essential marketing - inside...

Essential Marketing

for the Self-Storage Manager

Presented by

Marlene Corpus, Marketing Director

21st Century Storage

Barry Finder, Director of Client Relations

SpareFoot

InsideSelfStorageWorldExpo.com

Definition of Marketing

Webster’s dictionary defines marketing as “an aggregate

of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.”

When that definition is applied to how storage managers market

self-storage facilities, you come up with several functions, tasks,

and behaviors that make up the essential elements of a successful

self-storage marketing plan.


Definition of Marketing

The irony is that for all of the visibility, those companies still make up less than

20 percent of all the units that need to be rented to meet customer demand.

After many years of working in the self-storage industry and training facility

managers, I’m convinced the marketing essentials you’ll learn today can be

performed by every self-storage manager.


Where to Begin?

There are a few things you need to focus on

before you even start thinking about marketing.

First, you need to have real data about your

business area.

It is critical that you know what the demographics are for the area

you service.

There are companies that can provide this information to you, but with a little

researching and effort on your part, you’ll be able to collect enough information

to begin marketing your facility to the right groups of people and businesses in

a short time.


Identifying Your Target Audience

and Buyer Personas

In years past, the best way to market

a self-storage facility was to put an ad

in the phone directory and wait for phone

calls. Today, that approach hardly ever

works. You need to be where your

customers are—online.

Having a simple website and online marketing presence isn’t enough in

today's competitive marketplace.


Who Is Your Target Audience?

You may think it’s any person or business

within X-miles of your self-storage facility.

That approach isn’t going to work when

you’re marketing your facility.

Instead, you need to identify the people

most likely to use your facility, and then

build your marketing around them.

That’s called “building a buyer persona.” For example, if your

facility is in the heart of an upscale neighborhood, you want the marketing

department to use language and graphics you use on your fliers, e-mails, ads,

brochures and website to represent that demographic.


Is It?

Homeowners Retirees Students

Military Business owners Wine enthusiasts

People moving

or relocating

Women looking for more

household space

People needing

seasonal storage

FOR

SALE


Target Audience

If your self-storage facility is in an outdoorsy

area to which nature enthusiasts flock,

you’d want to think about creating e-mails and

tweets, and blogging about self-storage for

sporting equipment and camping gear.

If your self-storage facility is near your city’s

business district, shouldn’t your content appeal to a professional crowd? Then

you’ll start to drill down even deeper … now you’ll be identifying the buyer

personasof your target audience.


What Is a Buyer Persona?

Creating a buyer persona is like drawing a picture of a person.

It’s a fictional representation of your ideal customer. That persona will detail all

the pertinent information that you will need to provide the marketing

department, such as typical age, profession, family details, and even their

favorite past times.


Things Managers Need to Know

About Buyer Personas

Where are your buyer personas spending time?

Example: If your buyer personas have all

switched from Facebook to Twitter or Instagram,

but you’re still primarily on Facebook, you need

to switch over.

You or the marketing department would be spending more time on those social

media sites, assessing which up-and-coming sites your buyer personas are into,

and switching your marketing dollars around

and funneling them into the places your personas live.


What Do Your Buyer Personas Want?

They want to read content that's created solely

for them. The marketing department needs you

to be their distinctive voice, so you can report

that information. Then you can create special

content tailored toward your buyer personas,

such as blog posts, videos, social media,

organized events, specials, fliers and signage,

to better trigger their interests.

Speak the way your buyer personas speak so

you can relate to them on their level.


What Problems are Your Buyer Personas

Experiencing?

You want to eliminate irrelevant topics and focus

on the ones that truly matter, like what your

personas’ daily challenges are, what their needs

are and what their life goals are. This helps

you narrow your focus and create content

that's unique to your buyer personas.

Essentially, you need to align yourself

with those needs.


Untapped Markets

I chose Apple for this example. Apple used to market

its products to young, hip, trendy consumers.

Now with the advent of the iPad, Apple has

expanded its buyer personas to include

business people, seniors and military, which

has resulted in selling even more devices.

Once you’ve begun to drill down and identify the buyer personas in your target

market, get creative, and don't limit yourself to specific buyer personas when you

can tap a new audience and widen your reach.


It’s Never Going to Be Just One

Example:

Your site may be closer to an

industrial or office park area and

have a large percentage of

business customers.

You may be in a single-family residential area and see

more homeowners than renters.

You may be close to an educational institution and see a lot of students

needing rental units.

Even a facility in a residential area will have several businesses that rent storage

units. Many people run businesses out of their home and use self-storage as their

warehouse or equipment storage space.


