There’s no doubt about it: Building a campervan takes hard graft, dedication and a lot of energy. So much so that your get-up-and-go might have got-up-and-hella-gone by the time you come to selling a campervan! Build exhaustion is a thing.
And that’s if you are a van conversion company. What if you are a private seller and you don’t know where to start when it comes to selling a campervan? The struggle is real.
Leaving marketing until the last minute is a common complaint (we hear it a lot, and we can help!) But with some prior planning and clever choices, it doesn’t have to be this way! We’ve got 13 creative ideas for van conversion companies and private van sellers – designed to supercharge your marketing efforts.
Getting your marketing strategy in order before hitting the market with your campervan can make a huge difference to the speed, and value, of your sale. Not all of our 13 Pro Marketing Tips for Van Builders will be for you, but some of them will be, for sure!
📖 Table of Contents
👥 Selling a Campervan: Know Your Target Audience
🪄 Selling a Campervan: Marketing Tips
- Build an Email Database
- Sell the Lifestyle
- Photography
- Setting the Price
- Converting Browsers to Buyers
- Host an Open Van Event
- Run a Pre-sale Event
- Create a Waitlist on your Website
- Use your Connections
- Document and Share the Whole Build
- Supercharge your Instagram Engagement
- Best Place to Sell a Campervan
📚 Key Takeaways
👥 Selling a Campervan: Know Your Target Audience
It’s important to recognize who your target audience is and develop an effective strategy for reaching them. If you’ve experienced selling a campervan before, start out by thinking about:
- Who bought it?
- Where were they from?
- Were they going to be full-time vanlifers, or weekend wanderlusters?
- What did they love about your camper?
- How did they find you?
Once you have your ideal vanlifer in mind, combine a few of these pro marketing tips and you’ll increase visibility and draw more attention than ever to your latest build.
If you’re a private seller who is selling a campervan, still ask yourself those questions, but think about who your ideal buyer would be.
By thinking about these steps now, prior to putting your next van up for sale, you can reach the right audience, sell the vanlife dream, and get top dollar when selling a campervan.
Photo credit: Tommy Campervans
🪄 Selling a Campervan: Marketing Tips
Want to know how to sell a camper, fast?
These 13 Pro Marketing Tips for van builders and vans sellers form a random smorgasbord of ideas – you can pick and choose the ones which work for you.
They’re in no particular order, but are all frequently overlooked, and many are cost neutral, so they’ll give you the edge over other van sellers.
Test them and, if you get sellers’ block, reach out to the team at Buy or Sell Campers, we can help!
1. Build an Email Database
This is one for the van conversion companies out there!
Building an email database can be a great way to grow your business if you sell and build campervans regularly. By collecting the contact information of potential customers, you can market directly to them through email marketing campaigns – sending targeted emails directly to high potential leads.
There are tons of different email marketing platforms, so it’s important to choose one that fits your needs and budget. Some popular choices include MailChimp, AWeber, and Constant Contact. These tools often come with free introductory plans that can help get you started.
Another way to build an email database is by engaging with your target customers and potential customers where they already are. For example, use your social media account to get people to sign-up, linking to your sign-up form in your Insta stories etc. If you don’t have a form, you can create one free in Google Forms for now, but it’s best to get a prominent form on your website.
Finally, what about past enquirers? If someone has previously shown interest in your builds before, but didn’t end up buying at that time, doesn’t mean they won’t; it may just mean they weren’t ready.
Be sure to regularly send out emails to your database, with van build updates.
2. Sell the Lifestyle
When you’re selling a campervan, it’s important to think about who is going to buy it?
Your photography should reflect this by showing off all the features that make it a good fit for different types of buyers. Double down on selling the lifestyle! And add some texture while you’re at it too.
A sterile van helps buyers imagine how their things might look in it, but a bit of texture with some tonal bedding and some thoughtful accessories will really help sell the vanlife lifestyle.
