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Other Added - Increasing Occupancy At Your Self Storage Facility Through Effective Marketing
When designing a business card, it's essential that it's clear, concise and right to the point.Of the factors that make an effective business card, the least exciting one--clarity. However, it's also the most fundamental of the factors.To see why, imagine this case. An architecture firm designs a business card for their services, and does a good job of making cards available to ideal contacts. One such contact--a wealthy person in search of a new home, for example--gets a copy of the business card. The card features a bold typeface, a beautifully photographed image of one of the architect's more famous buildings, and a memorable slogan. Excellent, thinks the potential client: I'll keep them in mind. The day comes when he's ready to put down the money for the house. Remembering the card, he takes it out in order to contact the architect and ask some questions about pricing and schedules. And then he finds out that whoever designed the architect's business card left off the we
They do this without ever considering what to say, how to say it and who to say it to in order to motivate the prospect to pick up the phone, call you and choose you to store their belongings.
After innovations have been made to make you the obvious choice to store their belongings with, it’s time to talk about delivering this powerful message we’ve just created.
This is done through advertising mediums. This includes Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Yellow Pages, Billboards, etc.
Rather than go into each medium, I’ll get straight to the point on this…
For most facilities, spending advertising dollars on anything but Yellow Pages, Internet and Direct Mail is a giant waste of your money. Convenience and location are by far the biggest decision factors in the self-storage business. People want their belongings close and within easy access! This is why most of your customers live so close to the site they store at.
So, advertising to somebody 20 miles away by using mediums like radio, TV and sometimes even Yellow Pages is absolutely pointless. Why would you make somebody an offer who won’t accept it even if they wanted to?
Rathe
Custom business cards are one sure fire way to set your company apart from the hundreds of others out there. Many companies get their business cards from a printer who uses the same template for everyone. This makes everyone's business cards look the same except for the text. This does not help when you are trying to create a unique image. If you want to be different, be sure to order custom business cards. There is a slightly higher price for custom cards, but that is a small price to pay in order to make your company stand out from the rest. You may even increase business with a unique image.Ordering custom business cards can be done very easily online. Online business card companies allow you to design your own custom cards right on their web site. You can design everything from the layout of the card to the colors. Of course, you also get to customize the text that appears. Additionally, these companies allow for you to see the print of the card before you place an order. This way, if
1. Acquire New Customers (Increase Occupancy)
2. Increase The Value Of Each Customer
3. Lower Operating Expenses/Increase Margins
If you think about it for a few minutes, you’ll quickly realize that everything you’ve done to increase profits has fallen under one of those 3 categories.
If you find yourself engaged in a discussion about ideas that don’t fall into these areas, you’re in a danger zone and need to back up and make sure you start with this foundation prior to continuing.
I’ve seen millions of dollars wasted on ideas that fall outside of these 3 areas and I would be doing you a disservice by not cautioning you on the danger of even exploring the ideas if they don’t fit snuggly into these categories.
So, let's get started with point number one: Acquiring New Customers
Although there are other ways to increase the profitability of your storage facility, increasing occupancy is the most obvious and talked about method.
However, since there are so many ways to acquire a new customer, there is a lot of confusion and therefore a lot of money wasted in this business on bad marketing and sales tactics.
Before we get into the tactics of actually acquiring new customers, we need to take a holistic view of what is actually happening in your marketplace when a prospective customer needs storage and begins the hunt for a facility to store their belongings.
In order to create powerful marketing strategies we need to first see the world through your prospects eyes, in an effort to understand their motive in deciding to use storage in the first place. Then to understand their motive in choosing whatever facility they do. You’ve likely heard the maxim: “If you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys you’ve got to see the world through John Smith’s eyes”.
As a marketer, that is one of the most valuable, underused maxims of all time.
See, marketing has many definitions. But ultimately it all boils down to MOTIVATING somebody to use your product/service to satisfy their need or want. But, in order to motivate, we must understand motive.
We uncover motive by – now this is real rocket science here so brace yourself – asking your customers and prospects what their motive is!
Imagine that!
