Did you know when you applied for the job you currently hold that your duties would include marketing? It doesn't matter what you do. Whether you're a self-storage manager, an editor, a real estate broker, a financier, a retailer or a circus clown, your job will involve marketing out of necessity. Because in a competitive business environment—and nothing ramps up competition for businesses more than an economy like this one—your relationship and communication with consumers is everything.
Here at ISS, we've been watching our readers grow into their new role as "marketer" in addition to all the other roles they fulfill, keeping an eye out for anything inventive we could share to help them along the way. For example, we published a press release highlighting some innovative billboards: Manhattan Mini Storage Launches Humorous Ad Campaign. We plugged a YouTube video for an Illinois facility called "Jones' Big Ass Truck Rental and Storage," a creative and gut-busting approach to facility marketing. We also gave a call out to U-Store-It for its TV commercial and accompanying campaign. We've offered kudos to many other operators in recent years for their outside-the-box approach to promotions.
Lately, we've been so impressed with some of the campaigns we've seen that we decided to create an incentive and see what comes out of the woodwork. We know there are facility owners and managers doing amazing marketing work out there, and we want to see it! So, we're offering some cash and running a brand-new initiative: the ISS "Best in Self-Storage Marketing" contest. First prize is 1,000 bucks!
The contest is open to all self-storage owners, operators and managers. We're looking for examples of your most creative, innovative, effective marketing pieces and campaigns: a print ad, a billboard, a video, a commercial ... whatever promotional work you feel proud of. For details, visit www.insideselfstorage.com/marketing_contest.
You can also jump into a discussion about the contest happening on Self-Storage Talk: Marketing contest!
If you have questions about the contest, feel free to give me a shout at [email protected]. We just launched the contest on Wednesday, and I'm so far impressed with the enthusiasm and submissions I've received from participants. The application deadline is Aug. 28, so don't wait! Show us how much you rock at self-storage marketing!