For an authentic boost, partner with a travel influencer to get new content. Locate the ideal influencer, and let them borrow your newest build for a weekend in order to get photo and video content.
They’ll be able to provide a personal touch, showcase your campervan in some amazing places, and really speak to the vanlife audience. What better way to show that your van is ideal for anyone who wants adventure, freedom, or wanderlust?
3. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Good Photography
Ultimately, good photography will help sell your van by creating an authentic, engaging experience for potential buyers. So don’t underestimate its power – with great photographs, you can really shine and show off everything that makes your campervan hot property.
Are you selling a campervan? 📸 Discover the 10 must-have photos that will sell your van…
4. Price Your Campervan to Sell
It goes without being said really: You want to hit that sweet spot where you end up with a range of buyers to choose from, while achieving the optimum return.
If you’re a pro builder who flips a van, then moves onto the next one, getting the price right not only increases the profit from one build, but a quick, profitable sale will also add to your build rate for the year.
When selling a campervan, start out by calculating the cost of the build or purchase, then look at what other campervans in your state have sold for. Consider how fast you need to sell your van and how confident you are that you can reach a prime audience.
Once you’ve got a number in mind, how confident are you when it comes to talking about it? And is there room for negotiation? Buyers will like to feel like they have a deal. Think about where you stand on this, and practice your sales pitch when selling a campervan.
Remember: You can always reduce the price, but you can’t increase it. The campervan market is on fire right now! Price your van with pride! For more tips about pricing your campervan to sell, read ‘Money Talks: How to Price Your Van’.
5. Make It Easy to Convert Browsers to Buyers
We know: managing inquiries is not your favourite part when selling a campervan. We get it. There’s only so many times you can be bothered to deal with “Is this still available?” messages.
There are some ways you can make the process easier when selling a campervan.
For starters, create a sales PDF detailing the tech spec and key features, and include any typical FAQs. This will save you a lot of time when responding to emails.
Amp your efforts even more by creating a dedicated email address for inquiries regarding your campervan and set an autoresponder with this sales PDF attached. Looking super organized and professional certainly isn’t going to harm when selling a campervan!
And finally, take a look at Calendly. This is a free appointment booking software. You can upload your availability for calls, video tours, or in-person tours, and potential buyers can simply book a time.
With a little bit of effort you can spend less time selling, and more time reaping the rewards. You’ll never miss another opportunity when selling a campervan!
Photo credit: Yugen Vans
6. Host an Open Van Event
It can be a great idea to consider having an open van event when selling a campervan! This could generate loads of interest, bring people to your van, and begin the sales process in a way that’s super clear, but also very competitive.
For example, let’s say you go to an open house event where there are plenty of individuals oooh-ing and ahhhing over the home you came to see… If you’re at all interested in this property, doesn’t it make sense that you would then want to drop a solid offer right away?
Of course it does!
Open Van Events offer buyers who may feel hesitant with a viewing in a low-pressure environment. Additionally, it’ll save you time, making it fast and easy to answer questions from potential vanlifers.
Why host lots of individual viewings when selling a campervan, when you could generate a lot of competitive interest and channel it into a single day?
7. Run a Pre-sale
If you followed our #1 tip – Build and Email database – or you have worked diligently to build a hardcore audience of wannabe vanlifers, you can drive extra interest with a pre-sale – an exclusive first look at your latest build, and the opportunity to drop a deposit before the van hits the open market.
This is a great strategy to build anticipation, drive email sign-ups, and reward your loyal followers when selling a campervan.
8. Create a Waitlist on your Website
If you already have a website, start publishing blogs and ‘coming soon’ content about your new build ASAP. Better still, there’s nothing like the power of FOMO when selling a campervan.
Add a ‘Join the Waitlist’ form to your website to stress scarcity and drive action.
9. Create a Video Tour
Drive excitement for your campervan among potential buyers by creating a video tour of it. This will help display all its features and advantages, really showing what sets it apart from other vans out there.