Now, this must be done correctly since we know that a person’s first, surface level answer is usually not the complete and real answer but it really boils down to asking them why…
Why, after all of these years of a cluttered closet or garage, did you finally decide to use self storage?
Why, Businessman, did you finally decide to use self-storage to expand your distribution reach?
Why, of all the choices in town, did you choose us?
Why, why why?
After asking the right questions, the right way, enough times, you’re able to start drawing some good conclusions. But we’re not finished…
After we know what their motive is, we still need more invaluable information from these ever important people. After all, my opinion, your opinion and your marketing department’s opinion doesn’t matter one bit!
Know why? Because we’re not the one paying the money for the space. We’re not the one that pays the bills…your customer is! Getting in their head is absolutely critical and one of the most valuable things you could spend your time doing.
But uncovering their motive only tells us what motivated them to use self-storage and maybe why they chose you over the competition; we’re out to win a lion’s share of the market -aren’t we? So, we need to learn their frustrations, ultimate desires and non-motivators so we can learn what INNOVATIONS to implement to motivate them to choose us, over our competition.
In short, we need to find out what their buying motive is and how to get them to give us their money instead of giving it to your competition. That knowledge is most important!
The process we just described is a part of Storage Marketing Solutions “Discovery Process”. To date, we’ve done thousands of surveys across the country and already have great insight into your customers and prospective customer’s minds. But, since each competitive environment is slightly different, we always conduct new surveys for new clients to ensure the data is similar to maximize the return on their marketing investment.
In addition to uncovering buying motives, we do competitive analysis by shopping your competitors and conducting in depth staff surveys to gather further perspective.
After this is complete – we now can create the right strategy and begin developing the message and tactics that we will deploy this powerful message with.
Before pro sports teams prepare for their next game, what do they spend time doing? That’s right, reviewing game film of their toughest opponent actually playing. They do this so they can watch the play patterns, defense style and coaching moves of their competition. This helps them prepare and practice for their specific opponent. The same holds true for a court case. Before a case ever goes before the judge or jury, both attorneys do as much as they can during a discovery phase to create their case/game strategy.
Why should marketing strategy be any different? It shouldn’t! Most “marketers” don’t think twice about strategy. Rather, they’re artists. They create stuff that looks good and might get a laugh out of somebody without ever considering a solid strategy…
They do this without ever considering what to say, how to say it and who to say it to in order to motivate the prospect to pick up the phone, call you and choose you to store their belongings.
After innovations have been made to make you the obvious choice to store their belongings with, it’s time to talk about delivering this powerful message we’ve just created.
This is done through advertising mediums. This includes Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Yellow Pages, Billboards, etc.
Rather than go into each medium, I’ll get straight to the point on this…
For most facilities, spending advertising dollars on anything but Yellow Pages, Internet and Direct Mail is a giant waste of your money. Convenience and location are by far the biggest decision factors in the self-storage business. People want their belongings close and within easy access! This is why most of your customers live so close to the site they store at.
So, advertising to somebody 20 miles away by using mediums like radio, TV and sometimes even Yellow Pages is absolutely pointless. Why would you make somebody an offer who won’t accept it even if they wanted to?
Rather
Wire binding is a common binding method. It provides a secure bind keeping the pages in place and producing a professional, neat-looking document. It is of great use for reports, books and more. This wire binding results in documents that can be turned through 360° for easy opening of laid flat, and have a high-quality appearance.This binding uses a strip of plastic or wire that passes through a series of holes to bind together a stack of paper. A sturdier alternative to the single wire spirals or the plastic comb is wire binding. The wire forms teeth or double loops that fit into rectangular holes in the paper. The loops are frizzed to hold the wire in place, and these allow the book to lay flat when open. Writing notebooks, notepads, steno pads, cookbooks, booklets, manuals, reference materials, and calendars often utilize wire binding methods.There are two types of wire binding: single loop binding and double loop binding. Single loop binding is also known as coil wire binding.
In order to create powerful marketing strategies we need to first see the world through your prospects eyes, in an effort to understand their motive in deciding to use storage in the first place. Then to understand their motive in choosing whatever facility they do. You’ve likely heard the maxim: “If you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys you’ve got to see the world through John Smith’s eyes”.
