Get FinancingSandhills Global Retail Platforms Connect Buyers & Sellers Across Industries
While Sandhills Global now offers platforms for retail, wholesale, and auction sales of heavy equipment, commercial trucks and trailers, and aircraft, as well as equipment rentals and charter flights, retail has always been its bread and butter. It started nearly 50 years ago with a single publication, Machinery Trader, and now includes more than 30 brands spanning the globe.
These retail platforms, including print magazines and websites, are sources of both acquisitions and liquidations, as dealers often use them for both buying and selling assets. They are also a valuable option for exposure and potential sales for sellers using Pre-AuctionTime.
Combined Print & Online Exposure
When a seller purchases an ad in a print magazine, each asset featured in the ad receives a corresponding online listing on the brand’s website. Each item in the ad is also assigned a Quick Find Code that potential buyers can enter on the website to view more specs and photos of the asset.
Regular advertisers can also list their entire inventory online at no additional cost. Sellers can target specific geographic areas with regional print magazine editions or broaden their exposure by advertising across multiple brands, including niche markets.
A Brand For Every Industry
No matter what industry you’re in—agriculture, construction, commercial trucking, or aviation—Sandhills has a brand for it. In addition to the big four (TractorHouse, Machinery Trader, Truck Paper, and Controller) Sandhills also offers an array of niche market and international brands to help you reach your target customer.
Machinery Trader, for example, offers international editions in the U.K., Europe, Australia, and Asia. MarketBook, the all-in-one resource for construction equipment, farm machinery, trucks, and trailers, is available in Canada, Latin America, South Africa, and New Zealand. Buyers and sellers of cranes, forklifts, and telehandlers can use CraneTrader and LiftsToday.
Cross-Promotion
Assets listed on Sandhills’ niche market sites are also listed on the parent site. If a seller advertises a forklift in LiftsToday, it will appear online at LiftsToday.com and MachineryTrader.com to get even more exposure to buyers. Equipment that spans multiple niche markets will appear on all relevant sites. Forestry bucket trucks listed on MDTrader.com also appear on TruckPaper.com, ForestryTrader.com, and TreeTrader.com.
For additional visibility, sellers can run a print ad in multiple Sandhills publications that cover the same industries and equipment types.
Advertising Options
Sellers have many print ad options, ranging from a single asset photo listing to quarter-page, half-page, full-page, and multi-page spreads. The larger the ad, the more inventory you can showcase. The type and size of the ad also determine the ranking of assets online.
Every piece of equipment included in a Sandhills print ad receives a featured listing on the corresponding website(s). Featured listings rank higher than general listings for inventory that consistent advertisers can list on the site but leave out of their print ads. Larger ads not only enable sellers to showcase more inventory but also improve the ranking of featured listings.
Premium Advertising
Editorial ads are available in Sandhills Global’s niche-market and aviation publications, such as CraneTrader, ForestryTrader, LiftsToday, RVUniverse, LivestockMarket, EquineMarket, Tree & Landscape Equipment Trader, and Controller, to allow sellers to highlight a single asset, as well as their brand and business, in a larger format. These ads are available in half-page, full-page, and 2-page sizes, depending on the publication. Every asset in an editorial print ad receives a premium featured listing with prominent placement on the corresponding website.
Priority pages in a Sandhills magazine, such as Machinery Trader, include the front and back covers, the inside front and back covers, the pages facing the inside front and back covers, and the centerfold. These are the first pages readers see as they flip through the magazine. Assets featured in priority page ads receive premium placement online, appearing at the top of featured listings.
Managing Inventory & Advertising
The Inventory Management app in the Sandhills Cloud is the starting point for every step of the equipment lifecycle and eliminates repetitive data entry. Once an asset is added to Inventory Management, you can list it for sale, perform a valuation, document an inspection, send a quote, and more without having to re-enter the asset details. Any changes you make to asset specs will automatically update anywhere the asset appears.
Build A Retail Strategy
Talk to your Sandhills rep today to learn more about cross-marketing opportunities with Sandhills retail platforms or to start using priority pages to improve your online placement.
A version of this article first appeared in Sandhills Magazine. You can find current and back issues in the Sandhills Magazine Archive.