There are plenty of excellent tools available for making van videos when selling a campervan, whether you’re an aspiring vanlife videographer or just someone with a smartphone camera.
Upload your van video to YouTube, and share it on all of your social media channels. Video is incredibly powerful for marketing purposes. Not only that, but you can also video to your Buy or Sell Campers sales listing to make your listing even more effective.
10. Use Your Connections
You never know where a hot lead will come from!
Don’t be afraid to turn your happy customers into marketing tools! If you’ve got van buyers in the past who head over heels with their purchase, ask them to share your current listing to their network.
They can add their own spin, talk about how great of an experience they had with you, and stress how much they love your latest van build. Having a customer vouch for you like this is invaluable!
Furthermore, why not reach out to the suppliers you’ve used and ask them to share your van to their network?
If you’ve stayed faithful to a selection of tried-and-tested suppliers – for van parts, electrics, accessories etc – be sure to reach out and ask them to share your van listing with their network.
A warm intro from a trusted industry partner can be incredibly valuable in helping you drive new sales leads.
11. Document and Share the Whole Build
We know, sometimes it feels great to keep it all under wraps for a ‘big reveal’. But, yeah… it’s more effective to work the ‘little and often’ model – sharing build updates frequently throughout the process – it’ll help you drive excitement when selling a campervan.
It’s never too early to start talking about your campervan build, and when you think it’ll hit the market. Whether you hit the road on the hunt for the ultimate secondhand project van or you’re spec-ing out the best new model for the conversion, talk about the search – what you’re looking for, how you’re conducting the search, what you’re prioritizing and why.
Share your thinking and your knowledge, and your moodboard. Doing so will build confidence from the get-go, and will pay dividends when selling a campervan.
Get into the habit of sharing photos of your van daily as you progress with the conversion, or start to capture the build in a time-lapse video of the build. When folks comment and say how excited to see the result, they aren’t kidding!
Start building a database of fans who have commented, ready for a DM when your van hits the market. Schedule a reminder to post daily and stick to it. Commit and make it a habit, if you want to sell a campervan fast!
12. Supercharge your Instagram Engagement
Driving engagement now will help feed the Instagram algorithm, which can help you to reach a wider audience and drive more sales, ready for when your next campervan build hits the market, so a little extra energy here goes a long way!
If you’re feeling brave, get your followers to help you choose parts of your build through polls in Instagram Stories.
Instagram polls are a great way to engage with and get feedback from your followers. Use them to gauge their preferences on van design, van mods, van life choices – anything you’re considering doing or have already done.
This will boost your engagement and it can’t harm to show your audience that you value their opinion.
13. Advertise on Buy or Sell Campers
How could we go without mentioning the best place to sell a campervan?!
You’d be mad not to list your campervan on Buy or Sell Campers – with a social media following of over 3 million van life enthusiasts, it’s full of campervans that people love to like!
List your van and reach hundreds of thousands of buyers every week via our website, socials, and email database. Get your van in front of a giant audience, fast, and start receiving quality enquiries when selling a campervan! You can list your van in just a few simple steps.
Are you a van builder?
List on our van builder’s directory and sell your vans on pre-order, before you’ve even finished your build! Get commissions and flip vans faster than you’d thought possible… It’s quick and easy to market your campervan conversion business on the Buy or Sell Campers Builders Directory.
We work with some of the most talented and influential builders in the vanlife space. Whether you’re a pro builder with loads of builds under your belt and you’d just like to take the hassle out of selling, or whether you’re a new up-and-coming talent looking to reach new audiences, we can help.
📚 Key Takeaways
Marketing your campervan well can make a huge difference when it comes to attracting more buyers and how to sell a campervan fast.
Securing a fast sale can really make a difference to growing your campervan building business, or can help you move onto your next adventure without delay.
Taking the time to think ahead and map out a plan of action is a must when selling a campervan, as it gives you a solid foundation on which to build your strategy. Armed with the right knowledge, you can be sure that your van gets the attention it deserves and reaches as many potential buyers as possible.