As a marketer, that is one of the most valuable, underused maxims of all time.
See, marketing has many definitions. But ultimately it all boils down to MOTIVATING somebody to use your product/service to satisfy their need or want. But, in order to motivate, we must understand motive.
We uncover motive by – now this is real rocket science here so brace yourself – asking your customers and prospects what their motive is!
Imagine that!
Now, this must be done correctly since we know that a person’s first, surface level answer is usually not the complete and real answer but it really boils down to asking them why…
Why, after all of these years of a cluttered closet or garage, did you finally decide to use self storage?
Why, Businessman, did you finally decide to use self-storage to expand your distribution reach?
Why, of all the choices in town, did you choose us?
Why, why why?
After asking the right questions, the right way, enough times, you’re able to start drawing some good conclusions. But we’re not finished…
After we know what their motive is, we still need more invaluable information from these ever important people. After all, my opinion, your opinion and your marketing department’s opinion doesn’t matter one bit!
Know why? Because we’re not the one paying the money for the space. We’re not the one that pays the bills…your customer is! Getting in their head is absolutely critical and one of the most valuable things you could spend your time doing.
But uncovering their motive only tells us what motivated them to use self-storage and maybe why they chose you over the competition; we’re out to win a lion’s share of the market -aren’t we? So, we need to learn their frustrations, ultimate desires and non-motivators so we can learn what INNOVATIONS to implement to motivate them to choose us, over our competition.
In short, we need to find out what their buying motive is and how to get them to give us their money instead of giving it to your competition. That knowledge is most important!
The process we just described is a part of Storage Marketing Solutions “Discovery Process”. To date, we’ve done thousands of surveys across the country and already have great insight into your customers and prospective customer’s minds. But, since each competitive environment is slightly different, we always conduct new surveys for new clients to ensure the data is similar to maximize the return on their marketing investment.
In addition to uncovering buying motives, we do competitive analysis by shopping your competitors and conducting in depth staff surveys to gather further perspective.
After this is complete – we now can create the right strategy and begin developing the message and tactics that we will deploy this powerful message with.
Before pro sports teams prepare for their next game, what do they spend time doing? That’s right, reviewing game film of their toughest opponent actually playing. They do this so they can watch the play patterns, defense style and coaching moves of their competition. This helps them prepare and practice for their specific opponent. The same holds true for a court case. Before a case ever goes before the judge or jury, both attorneys do as much as they can during a discovery phase to create their case/game strategy.
Why should marketing strategy be any different? It shouldn’t! Most “marketers” don’t think twice about strategy. Rather, they’re artists. They create stuff that looks good and might get a laugh out of somebody without ever considering a solid strategy…
They do this without ever considering what to say, how to say it and who to say it to in order to motivate the prospect to pick up the phone, call you and choose you to store their belongings.
After innovations have been made to make you the obvious choice to store their belongings with, it’s time to talk about delivering this powerful message we’ve just created.
This is done through advertising mediums. This includes Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Yellow Pages, Billboards, etc.
Rather than go into each medium, I’ll get straight to the point on this…
For most facilities, spending advertising dollars on anything but Yellow Pages, Internet and Direct Mail is a giant waste of your money. Convenience and location are by far the biggest decision factors in the self-storage business. People want their belongings close and within easy access! This is why most of your customers live so close to the site they store at.
So, advertising to somebody 20 miles away by using mediums like radio, TV and sometimes even Yellow Pages is absolutely pointless. Why would you make somebody an offer who won’t accept it even if they wanted to?
Rathe
Question: What do you think the most important part of any ad is? Your company name? Your telephone number? Your offer? Look at your own advertising. What stands out? What is in the largest print? If it’s your company name or logo hold out your wrist so I can whack it with a stick. What’s the answer? THE HEADLINE!! You see, without a good compelling headline it won’t matter much how great your copy or you offer is, because few will ever read it. REMEMBER: The Only Job Of A Headline Is To Get The Reader To Read The First Paragraph. It should be big, bold, dark and easy to read. But more importantly, it must force the reader to read on. "HEADLINE TEST" How do you know you have a powerful, effective headline? Here's a great acid test: separate the headline from everything else, out of context, and treat it as a classified ad; nothing but the headline and a response instruction....then ask yourself if people would respon
Why, of all the choices in town, did you choose us?
