The self-storage industry has experienced lots of growth over the past five years, both in the number of properties and overall profit. But during such times of peak development and lease-up, how do you remain competitive, increase revenue and continue to escalate your facility value? Believe it or not, you can accomplish all these things with smarter marketing!
Marketing is a necessity in this industry, but how do you move from everyday basics to innovative tools that work efficiently to convert leads? A mediocre website, Facebook page and some local, untrackable ads aren’t enough to keep your business viable and growing. It’s time to refocus your marketing dollars! Make leasing easier for customers, take advantage of free listings, use digital-advertising strategies and engage your online community. These are all effective ways to increase visibility and improve asset value. They’re also easier to implement than you might think. Here are some tips to get you started.
Put Your Website to Work
Your website should never “miss a call.” It’s open 24 hours per day. So, why not invest in a streamlined, action-oriented website that invites customers to move easily through the rental process? When a quality prospect visits you online, he should be able to view unit availability and pricing as well as sign a lease. Today’s customers are choosing to store on their time, not your office hours. If you make the process easy and flexible, you’ll increase move-ins.
You can also retain existing customers by ensuring your website works well for tenants. They should be able to review their account and pay their bill online.
Own Your Google My Business Listing
Did you know there’s a process to take ownership over the comprehensive search engine results page (SERP) about your self-storage business that shows up on Google? Once you complete this simple process, you can add photos and update incorrect content tied to your local listing. You can also access data and SERP insights, such as call tracking, website referrals and reviews.
Leverage Digital Advertising.
Digital advertising refers to any promotional messaging that occurs online. It’s everything from a colorful display ad on a news website to a paid spot on Google’s right-hand-side advertising column. Used to increase brand awareness and highlight your property’s features, it includes paid social strategies, display ads, paid search and remarketing, which allows you to position your ads in front of individuals who have previously visited your website as they browse elsewhere on the Internet.
You can even take your digital advertising a step further with innovative call-attribution and performance data that helps you know what’s working, who’s calling, and how they found you. This helps ensure you reach the right prospects at the right time and you’re directing money where it’ll be most effective.
Care About Reviews
I can pretty much guarantee there are reviews about your facility you don’t know about on Google, Facebook or Yelp. It’s time to monitor and respond to them. Just one negative review drives away 30 new customers. Are you sure you can afford to ignore it?
Taken altogether, smarter, more efficient marketing will create better leads for your facility, which leads to more rentals; and every percentage of increased occupancy contributes to your bottom line. Follow the above advice, and your asset value will continue to climb!
Celena Canode is a marketing campaign manager at G5, a provider of digital marketing solutions to the self-storage industry. It’s a predictive marketing software-as-a-service company that uses artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies to help marketers amplify their impact. Through its Intelligent Marketing Cloud, G5 delivers performance and scalability through predictive analytics, hyper-personalized customer experiences and continuous spend optimization. For more information, call 800.554.1965; visit www.getg5.com.
