September 1, 2001

7 Min Read
Inside Self-Storage Magazine 09/2001: Online Marketing Secrets

Online Marketing Secrets

What every self-storage owner should know

By Fred Gleeck

I have beenstudying Internet marketing for the past two years. I've found it to be a tremendous toolin my own business, and I think it can be of great use to self-storage owners. The key isto make the best use of your website and get people to call or--better yet--visit yourfacility. Here are some secrets to get you started.

First Build a Site That Sells

In the storage industry, the ultimate goal is to get people to rent storage units, notto win awards with our websites. Many people don't understand the difference. When you goto the bank to make a deposit, awards are not accepted. The only thing the bank accepts ismoney. This being the case, you need to create a site that sells. Can it sell and beappealing? Perhaps. But if there is one characteristic that should take precedence, it isthe selling power of the website, not its attractiveness.

How do we define success from a website-sales standpoint? From the number of rentersgenerated as a result of visiting the site. Many visitors to your site will not rent fromyou online. I encourage you to give them the option to do so, but many will just come fora look. Most people who are interested will want to physically visit your facility beforethey will rent a unit.

What to Offer?

The goal of your site is to give people a seductive enough offer to make them want tovisit or at least call your facility. What should that offer be? Before you make thatdecision, you must determine the value of each visitor to your facility--how much is heworth? Without that knowledge, it is impossible to make an intelligent decision on what tooffer him.

Here's an easy way to figure out that value: Look at the total number of people whovisited your facility last month and the net amount of dollars you generated from thosevisits. In this case, all we are looking at are new customers. Let's say you had 100people who visited, which produced a net revenue of $30,000. Assuming the average personrents for seven months and the average rent is $100 a month, that means you net $300 outof $700 of gross receipts per person. (This assumes you close every person who visits,which isn't true; but let's leave it at that for purposes of example.) Now you know youcan afford to "spend" up to $300 per visitor and not lose money. Of course, youwant to get the visitor to come in for a lot less, but that's how you estimate his value.

The key to cost-effective marketing is to pursue those avenues that provide thegreatest leverage. The Internet is one of those highly leveraged means. Let's say you wereto offer people $50 just for dropping by your facility. You know the average visitor isworth $300, so if you have to give away $50 bills to get people to come by, do it--provided, of course, you've used every other method of marketing that costs you less than$50 first.

The nice thing is you don't have to offer people $50. You can offer them something thathas a very high perceived value but actual low cost. Make an exclusive website offer andlabel it an "Internet special." This is so you can track its effectiveness. Oneidea for this special is to use the coupon system, where you collect coupons from localmerchants and offer them to your website visitors. The cost on something like this isneglible, but the perceived value is very high. One of my clients recently put a selectionof coupons together worth more than $700 in perceived value. His total cost was less than$2 per bundle. You may also want to offer something tangible like a first-aid kit or someother novelty item. Whatever you use, make sure you can code it in such a way that youknow the visitor response came from your online campaign.

Your website is there to get people to either pick up the phone and call or come in andvisit your facility. It's that simple. If pretty pictures can support that effort, I'm allfor using them. If they don't, keep them to a minimum. Make sure your Internet offer isfront and center on your first page. Don't hide your sales pitch. Have a line that reads:"$50 in cash to everyone who takes a tour of our facility," or "Freefirst-aid kit (value of $38) to everyone who tours our facility."

Supporting Information

If you want your website to include supporting information regarding unit sizes,features and benefits, that's fine. Make your site simple and easy to understand andnavigate. Test it on a sixth grader--if it's too complicated for him, you need to redesignit. A simple site that shows a picture of your facility, maps your location and describesfeatures and benefits is enough.

I like the idea of having no more than five links to various pages off your home page.Also make sure people don't have to scroll far down on each page to get to theinformation. Place your Internet special at the very top of the first page, where mostpeople put the facility name. Customers don't care about your name. Instead, use thatspace to make them an irresistible offer that will compel them to come in and visit. Yourfive simple links will then allow people to see:

  • A map showing them how to get to you;

  • Information on how to contact you;

  • Helpful storage tips;

  • Some photos to give them a sense of what the facility looks like, and how safe/clean it is;

  • A list of unit sizes and a description of how much each unit can hold (but no prices, please).

Driving Traffic to Your Site

After you've designed a site that sells, you must drive traffic to the site. A greatsite without traffic is worthless. There are a few key ways to get people to view yoursite. First, understand storage is generally a local thing. Unless you're a nationalcompany like Public Storage, promoting your site to a national audience doesn't make awhole lot of sense. Next, identify other local companies that get a lot of hits at theirwebsites. See if there's any way to link to their sites. This would include localreal-estate agents, moving companies, schools, churches, chambers of commerce, etc.--anybusiness people might contact if they were moving into the area.

Getting high rankings in the various search engines will be a tremendous help inbringing traffic to your site. Search engines are key to making your site noticed, butgetting listed on them may require some help. Two specialists in this field are KimberlyJudd ([email protected]) and Mike Buck ([email protected]). For what they deliver,their prices are extremely reasonable. Tell them I sent you and they'll give you a $50discount.

Paid search engines are also an option, and there are a number of them out there. Theseare the places where you can pay for the opportunity to have people to click on your site.All you'll need to do is pick the keywords people might use to find you. For example,let's say you're in Orlando, Fla. You may want to buy the keywords "Orlandostorage" and "Orlando self-storage." This will make it so your site comesup in a lead position any time someone types in these or any other keywords you select.

One of the largest paid search engines is www.goto.com,where a trial membership runs as low as $25. For a complete list of options, visit www.payperclicksearchengines.com. Whileyou can pay a specialist to enroll you with these search tools, you can enroll yourself.Even I can do it, so you may want to give it a shot.

There are many other ways to drive traffic to your site, but these are good places tostart. Remember: A simple, easy-to-use site that is accessible and makes prospects a greatoffer will raise your rentals.

Fred Gleeck is a self-storage profit-maximization consultant. He helps storageowners before and after they get into the business. He is the author of Secrets ofSelf Storage Marketing Success--Revealed! and numerous other training items forself-storage operators. To get regular tips on self-storage, send him an e-mail at [email protected]; call800.345.3325.

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