Why, why why?
After asking the right questions, the right way, enough times, you’re able to start drawing some good conclusions. But we’re not finished…
After we know what their motive is, we still need more invaluable information from these ever important people. After all, my opinion, your opinion and your marketing department’s opinion doesn’t matter one bit!
Know why? Because we’re not the one paying the money for the space. We’re not the one that pays the bills…your customer is! Getting in their head is absolutely critical and one of the most valuable things you could spend your time doing.
But uncovering their motive only tells us what motivated them to use self-storage and maybe why they chose you over the competition; we’re out to win a lion’s share of the market -aren’t we? So, we need to learn their frustrations, ultimate desires and non-motivators so we can learn what INNOVATIONS to implement to motivate them to choose us, over our competition.
In short, we need to find out what their buying motive is and how to get them to give us their money instead of giving it to your competition. That knowledge is most important!
The process we just described is a part of Storage Marketing Solutions “Discovery Process”. To date, we’ve done thousands of surveys across the country and already have great insight into your customers and prospective customer’s minds. But, since each competitive environment is slightly different, we always conduct new surveys for new clients to ensure the data is similar to maximize the return on their marketing investment.
In addition to uncovering buying motives, we do competitive analysis by shopping your competitors and conducting in depth staff surveys to gather further perspective.
After this is complete – we now can create the right strategy and begin developing the message and tactics that we will deploy this powerful message with.
Before pro sports teams prepare for their next game, what do they spend time doing? That’s right, reviewing game film of their toughest opponent actually playing. They do this so they can watch the play patterns, defense style and coaching moves of their competition. This helps them prepare and practice for their specific opponent. The same holds true for a court case. Before a case ever goes before the judge or jury, both attorneys do as much as they can during a discovery phase to create their case/game strategy.
Why should marketing strategy be any different? It shouldn’t! Most “marketers” don’t think twice about strategy. Rather, they’re artists. They create stuff that looks good and might get a laugh out of somebody without ever considering a solid strategy…
They do this without ever considering what to say, how to say it and who to say it to in order to motivate the prospect to pick up the phone, call you and choose you to store their belongings.
After innovations have been made to make you the obvious choice to store their belongings with, it’s time to talk about delivering this powerful message we’ve just created.
This is done through advertising mediums. This includes Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Yellow Pages, Billboards, etc.
Rather than go into each medium, I’ll get straight to the point on this…
For most facilities, spending advertising dollars on anything but Yellow Pages, Internet and Direct Mail is a giant waste of your money. Convenience and location are by far the biggest decision factors in the self-storage business. People want their belongings close and within easy access! This is why most of your customers live so close to the site they store at.
So, advertising to somebody 20 miles away by using mediums like radio, TV and sometimes even Yellow Pages is absolutely pointless. Why would you make somebody an offer who won’t accept it even if they wanted to?
Rathe
Every month it seems like there is more month and less money left at the end of each month. Sound familiar? A part time job may be the answer.No, you should not just think about a second job at your local hardware store or pizza palace. You should try to use your spare time to do some freelance work.Using freelance work, you can add to your income while acquiring customers and providing services in your spare time. There is no need to go find a low-paying second job at night or on the weekends. Now there is a much nicer alternative with much better hours and pay. You can even do work from your own home.With freelance work, you are not limited by transportation, childcare restrictions or geographical location. You can even do some great work for a company located half way around the world.Furthermore, becoming a part-time freelance professional is quite easy.First, find a good database, like GoFreelance, and search for jobs in your current field or in some
In addition to uncovering buying motives, we do competitive analysis by shopping your competitors and conducting in depth staff surveys to gather further perspective.
After this is complete – we now can create the right strategy and begin developing the message and tactics that we will deploy this powerful message with.
