Self Storage Email Marketing

Email marketing campaigns are an easy and cost-effective way of distributing information about your self storage business. Designing a campaign of this type requires little effort and can reap great rewards in terms of exposure and consumer awareness for your business. There are several free and paid options available for marketing your self storage business in this fashion. In order to start, take note of the following:

• Find an online email marketing service – There are many good online email marketing services available to choose from, like MailChimp.com, ConstantContact.com, or EliteMail.com, etc. Most likely you’ll have to pay a small nominal fee, but by doing so you’ll have access to easy to use email marketing tools that include email templates, email list managing tools, analytics, and more. Many of them offer a free trial that you can use to determine if it is the right fit for you.

• Create an email list – In order to send your messages, you must have a list of emails to send to. You can purchase an email list from an Internet source or use an email list compiled by yourself. Whichever the case may be, ensure that your list targets people, businesses, and organizations in your city or market area. If you have a website, it’s a good idea to place a form in your home page requesting people for their email address to receive special discounts over email.

• Email content – Have sufficient text and a suitable message about your facility and special offers in your email. Choose a simple email template that will look professional or appropriate for the occasion. Use a couple of pictures but do not simply fill your email with them. Having too many pictures and little text could be considered as spam. Using too many words like “cheap”, “discount”, “act now”, etc... can get your email labeled as spam as well. Keep in mind that there are programs that will filter your emails for spam content. Always make sure you include your phone number, email address, and the name of a contact person in a noticeable section of the email to make it easier for customers to contact your facility.

• Choose a short but catchy subject message – The subject line could be the most important part of your email—if it’s not interesting or catchy enough, readers possibly will not bother to open your email. Choose your subject message carefully. It should clearly and concisely summarize the content of your email; think of it as a news headline. It is also helpful to use labels on your email subject lines. For example, if the email is about a new seasonal discount, you could have [Summer Sale] at the beginning of your subject line. Remember to stay away from using more than one exclamation point, writing in all CAPS, and using too many spam words to avoid being labeled as unwanted junk mail. Many reputable email services provide spam checking tools as part of their service, so make sure you test your subject line before sending your email.

• Opt-out option – Ensure that you give your recipients the option to opt out of your email list. Not everyone will be receptive of your email marketing efforts, especially if they feel they are being forced into it. As much as you will want to spread the word about your self storage facility, there are people who may not be willing to receive your emails. Most email marketing services will give you the option to add an opt-out link in your email templates, make sure you use this feature and that you remove any emails of people that have unsubscribe from the list before sending another email.

• Follow up on leads – Make sure you follow up on every lead and that you ask how they heard about your facility. It’s important to know if your email marketing efforts are being effective or not so that you evaluate how much resources you will devote to it. You can choose to include a discount code on your email, this might help keep track of which sales were a result of your email marketing campaigns.

• Be persistent, but do not spam – It might take more than one email to get a response, so keep at it and remember that marketing of this sort could take some time to see the results. Do not flood your potential consumers’ inboxes everyday. In general you should not send more than one email a week, sending more could result in people loosing interest and even labeling them as spam. Some people may unsubscribe or opt out of your email list.

There are many options available and it is up to you as the self storage business owner to choose one which you feel will work for you. Keep in mind that you can send your newsletter, link to your blog and website, and other pertinent information in your email marketing campaign. The key to success in this arena is not to overload your potential and existing customers with too much information. Consider doing an email marketing campaign when you have a special message to send out such as the launch of a new type of self storage initiative or a seasonal promotion.

Blogging About Self Storage

Blogging is an essential part of online marketing. It provides a platform where you can speak to your potential audience in an informal and conversational manner. As a self storage business owner, you can start your own blog to educate potential customers about the benefits of choosing your facility versus the competition. Before getting started, you should take note of the essential elements that make a good blog:

• Content - This is perhaps the most crucial element. The content you create is what drives visitors to your blog. Ensure that it is not only relevant to your business, but is also engaging to those who read it. Practice makes perfect so the more content you create, the better you will become at it. You can start out by providing general information about your facility. Then, you can add topics relating to self storage, introduce your employees, and post any information about your facility which you deem relevant.

• Design – Simplicity is key. Do not distract readers from the most important part of your blog – the content. Keep your design uncomplicated to ensure that what you write will be easy to read. Avoid making your page too busy or colorful.