Grassroots Marketing

Managers will use grassroots marketing to reach out to their communities

when building brand awareness.

Over the last several years, self-storage marketing has been catapulted to a

whole new level. Long-term sustainability and success requires frequent and

creative marketing campaigns encompassing traditional, online and grassroots

marketing.


Benefits to Using GR Marketing

1. It’s getting your brand out there for newly acquired properties.

2. It’s keeping your brand on the customer’s mind for

established properties.

3. It’s cost-effective.

4. It’s highly effective marketing strategies that can be quickly put together by

most managers.

5. In most cases, grassroots marketing yields a great return.



The idea of grassroots marketing as it

relates to self-storage is to saturate the

residential and business community with

talk about your brand name. To do this

effectively, you need to keep your brand

name in front of people and on their minds.

The message you send out needs to be updated often or it’ll become repetitive

and ignored. Keep your message exciting by marketing on a number of channels

and combining strategy techniques.

Keep your company brand alive with local events, giveaways and bargains, and

sustain the buzz with local partnerships you’ve formed in your communities.



By using a grassroots-marketing strategy, you’ll be initiating what’s

usually inexpensive marketing, but mostly very effective for self-storage

businesses in all stages of development.

When branding or rebranding your company’s image, grassroots marketing is a

key component to your overall marketing strategy and highly effective in quickly

establishing your image.


Community Sponsors, Events and Fundraisers

The most import thing to remember when prospecting for sponsors is you have to

make it about you and the sponsor, not just your business.

Sponsors seem to be everywhere in today’s world,

and it’s not just the big events that draw them,

either. Small, local events (10-K runs and

neighborhood festivals) usually have a slew of

sponsoring logos in the accompanying literature.

Why do you need sponsors? Quite simply, it makes money. When done correctly,

you’ll build relationships that add value to your business through traffic sources

you’d otherwise never see.

I’ve put together a five-step guide that offers tips on soliciting and retaining

sponsors, so let’s jump in!


Step 1: Determine Your Audience

Sending “blind” proposals usually doesn’t work well. Knowing your audience helps

narrow down who to solicit for sponsors.

Think beyond storage: Consider hosting a fundraiser for the local SPCA. You could

invite veterinarians, pet-store owners and other nonprofit

organizations that have the resources to drive traffic by the masses and add financial

support.

Keep it industry-related: Consider hosting a community event, such as a “block

party.” Getting all your neighbors together for an afternoon or evening has some nice

advantages; you can develop more than a nodding acquaintance with the folks who

you’re doing business with.

Planning a block party doesn’t have to be that big of an undertaking. Pick out a location

and send out invitations via the many marketing channels we’ve discussed. Arranging for

food and designating cleanup detail follow pretty organically once you start strategizing.


Step 2: Determine Sponsorship Level

Sponsorship levels should be based on the benefits to the company. Put a price on

each benefit you’ll offer and include that price in each level.

If Comcast sponsors your “block party,” and it wants its logo on your event flier,

inclusion in your social media blasts and a table with a banner, you’ll need to

work up the cost for all the above and include

it in the sponsor level. This may be what you’d refer to as a

“Gold Sponsorship.”

If you the local wants to sponsor your event, you might offer it a small table and

include its business cards in your move-in packets. This could be your “Silver

Sponsorship.”

If the local bakery sponsors your event, consider a sponsorship of food and

drinks. This could be a “Bronze Sponsorship.”


Step 3: Make Lots of Phone Calls

The most time-consuming but money-saving step: Get on the phone and pitch

your event or fundraiser as a great marketing opportunity.

Call local businesses to find out if its interested

in reaching your market, and focus on how the

company will benefit.

Example pitch: “This is Debbie from Such & Such

Storage, and I thought you might be interested in

marketing your company’s products/services at an

upcoming event we’re hosting. Do you have a few seconds?”

Keep your pitch, explaining the event, audience and some benefits, to 20

seconds or fewer. If they’re interested, you can add more details from there.


Step 3: Make Lots of Phone Calls

Once you’ve made all your calls, you’re ready

to review your notes and compile a list of

businesses you’ll solicit. This takes some time,

but it will save your organization money.

Instead of blindly sending out proposal letters and

e-mails to hundreds of businesses—potentially

ignoring their guidelines and focus areas—

you’ll be much more effective sending your proposals

to companies who’ve already expressed interest in

your event or fundraiser.


Step 4: Send Out Proposal Letters

Sponsors want to feel important! They want to know you’re specifically asking

for money/other means of support from their company, and that they’re not just

a name in the masses.

Keep your letters short: Focus on the exposure the company will receive for

its money, not on how the money will help you.

