How online channels will become the primary way consumers find self storage facilities
These days, almost every industry is changing at a rapid pace. Even the most analog sectors are adjusting to the digital world that the global community has built in the past couple of decades. Marketing is a good example of that, seeing as the focus of marketing budgets has shifted from retail advertisements to online marketing and commerce. It seems clear that online channels will become the main way people find storage facilities
The Future Is Online
Before thinking about how online marketing channels will shape the self-storage industry, we have to think about how lead generation worked for this sector in the past. For decades, the main way self-storage space owners acquired new tenants were regular walk-ins. Once people noticed a storage facility, they would memorize where it was and come back when they needed it.
Back then, this was the case with most products or services. You would either notice a service provider on a billboard or on a TV commercial. The advent of the World Wide Web completely changed this. These days, people get all of their information online. If you were to relocate to a new home, you’d find the info about the cost of your move online instead of using word of mouth. The Internet has also become the largest source of leads for the self-storage industry . The online world presents ample opportunities for self-storage owners in terms of marketing channels. All of these aspects are crucial when you’re adapting to the changes in the world of advertising:
- SEO for self-storage
- Social media marketing
- Email marketing
- PPC advertisements
Search Engine Optimization
The pinnacle of any long-term marketing campaign is enabling your target audience to easily find you on the Internet. If you want to stand out among the competition, there’s no way to do it without optimizing your website for search engines.
Primarily, this means maintaining your storage facilities’ visibility by taking all of the ranking factors of Google and Bing in mind — these are the two biggest market players in the world of search engines, though Bing is an extremely distant second.
Gauging what kind of SEO measures you need to put in place can be tough — this is something of a catch-all term for a wide range of actions, from keyword research to content marketing. You also need to build a high-quality internal linking structure for your website, as this is something search engines put a lot of value on
Social Media Marketing
If you’re thinking about what pays off among all online channels for the self-storage industry, you should know that all of these strategies must be used in unison if you want to achieve the best possible effect. Still, there is one standout part of online lead generation that is absolutely unavoidable regardless of your niche or industry — and that’s social media marketing
This is the number one way you will succeed in reaching online consumers who are looking for self-storage. Social media isn’t just a platform or a website, or even a mere communication tool. It’s an entire online world, and it’s one that billions of people are a part of globally.
Considering that, we recommend sharing as much of your content as you can on social networks, and do it constantly. Just like SEO, this shouldn't be a short burst of activity or a couple of paid ads.
You won’t have a cult following overnight, which is why most companies hire a dedicated social media manager to specifically take care of their online presence.
Email Marketing
The Internet has been around for decades now, and certain online marketing strategies are positively ancient — yet still highly functional. Email marketing is one such avenue for consistent lead conversion. There are plenty of advantages to email marketing; first of all, it’s practically free. The only potential cost you might have is the expense of obtaining leads for your campaign.
How do you obtain lead email addresses for free? The simplest and most immediate way is to use the addresses of your website visitors. Most company websites include an opt-in form for a newsletter or pamphlet, and your self-storage business should make use of this online channel as well.
Pay Per Click
As we’ve mentioned before, SEO and social media marketing are online channels designed to drive leads to your website organically in the long run. However, the competition among self-storage companies is significant; sometimes, you need an immediate burst of traffic to revitalize your business
In that situation, a pay-per-click campaign is what you need. This is a marketing tactic, not a strategy — it has a simple premise and it needs to be used in the short term.
You can pay Google to get your website ranked as top for the relevant keywords even if your SEO isn’t up to snuff just yet. The only thing you need to do is to define a budget and create a Google Ads campaign. The platform will bill you for every lead that’s generated via that ad link
The same goes for all social media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, etc. — all of them have PPC options. Just remember that you cannot sustain your company’s online presence via PPC alone, at least not in the long run. These campaigns require an extensive budget to keep them going; remember, you are paying for every click.
If you want to keep your company’s online channels active for the foreseeable future, you need to focus on organic lead generation through SEO as well.