• Hosting – You can decide whether you want to host your blog yourself or use a free blogging service. If you do not have a website for your self storage business, sites such as Blogger, Wordpress, Weebly, Tumblr, and LiveJournal provide free hosting services. However, your domain name will include the name of the free service you choose e.g. myblog.blogger.com. The free services often have blog templates, which will help you choose a design. Some of these free services, such as Wordpress, offer paid options where you can get more features. The advantages of using free hosting sites include the simplicity it offers (you do not have to know HTML), the design is already laid out, and it saves money. However, there is limited customer support and very low bandwidth with free services. Paid services offer additional features such as more design themes, assistance from customer support, the ability to add advertisements to your blog to make money, and of course, a personalized domain name. There is still some work involved with paid hosting services, e.g. WordPress’s visual editor requires some understanding of HTML. TearPad, iPage, JustHost, and BlueHost are all paid services which you can explore if you choose to go this route.

• Interaction – Consider allowing comments on your blog to interact with your readers. This way, you can get an idea of which topics work and the ones that do not. This also provides an opportunity for customers to ask questions if they need clarification on what you post. You can link your social media account to your blog so that when persons comment, it will also display in their respective social media profiles. This increases the visibility of your blog. For example, if you integrate Facebook with your blog, when persons are logged into their Facebook accounts and comment on a post it will be displayed as a story on their wall. You can include links to other social networking sites which will allow your readers to share your post across those platforms as well.

If your blog has the key elements listed above, then you should be able to build a substantial following of people who will read it on a regular basis. A blog is simple enough to start and manage. You can ask your employees for help in creating content. For even more variety, update your blog with videos and make a short post describing the content of the video. You can also post pictures e.g. of promotional events, your facility, and employees.

Feel free to go in whichever direction you are most comfortable with, which will help you get your point across to self storage customers. Some people prefer a more casual style of writing while others may want to keep it strictly professional. You will just need to find your niche. Just remember that you aim is to promote your self storage facility. Therefore, the majority of the information you post should be pertinent to your business.

Our USSelfStorageLocator.com team is always working in informing you of the latest and most effective ways you can market your self storage facility. Feel free to contact us anytime at 888-222-0225 for more self storage online marketing information or to sign up to our online self storage directory.

LinkedIn for Self Storage

LinkedIn, which surfaced nearly a decade ago, distinguishes itself in the social media arena by mainly targeting businesses and professional associations. Your self storage business will benefit from properly utilizing LinkedIn’s networking features which can help you get more business as well as connect with industry professionals. Our social media experts here at USSelfStorageLocator.com have prepared a short LinkedIn guide to help you get started on broadening your self storage facility’s online network and presence.

Basics of LinkedIn

To get started with LinkedIn you must first create a personal account. A Basic personal account is free and will let you create a personal profile for you, as well as a business profile for your self storage facility. However, LinkedIn offers various levels of paid memberships that give you access to extra features.

Once you create a personal account, fill it out with as much relevant information as possible. Your main focus should be informing potential self storage customers about your business. You can adjust your account settings by using the option in the upper right hand corner. For example, an important setting you can set up is whether or not you want others to see that you have viewed their profile. Enabling this setting will allow you to see who has visited your profile as well. This is very useful, as you could contact and research your profile viewers, and potentially generate leads. You can also use the account settings section to edit your profile details and manage your email notification preferences.

After completing your personal profile you will have to create a company page. Create it by visiting the Companies section and selecting ‘add a company’. You will need to fill in your company name and email address. You must prove that you are a current employee of the company by using your company email. Once you have done this, you will receive an email when your page is ready for editing. You can set up your company page so that other employees with a LinkedIn account can edit it.

Once you have set up both your personal profile and your company page, you can then start connecting with people. Remember that LinkedIn is used mostly by professionals so it is not encouraged that you add random people, which is a common practice on other social media networks. Before you can send an invitation to connect, you must first explain how you know the person. You will be presented with options such as colleague, classmate, friend, other etc. If you chose ‘other’, you will have to enter the person’s email address to send an invitation. A good way to get started is to search for people in the self storage industry such as vendors and self storage association officials. By doing so, you are aligning yourself and your business to those who could provide you with important industry information.