Customize your letter: The proposal letter sent to XYZ Fitness may not work

for your local bakery or cable company.

List sponsor benefits and deadline: Use bullet points to make the benefits

stand out with your name, address and phone number, date and time of the

event, and the deadline.

Lastly, include a brochure that details sponsor benefits for each level, and

include some details from previous sponsors/events.


Step 5: Follow Up and Cultivate

Relationships With Sponsors

Don’t be afraid to contact potential sponsors to find out their thoughts on

sponsorship, and don’t drop your sponsors once they’ve agreed to send you

money!

Here’s why:

Few companies will call you to say they’re interested; most will not.

Some companies request face-to-face meetings. You won’t know if you don’t

follow up.

Sponsors want to feel important. They need to see you value their support,

and a thank-you letter works well for doing this.

Sponsors want to be updated, so add your sponsors to your

monthly newsletter.

Finally, once you receive the check, send another thank-you letter.


Explore the Unknown!

Be thorough and don’t settle for subpar research. Do your best to market your

facility with an open mind and willingness to explore the unknown. I promise,

you’ll be glad you did your research in the end!

You’ll see more phone calls, leads, increased occupancy and revenue!

Ahhhh! Doesn’t that sound wonderful?


E-Mail Marketing


E-Mail Marketing

Call to Action (CTA)

Subject Line

Content

Anatomy of a Marketing E-Mail

Supplemental Content


Goals and Platform

Subject Line

Track: Open Rate

Keep it short.

A/B test.

Best practices words:

“new, free, instantly”

vs.

“register, available, $”


Goals and Platform

Subject Line Content Call to Action (CTA)

Track: Open Rate

• Keep it short.

• A/B test.

• Best practices words:

“new, free, instantly”

vs.

“register, available, $”

Needs to guide the person

toward the CTA.

Any supplemental

information goes below the

CTA.

What singleaction do you

want the end user to take?

Lease online, complete a

form, download a coupon,

etc.

Track: Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Tracks open rate and click-through rate

• Subject line analyzer

Extremely affordable (freemium)

Easy import lists (from PMS)

Professional – look and feel, unsubscribe compliance



Subject Line

Content


Recipients need to open

your e-mail.

HOW you get recipients to

engage.

WHAT you want recipients

to do.


CTA: What Do You Want

E-Mail Recipients to Do?

Depends on where they are

in the funnel:

Cold calls vs.

grassroots follow-up vs.

inquiry vs.

referral, etc.

Use drip campaigns:

Same CTA

Sweeten the deal

Inquiry – Provide

full contact

information

Schedule a visit

Text message directions

Download a coupon

Reservation – Sign

Lease Online

Price lock

Price lock and unit guarantee

Download coupon –$10 off

Download coupon – 1st

month free



Subject Line

Content



your e-mail.


engage.


to do.


Content

Your content is driving your CTR.

So, what content is

going to get your

audience

to engage?


Coolsville

Self Storage

Target Audience

College students

Selling Points

Convenience

Technology

Tone of Voice

Casual

Approachable

Serioustown Storage

Solution

Target Audience

Businesses

Selling Points

Security

Accessibility

Tone of Voice

Professional

Trustworthy


Coolsville

Self Storage

Serioustown Storage

Solution

Hi there,

Thanks for your interest in our

storage facility. We’re here to make

storage easy!

In just a few minutes you can lock-in

your unit using our easy online

system:

[ Sign me up! ]

If you have any questions…

Hello,

Thank you for the opportunity to earn

your business. Our facility is the

most secure in the area; your items

will be safe with us.

We have convenient hours from X-X

for you to complete your paperwork

and take a tour of

the property.

[ Schedule a visit. ]

If you have any questions…


Content Overhaul in Action

Target audience

Online storage shoppers

Selling points

Fast, convenient experience

Trusted quality

Better ways to compare

Exclusive deals

Tone of voice

Problem-solving

Experts

Honest

Fun


Content Overhaul in Action

Move-in rate up 10%

Experts

Problem Solved



Subject Line

Content



your e-mail.


engage.


to do.



your e-mail.


engage.


to do.

Track open rate

Short and sweet subject line

Use best practices words

Track click-through rate

Know your brand

Market to your audience

Track click-through rate

CTA depends on stage

in lifecycle

Use drip campaigns

Subject Line

Content




Contact the Presenters

Marketing Director

21st Century Storage

970.518.0809

[email protected]

www.21css.com

Marlene Corpus

Director of Client Relations

SpareFoot

855.427.8193

[email protected]

www.sparefoot.com

Barry Finder

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.21css.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.sparefoot.com/

Thank You!

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