Gabfocus Spotlight: Is physical marketing still useful?

Marketing can cost big money depending on the route you take. And physical marketing efforts tend to be among the more expensive options.

Putting up a billboard, for example, costs a lot more than building a Google Business Profile (which is free).

In light of that, is physical marketing still worth it? And what does data tell us about physical marketing?

Our own Tommy and Melissa discussed physical marketing with James McLean of Radius+. He went over his own recommendations and where you can find data to inform your marketing!

Question: "Is physical marketing still useful?"

Check out the video clip below to hear their answers:

In this Gabfocus Session: Stay Competitive Using Industry Data, James McLean of Radius+ joined Tommy and Melissa to discuss data and how to use it. They discussed finer topics ranging from what data matters the most, where to find it, and how to figure out who your competitors are.

Check out the full Session to dive deeper! 

Don't want to watch the clip? Here's what James had to say:

Kind of right in the same way with drive time is the traffic count of the road that your facility is on.

So if you're trying to drive occupancy, get your name out there, and you're trying to decide between digital or physical marketing, there's always these free resources online.

You can go to find the traffic count for your state on any of the roads. 

So if you go onto those websites and find out how many cars per day is going to the highway next to your facility, it could be time to invest in signage. Or if maybe the zoning doesn't allow that, you can just get a 40-foot American flagpole just installed in there.

Some type of road visibility.

But, yeah, physical marketing, I think, is something often overlooked when we have conversations with people, and I say, listen, do not underestimate someone driving by.

And then it clicks in their head that I need storage. And maybe on a highway, you're going too fast to notice unless you have something stand out and get in their face.

[You can find traffic data on] a state listserv.

So just type in the state traffic account directory. I'll release, like, a directory on it. So you guys have access to all your state traffic count.

It's free, completely free, man. So have access to it.

I'll make sure to send it out in the newsletter. And I'll send it to you, Tommy, so you can circulate it as well.

Because, you know, you're trying to figure out what the next step is, how many cars per day is going by you? And another thing we talk about is if you have, like, a Walmart, like in strip malls they are called anchor stores. Like, things to draw attention, drive foot traffic. 

Just get you and your two nephews to start putting flyers in the cars in the parking lot, man. Guerrilla marketing. Let's go.

When there's a will there's a way, so get your name out there."

—James McLean