don’t attract the most buyers — the best listings do. By following these tips above, you’ll be best set up to drive quick, qualified traffic to your boat, and get the best price as soon as possible.