Marketing That Gets Clicks | Self Storage Virtual Workshop

Gabfocus Episode 66 | Marketing That Gets Clicks

There are many digital marketing tactics you can use, but which ones are actually worth the time when it comes to self storage? From running ads to your Google Business Profile, join us as we discuss the digital marketing levers you can pull to attract more customers to your business.

Featured Speakers: Melissa Stiles
Moderators: Tommy Nguyen & Melissa Huff

Category: Marketing
Focus: Owners Operators, & Managers
Aired: November 21, 2024
Duration: 1:09:35

Overview

If you don't have time to watch the whole session, here are some of our favorite parts:

At 5:50, our expert discussed the current state of self storage marketing and the trends she is seeing.
7:20, Melissa discussed how to identify issues with your marketing.
Starting at 8:25, Melissa covered the marketing tools she checks when business is feeling slow.
At 11:10, our guest talked about how she measures the effectiveness of their marketing and ROI.
13:00, our expert shared how to determine who your target customer is and what matters to them.
Around 16:00, Melissa talked about how much time and budget you should dedicate to your marketing.
At 22:10, our guest covered how storage marketing is different this year when compared to past years.
25:50, Melissa touched on how much she recommends investing in organic vs. paid efforts.
34:40, our guest discussed the different types of Google Ads and which are the best to run.
39:50, Melissa highlighted geo fencing and how they utilize it at Storage Asset Management.
At 45:10, our guest talked about how to use digital marketing to enhance your offline marketing efforts.
Starting at 50:40, Melissa discussed how you can use social media marketing to drive brand awareness.
Around 54:20, our guest talked about using influencers to market some of their storage businesses.
59:10, Melissa highlighted updates you can make to your Google Business Profile to attract more customers.
1:02:50, Melissa answered the question of the week!

Gabfocus Takeaway

With so many digital marketing tactics that you can try, you have to start by knowing your facility, your community, and who your target customer is because spending money on digital marketing won't matter at all if you aren't getting in front of the people who actual need storage and are able to rent from your facility. Once you know who you want to reach and what they care about, then you can start testing and trying new tactics. Make sure to track the results of each marketing tactic so you can decide if they are worth continuing or if they don't work for your business. As an independent operator, focus on what matters locally and ensure that the content of your website and marketing speaks to what your local customer cares about.

What are Gabfocus Sessions?

Gabfocus Sessions are virtual workshops for self storage owners, managers, and operators. Brought to you by the team behind Gabfest: StoragePug and Lighthouse Storage Solutions.

Each session features hand-picked industry pros who will dive deep into relevant topics surrounding our industry, share best practices, and explore trends in the market. It's our hope that these sessions help you navigate your self storage business better during these uncertain times.

Want to learn more about self storage? Join us on select Thursdays for Gabfocus.

Questions Answered in this Session

How do you know if you have an issue with your marketing?
What are the first marketing tools you check if things are feeling slow?
How do you determine your target customer?
How much should you be spending on marketing?
How is marketing different in 2024 versus the previous years?
Which digital marketing tactics do you feel are essential for any size storage business?
How does your digital marketing change when marketing in a rural versus urban area?
How do you measure the ROI of your digital marketing?
If you already have a solid foundation of digital marketing basics, which tactics can you try if you have extra time and budget?
What are some unique marketing strategies you have tried that have been successful?
Should you consider marketing on social media or having a blog?
How can you use digital marketing to enhance grassroots or community-based marketing?
What do you feel is the most underutilized marketing tactic in self storage?

Resources from this session

Awesome Quotes

“Once your operation is in place, you can become more dynamic with your pricing, but that requires data. You need some method of being able to record the data that you need to know whether your price is in the right place - whether you need to move it up or start giving some concessions.” - Warren Lieberman

“I never want to downplay to what someone else is doing. I'm better than they are, then I'm going to be worth a higher price. That's what value is. If you go out to a restaurant and get really good service, would you go back? Yes! What if it was pricier? You'd still go back because you got better service and a better product.” - Jim Mooney

"It's good to be informed on your competition. I don't want to ignore them, but I don't want to respond too strongly to them either." - Warren Lieberman

"We did a survey of 10,000 facilities on their pricing. We found out that two-thirds of those operators didn't change the price of a single unit of the course of a month." - Warren Lieberman

“Rate increases and value pricing are the number one ways to grow your revenue.” - Jim Mooney

"Tenants in more convenient units tend to be less price sensitive." - Warren Lieberman

"The size of the unit is only one aspect of what people are willing to pay for." - Warren Lieberman

Highlights

Foundational marketing strategies to have in place - whether leasing up or stabilized:

Website
Set up listings (Yelp, Google My Business, Apple Maps)
Social Media
Establish Local Partnerships

Lease up marketing strategies:

Lead Generating Strategies (like digital ads)
Aggregators (Sparefoot, Storagefront, etc.)
Awareness Campaigns (like billboards, flyers, and sponsorships)

Your average customer value
Find the average stay length of all tenants. Next take your economic occupancy and divide by how many units you have. That will tell you what the average customer pays.

Multiply the average length of stay by what the average customer pays, and that's the average value of a customer.

For example, if a customer stays for 12 months and pays $100 per month, then their value is $1,200.

Your average lead value

Figure out your closing rate (or conversion rate) i.e. how many leads do you turn into tenants? Multiply that by your average customer lifetime value to figure out what your leads are worth.

Pro Tip: see which lead sources are converting the best. It may be that certain sources have a higher conversion rate, so those leads are worth more to you than a source that barely converts.

Typical Lease-up timeline

According to our panelists, it's typical to see a 3-4% increase each month, putting your facility at 36% after the first year, and 72% after the second.

Alternately, you can look at your lease up goals through the lens of your units, aiming for 20 units rented per month.

For Nick and StorageMax, they pro forma their economic occupancy at 85% with their sweet spot at 92%.