Business-to-business Interaction

In LinkedIn you can follow companies that have established a profile page. With this feature, you can follow local businesses and companies in your community and stay informed every time they update information on the site. Connecting with them may bring you more business leads, as many businesses need self storage services as well. You can also follow self storage companies similar to your own to get an idea of what they may be doing. Keeping up with your competition is an important part of potentially exceeding them.

Business-to-customer Interaction

The creation of a business page allows you to target potential self storage customers. This is a good way to increase the visibility of your self storage company. In your company page, you can list an overview of your facility details, current special offers, as well as any employment opportunities you might have. Ensure that you include as much quality information as you can – address, telephone, person of contact. You can include a picture of your facility or logo under the products and services section.

There is an Analytics feature that shows you how many people have viewed your page and the section with the most frequent visits. If you decide to execute a marketing/advertising promotion, this page is helpful for the evaluation of its success. For example, if four weeks into your promotion the number of visits to the promotional section has not increased at a satisfactory rate, then you can choose to improve upon what you are doing.

Lead Generation

As a self storage business owner, the primary purpose behind your use of LinkedIn will be to generate leads and create as much new business as possible. LinkedIn offers many features, but here’s a list of the features which could benefit your self storage business the most:

• LinkedIn Answers – In this section, people ask questions about various topics to get advice. A quick search will show you the questions that people are asking concerning self storage. By providing helpful responses on a regular basis, you are likely to find potential customers.

• LinkedIn Applications – You can add a link to your self storage blog, your Twitter account, Facebook account etc. This gives customers more access to your business by enabling them to connect with you on a variety of platforms. In order to connect your LinkedIn account to Facebook, you will have to allow access and permission from your Facebook account. You can visit the ‘My LinkedIn Profile’ page on Facebook and add the application to your Facebook profile.

• LinkedIn Groups – You can join industry-related groups to connect with people in your field. However, you should join groups outside of your industry to connect with an even wider range of people. Try finding groups of businesses in your city or state.

• LinkedIn People – Search for personal profiles using the box located in the upper right hand corner. When you find people you wish to connect with, you can ask your friends (if possible) for an introduction via LinkedIn. You can also search for people in specific companies to tailor your marketing efforts more precisely.

• LinkedIn Direct Ads – This works in a similar way to the paid search results on Google. You create your advertisement and then bid on how much you will pay every time someone clicks on your ad. For example, if you pay $1 per click and it takes 25 clicks to convert a potential self storage customer, you would have spent $25 for one customer. If that customer rents a unit for 6 months at $60 per month, then a $25 investment which yields $360 would have been a smart choice.

• LinkedIn Mobile – This is best utilized at trade shows or other industry events for making one-to-one contact. If you meet someone you want to connect with, you can transfer contact information via Bluetooth easily. This is a great way to follow up on a lead – no typing, no misspelled contact information.

Connecting Other Social Media Accounts

As mentioned earlier, you can choose to connect your Facebook account to LinkedIn. You can do the same for Twitter by using the “add application” feature. Your tweets will display in real-time on your LinkedIn account. This serves to add further visibility for your self storage business. You can also add polls, WordPress, Google Presentation, Huddle Workspaces, to name a few.

Marketing via LinkedIn

By now, you will have understood the basics of creating and maintaining your personal profile and company page on LinkedIn. By keeping this page constantly updated with useful and accurate information about your business, and connecting with people, businesses and organizations, you are potentially driving new business to your self storage facility.

You should also encourage your employees (managers at least) to create a LinkedIn profile and make sure they appear as employees of your company in LinkedIn. While you may only have one business page, every employee is free to create his or her own personal profile. This increases the number of mentions of your self storage business on the site. You can have your employees include the details of the business and location in their profiles. You may also designate people to search for self storage related questions on LinkedIn, answer them, and reach out to the person who is asking.

LinkedIn continues to expand its features and add useful new tools on a regular basis. These new tools enhance the site’s capabilities and adds to your ability to market your self-storage facility effectively. By using LinkedIn, you will be able to create engaging promotional campaigns and capitalize on the leads you generate.

Our USSelfStorageLocator.com team is always working in informing you of the latest and most effective ways you can market your self storage facility. Feel free to contact us anytime at 888-222-0225 for more self storage online marketing information or to sign up to our online self storage directory.