Before pro sports teams prepare for their next game, what do they spend time doing? That’s right, reviewing game film of their toughest opponent actually playing. They do this so they can watch the play patterns, defense style and coaching moves of their competition. This helps them prepare and practice for their specific opponent. The same holds true for a court case. Before a case ever goes before the judge or jury, both attorneys do as much as they can during a discovery phase to create their case/game strategy.
Why should marketing strategy be any different? It shouldn’t! Most “marketers” don’t think twice about strategy. Rather, they’re artists. They create stuff that looks good and might get a laugh out of somebody without ever considering a solid strategy…
They do this without ever considering what to say, how to say it and who to say it to in order to motivate the prospect to pick up the phone, call you and choose you to store their belongings.
After innovations have been made to make you the obvious choice to store their belongings with, it’s time to talk about delivering this powerful message we’ve just created.
This is done through advertising mediums. This includes Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Yellow Pages, Billboards, etc.
Rather than go into each medium, I’ll get straight to the point on this…
For most facilities, spending advertising dollars on anything but Yellow Pages, Internet and Direct Mail is a giant waste of your money. Convenience and location are by far the biggest decision factors in the self-storage business. People want their belongings close and within easy access! This is why most of your customers live so close to the site they store at.
So, advertising to somebody 20 miles away by using mediums like radio, TV and sometimes even Yellow Pages is absolutely pointless. Why would you make somebody an offer who won’t accept it even if they wanted to?
Rathe
Have you been searching for a new way to bring quality visitors to your website or affiliate program? If so you are about to discover something brand new and revolutionary when it comes to marketing your products and services over the internet. One of the following 3 Free Marketing Tactics can even be used to bring in new customers to physical brick and mortar retail businesses. They can all help you to grow your online or local off line business or service but one of them is even more powerful than local opt – in email marketing.Here they are - 3 Free, Simple and Easy Ways to Drive More Traffic to Your Website Fast!1) Write and submit articles to online ezine article directories. In your resource box you get to place a link to your website. Your articles can start showing up on dozens of websites within a few days of you writing and submitting them. 2) Take advantage of viral desk top advertising which is the only internet marketing tool that is more
They do this without ever considering what to say, how to say it and who to say it to in order to motivate the prospect to pick up the phone, call you and choose you to store their belongings.
After innovations have been made to make you the obvious choice to store their belongings with, it’s time to talk about delivering this powerful message we’ve just created.
This is done through advertising mediums. This includes Television, Radio, Direct Mail, Yellow Pages, Billboards, etc.
Rather than go into each medium, I’ll get straight to the point on this…
For most facilities, spending advertising dollars on anything but Yellow Pages, Internet and Direct Mail is a giant waste of your money. Convenience and location are by far the biggest decision factors in the self-storage business. People want their belongings close and within easy access! This is why most of your customers live so close to the site they store at.
So, advertising to somebody 20 miles away by using mediums like radio, TV and sometimes even Yellow Pages is absolutely pointless. Why would you make somebody an offer who won’t accept it even if they wanted to?
Rather you should focus on the closest 30,000-60,000 households to each of your facilities. They are close, you are convenient and you can inexpensively deliver them a message that motivates them to use you. To fully occupy each facility, you probably only need 1%-5% of that universe to become a customer.
All of your marketing tactics should focus on those who live and/or work by your facility. Period!
Now, before you say something along the line of: “Direct mail doesn’t work” or, “I trash every piece of direct mail that comes my way”, consider this: according to the Direct Marketing Association, “Direct Mail is still the most efficient and effective way to advertise.”
If you’ve tried direct mail in the past, and it didn’t work, don’t challenge direct mail. What you need to do is challenge the way you did the direct mail. Almost every client we have has moved very cautiously towards making a small test investment in direct mail only to be proved wrong. Remember, most people WILL trash your piece…that’s fine. All we typically need is a measly 1%-5% to respond and we’re in the money…
I hope you've found this article helpful, insightful or at the bare minimum, a reinforcement of your existing beliefs.
Copyright 2006 Derek Naylor
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