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Unless you are a digital marketing expert and have a keen eye for spotting fantastic marketing opportunities and emerging trends, you will need to outsource your marketing activities to an agency. But before you can hire anyone, you need to know how to find a suitable marketing agency for your self-storage business. You can't hire just anyone because hasty decisions will not bring you any results, and you will only waste resources. With that in mind, there are several criteria you will need to consider to be able to choose a marketing agency that suits your needs.

What to Consider Before Choosing a Suitable Marketing Agency for Your Self-Storage Business

Before you can decide which agency fits your needs, you have to consider the following:

  1. What kind of marketing agency do you need?
  2. What goals do you want to achieve?
  3. How much can you afford to pay?

What Kind of Marketing Agency Do You Need?

First of all, think about whether you need a digital marketing agency or a digital consultant. While a consultant can offer guidance and help a lot design your marketing strategy, unless you have a lot of experience and knowledge, you will likely have to hire an agency at some point. So, why not pick the best option for you immediately. An agency will offer a more comprehensive service.

Then, think about whether you want an agency that focuses on physical marketing or the digital aspects of running an advertising campaign. Do you want to focus on your social media presence? Are you more interested in generating organic traffic or paid marketing? These are all the questions to answer before you set out to find a suitable marketing agency for your self-storage business.

Alt: An image representing digital marketing, website, email, social media, SEO, and blog

Here are the three standard options:

  1. Strategic marketing agency - It focuses on data analysis to create strategies to achieve your business goals. These strategies can then be used for:
    1. PPC
    2. SEO
    3. Social media
    4. Customer experience
  2. Multidiscipline marketing agency - If you need an agency that will cover every aspect of your marketing activities, this is what you need. These agencies offer a comprehensive service and a team of experts, so their fees will be higher. Some of the experts you can rely on if you go for this option are:
    1. Strategists
    2. Designers
    3. Account managers
  3. Niche marketing agency - These agencies focus on providing marketing services to a particular niche (services or industries)

TIP: As a self-storage facility, you will probably be best off with a niche agency. They will know what you need, have superb attention to detail, and be able to provide a personal touch.

What Goals do you Want to Achieve?

Before you hire an agency, you must know what you want to accomplish with your marketing efforts. The best marketing agency will mean nothing if you don't define your goals and communicate them clearly. Your goal can be:

  • Driving more traffic to your website
  • Focusing on your company's growth
  • Increasing conversions
  • Improving brand awareness

You will also have to define your target audience. All of that will inform your marketing strategy.

TIP: Do your homework: Define your goals, target audience, and budget before looking for a suitable marketing agency for your self-storage business.

How Much Can You Afford to Pay?

Defining your budget also plays a vital role in finding a suitable marketing agency for your self-storage business. That is no easy task because the amount of money you direct to your marketing efforts should reflect the size of your company and your target audience.

According to the US Small Business Administration, B2C companies often have to spend more than B2B companies. B2Cservice companies spend 11.8% of their revenue on marketing activities on average, while B2B companies spend 6.9%. Moreover, companies starting out probably have to pay more for marketing than already established ones.

TIP: Answer the critical question: What percentage of my revenue can I allocate to marketing?

How to Choose a Suitable Marketing Agency for Your Self-Storage Business

You need to ask marketing agencies several sets of questions during an interview. These questions are concerning their:

  1. Work process
  2. Methodologies
  3. Tools
  4. KPIs they use to assess progress

TIP: Always conduct interviews with a few agencies so you can pick the one that suits your needs best.

Ask about the agency's work process

  • Who will manage my account?
  • What methods will you take to help me reach my goals?
  • When do you send status updates on progress?
  • Where are your offices and staff located?
  • Do you have an outsourcing strategy?
  • How do you measure progress?

Inquire about the agency's methodologies

While talking to the agency representatives, pay attention if they:

  • Are asking questions specific to your business
  • Have an outline of a strategy specific to your business rather than a pre-made approach
  • Mention cooperation with experts in every marketing discipline
  • Plan to develop a customized SEO strategy for your company

Check what tools the agency uses

Good marketing agencies will drive customers to you through:

Understand what they can do for you and ask if they offer services, such as:

Also, ask what type of software they use. Some of the tools you should expect to hear about are:

  • Google Analytics
  • Google Ads
  • Facebook Ads
  • Microsoft Ads
  • Salesforce
  • Deep Crawl
  • SEMrush

Inquire about the KPIs the agency uses to track progress

Alt: Marketing campaign anlytics

The importance of monitoring and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) cannot be highlighted enough. That's how you know if your marketing efforts are delivering any yield. KPIs will vary depending on what you want to achieve, but once you inform the agency of your goals, they should tell you how they plan to track progress.

Some of the key metrics to focus on include:

  • The number of website visitors
  • The number of leads
  • How many visitors initiated contact
  • The number of closed deals

TIP: Go to the meeting with potential marketing agencies ready. Prepare a comprehensive list of questions and listen to what they say.

Conclusion

Thinking about your needs, goals, and budget is the first step when you set out to find a suitable marketing agency for your self-storage business. Preparing the list of relevant questions and interviewing potential agencies is the second. Finally, you need to ask for a list of references and call a few of their previous clients. That is the only way to ensure you get the services you need.

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