By Amy Daniels
Marketing materials can be great tools for presenting a professional image of your self-storage business, giving your prospects something to remember you by and providing a consistent experience at every point of contact with your company. This article explains what you can do to create meaningful promotional materials that urge cautious leads to become paying customers.
Before you decide what materials you need and how you want to go about creating them, you need to nail down the message you want to send to potential tenants. This message can be actual words and taglines you use in your marketing materials, but it also comes from the general image of your company. Let’s break company image down into two categories: branding and campaign.
Branding
Your brand is something your customers encounter every time they speak with someone at your property or view one of your promotional materials. It includes your attire, building, interior design and signage. A large part of your branding includes your company’s logo treatment, font and colors. Your brand is more than your name; it’s the image and reputation associated with that name.
To measure how successfully you’ve branded your company, look at every piece of advertising material you have: your website, brochures, business cards, promotional swag, billboards and anything else you’ve created to spread your facility’s reach. Then ask yourself, “Does it look like everything is unified and came from the same place?” Your goal is to answer with a definitive “yes.”
Campaign
The word “campaign” may conjure up elaborate advertising efforts that last months or years, but a campaign can actually be much simpler. Think about the features you want to emphasize about your facility, then use multiple materials and methods to send a similar message to a specific audience.
Setting up a marketing campaign doesn’t mean you have to figure out every last detail of your long-term marketing efforts. Instead, think about the major selling points of your business. In a few words, what sets you apart from your competitors? What kind of market are you trying to reach? What will that market find appealing? Think about the answers to these questions and then use them consistently rather than change your messaging with every new material.
Effective Execution
While it’s possible to piece together some of your own promotional materials, a professional will execute your ideas in a way that’s streamlined and appealing to customers. Unless you happen to have a background in graphic design, copywriting, photography or Web design, you’ll want to outsource at least some of your materials to someone who can effectively share your story in a professional and attractive way.
According to Carrie Bendall, founder of U.K.-based consultancy firm Marketing with Zest, your business needs three specific marketing materials to look good: business cards, a website and col-lateral that encourages people to your website, like postcard mailers or a newsletter. Let’s take a look at each.
Business Cards
Though it may not seem like the most exciting part of your marketing, a steady stock of beautifully designed business cards equips you for any situation—when a customer walks in, when you encounter leads at events, and anytime you want to give someone a way to remember your business.
Business cards don’t have to be boring. You can design memorable cards with creative shapes, materials and printing techniques. In fact, a card with unique features can be a great way to make a lasting impression. The key is to combine creativity with functionality, fine-tuning your ideas so they appeal to a wide market.
Your cards need to include your business name, logo, phone number, e-mail, physical address and website. Talk to your designer and spend a good chunk of time and effort nailing down the look of the cards, which will allow you to keep the same design for years to come.
A Website
It should come as no surprise that your website is an integral part of your marketing effort. It’s the place where your brand’s current customers, interested leads and complete strangers often end up. It should be informative, visually appealing and built to draw in local renters through online search.
Creating the right website for your brand will take design, content and development, but none of those matter if it isn’t optimized for search engines. To get the biggest bang for your buck, con-sider working with a company that designs websites exclusively for the self-storage industry.
Think about all the ways you can answer your customers’ questions while making your brand appear and sound professional and unique. Google rewards sites that present content in a variety of ways, so think about adding extra pages, displaying unit information in multiple places, and emphasizing your facility’s best selling points throughout the site.
Collateral That Drives Web Visits
Collateral can include newsletters, brochures, fliers and more. Think of the business card and website as your steady, unchanging materials, and then consider using collateral to flex your creative muscles and tweak your campaign on a quarterly or annual basis.
Part of creating strong collateral involves seasonal messaging, deals and promotions, and tracking numbers. These are the smaller details to include on your materials, allowing for some variety while sticking to the same consistent message.
Presenting a Clean Image
Ultimately, think about quality over quantity. Blurry images, poor content and confusing messaging are more off-putting to customers than no marketing at all. And if you don’t have a fantastic website with equally fantastic business cards, your customers won’t be drawn to rent with you from any amount of promotion.
First, determine the marketing budget that’s right for your facility. Next, invest in your website and business cards. Finally, consider your branding and campaign as you work with a profession-al to create supplementary materials that lead customers to your website and your brand.
Amy Daniels is the content manager at storEDGE, which offers a comprehensive suite of tech-nology solutions designed specifically for the self-storage industry. She combines self-storage industry research, Web-marketing strategies and small-business experience to cultivate the growth of facilities nationwide. For more information, call 913.954.4110; visit www.storedge.com.
