Is there something you're not doing for your storage business that would be helpful?
No one wants to feel they've been overlooking something basic. Especially if it's a basic marketing move that could really set you apart! But it's inevitable. Even large national operators are constantly learning and making corrections.
We asked our panelists to chime in on the topic by giving us what they believe are the industry's most overlooked marketing tactics.
Listen to Heather McCombs, Stacie Maxwell, and Josh Huff give us their take in this Gabfocus Spotlight.
Question: "What’s the most overlooked marketing tactic in self storage?"
Check out the video clip below to hear their answers:
In this Gabfocus Session: Marketing in Slow Markets, Heather McCombs of Spacebox and Stacie Maxwell of Universal Storage Group join us to talk about marketing. Specifically, about how to handle marketing when things are slow.
Check out the full Session to dive deeper!
Don't want to watch the clip? Here's what Heather, Stacie, and Josh had to say:
Your managers, just plain and simple, you don't realize how much they affect your business.
They're the ones. They're the face. So if somebody has a bad manager experience, that referral—it's not just good referrals you'll get, you get bad referrals if you can't have a good manager. I'm thankful. I have fantastic managers, but that's who we hire, somebody who can be it's not selling storage.
It is like a concierge of a hotel. Your facility is built. It can sell itself. Someone's coming. They need storage. We know it. But they are the ones that will bring people back and be the best marketing you have."
—Heather McCombs
"Yeah, I agree. We hire for personality and energy and train for skill.
They don't have to know self storage. And we find a lot of former apartment complex managers make great storage counselors. And we call them counselors because you're going to hear the life story of the person moving in.
But that person behind the counter running your facility, they don't always have to stay behind the counter. You want them to get out in the community. I do think that person getting out and befriending the community, proving that they're a good trusted resource, that's the most overlooked tactic.
It's very simple and it makes a lot of sense."
—Stacie Maxwell
"Those are really good.
I don't know if mine is a tactic as much as know all the points on your customer's journey from not knowing you exist to moving into the building to moving out.
Because if you don't know all those points, people might be missing you for something you have no idea that you're doing.
It might be that the phone calls go into a weird voicemail. It might be that a link is broken on your website. Maybe you don't have a great manager. Maybe something's wrong at your physical facility. So if you don't know all those touch points, then you don't know what to check to make sure that everything is working smoothly.
So I would say even though that might not technically be with marketing, that is part of just knowing the customer journey. All those different points that they can connect with you."
—Josh Huff
