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The best self-storage companies make Internet marketing a centerpiece of their marketing strategy. While others may have failed in their internet marketing efforts, before you dismiss it, it's important to uncover some of the core advantages.

Think about how the following benefits of Internet marketing will influence your brand and ability to grow. 

First, Internet marketing takes marketing to the most granular level, from demography and geography to the marketing message. It makes precision marketing possible.

Second, with Internet marketing, you can track the progress of your marketing campaign — changes can be made throughout the process to improve the chances of success. Being able to pivot based on data-driven insights is imperative to help improve your return on investment (ROI).

Third, Internet marketing allows you to nurture prospects, potentially leading them to purchase. You can inch them closer to a deal by embarking on re-marketing or drip campaigns.

Fourth, as a result of the above, Internet marketing makes fostering relationships with customers and prospects much easier. Many businesses deploy customer relationship management software to keep track of their interactions with customers.

Lastly, Internet marketing optimizes the use of your self-storage marketing budget. In contrast to running a television commercial, radio, or print ads, Internet marketing is less expensive.

Self-Storage Advertising

On its own, Internet marketing does not guarantee success. Like others, self-storage advertising must harness the best of what is possible online to draw more customers to your storage units.

Websites

Perhaps the most basic of Internet marketing is a website. After the company name and logo, it is the next most important brand touchpoint. Some of the best self-storage websites are comparable to e-commerce websites that allow purchases to be made online. 

Paid Advertising

It is probably the fastest route to generate sales online. With Google being the largest shopping mall, almost everyone gets onto it to shop. With pay-per-click advertising (PPC), you can also benefit from this consumer buying behavior. Although some argue it is expensive, this has to be weighed against the promptness of the return on investment. 

Social Media Advertising

When appropriately used, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok can be profitable channels of Internet marketing, especially if you are targetting Gen Z or millennials. Not only are these platforms versatile, but they can also be turned into shoppable posts. Consumers can make a purchase by tapping on the image or video they have just watched.

SEO

Being the biggest shopping mall, one can expect Google to be crowded with businesses peddling their goods. Hence, being on the Internet is not good enough. You need to make it easy for customers and prospects to search for you online. Search engine optimization, or SEO, does this. It helps you rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages or SERPs. 

Email Marketing

Some argue email marketing is dead. With more than half of the world's population listed as email users (1), email marketing is unlikely to lose its relevance any time soon. On the contrary, with marketing personalization increasingly a leveraging tool, self-storage companies cannot afford not to consider using it.

Self-Storage Solutions

The digital space allows for greater versatility and flexibility in showcasing your self-storage solutions to customers and prospects

If marketing is defined as lowering or removing objections to making a purchase, Internet marketing, a part of the digital world we live in, performs this task well. 

Use of video marketing

With 9 in 10 marketers stating videos give them a positive ROI, if it is not in your self-storage business plan, you are bold or have something else up your sleeve (2). Videos bring your storage units to life. They make it easier for customers and prospects to visualize using them. 

In addition, videos make it easy for your marketing to go viral. Even in the pre-marketing technology age, word-of-mouth has always been an important advertising medium, not forgetting free! Technology has just given it the punch-and-kick to make it more effective.

Whether you use videos to conduct virtual tours or feature how your storage units are used, they can make a difference in the effectiveness of your advertising. Of course, the production quality needs to be of the highest standards possible, even if it is shot on a smartphone.

Social Media Strategy

A comprehensive social media strategy is important. With the variety of social media channels available today, orchestrating their use ensures you maximize the potential returns. 

Each of the social media channels has its respective applications. Facebook, for example, is strong in its social component. Families and friends use it a lot to stay in touch. Instagram and TikTok tend to be more user-generated content. If you are using influencer marketing, Instagram and TikTok are the most likely platforms to use.

Not all Internet marketing activities are designed to close a sale. Some can be used as part of your engagement strategy. Posting content on home designs or household gadgets may appear irrelevant with regard to self-storage units, but they appeal to the same target audience - homeowners or renters. Sharing usable content is a way of staying engaged with your target audience. 

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

With the right targeting, messaging, and execution, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising can yield good returns. Although it is possible for you to DIY a PPC campaign - there are plenty of resources online to guide you - it is probably best to work with a self-storage advertising agency.

First, they can help you set up the goals. Second, they have the expertise and tools to optimize the use of PPC in your advertising. Third, PPC is a very dynamic advertising strategy. You may not have the time or intimate knowledge to make it work hard for you. The agency, however, has.

Self-Storage Facility Management Software

From knowing the number of available storage units and their location within the facility to allow customers to view their storage units in real-time, self-storage facility management software manages the business 24/7. 

Regardless of the size of your business, having self-storage facility management software makes it much easier to run it. It keeps you on top of things at a glance and, at the same time, enables you to drill in on specific issues when you wish to.

Self-Storage Websites

Without a website, your self-storage business is a faceless entity in cyberspace. With the Internet being the first port of call for every search and purchase, it is unthinkable for a business not to have a website.

First impressions count, and they last a long while too. With the variety of self-storage website templates available for you to choose from, without a strategy, you may select one that is a misfit for your brand. 

Now, self-storage website design is more than just the look and feel. You must pay attention to the content, navigation, and interaction visitors can have with the business. For example, can they book a unit or ask for more details to be emailed to them?

In building a self-storage website, the target audience's needs precede most other factors. The website should make it easy for them to learn more about your facility and take whatever necessary action — with the average time spent on a website not more than a minute, getting it right on the first click or swipe matters. 

A website to market your storage solutions is par for the course. Without one, you will be at a disadvantage vis-a-vis the competition. 

Self-Storage Marketing

Although Internet marketing is the mainstay of most business marketing, traditional marketing remains important. It is highly unlikely for a self-storage marketing agency not to include it in the marketing strategy of their clients. From simple self-storage marketing flyers to radio ads, perhaps, there are other self-storage marketing ideas worth exploring.

Reward and referral programs.

Everyone loves to be rewarded for doing good and the right thing. It incentivizes them to maintain the behavior. An increasingly popular marketing idea is to encourage consumers to share their positive experiences and be rewarded for it.

Co-marketing

Create a list of features that are important to you and rank your options based on your needs. Is booking online and website integration more important to you than having a map of your complex? Make sure you have a list prepared of must-have features for your system.

Community Involvement

You are likely to share a similar target group with other businesses. They may include real estate agencies, movers, or home interior designers. Their clients may have storage needs, for example, in between homes. By making your business visible to their clients, too, you may be considered when the need arises.

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If you are focused on a particular geographic area, it makes sense to get involved in the community. For example, sponsoring the local junior league team gives you ample visibility every weekend throughout the baseball season. When closely associated with the community, you will create a sense of ownership in your brand in the local population. 

The above are just some self-storage marketing ideas you can consider for your next marketing strategy planning exercise. Your creativity only limits you. Not all of them require massive financial investments. 

As self-storage marketing evolves, ensuring you are in step with the changes is important. With technology, marketing has become more versatile and dynamic. Unless you are abreast of what is available, the wrong course of action can be costly.
 

References

(1) https://www.oberlo.com/blog/email-marketing-statistics

(2) https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/state-of-video-marketing-new-data