How to Succeed With Content Marketing in Self-Storage: Strategy and Tracking Tips

Whether you’re a seasoned self-storage marketer or just getting started, your business needs a content strategy—a plan for developing and managing website pages, articles, blogs, social media posts, videos, podcasts and other types of written and visual material on behalf of your brand. Not only does high-quality content improve the visibility of your website in search results, it allows you to generate more sales leads and keep customers up to date on your promotions and news. This can help you improve tenant retention and encourage repeat business.

Put succinctly, strong content marketing can help build trust and credibility with your potential and current self-storage renters. People want to do business with companies they trust. Quality content is a way to differentiate your operation from competitors, drive more traffic to your facility and establish your company as a reliable industry authority.

The even better news is there are many exciting options for using content to build brand awareness, attract prospects and engage tenants. Many consumers aren’t fully familiar with the self-storage industry, so good content that explains the benefits of the product and how it works will help you reach and educate your target audience.

Let’s dive into some initial steps for creating a strong content strategy as well as tips to help you maximize its success. We’ll also look at ways to monitor performance.

Setting Your Content Strategy

A successful content-marketing strategy requires careful planning and execution. Here are some steps to help you get started.

Define your goals and objectives. First, it’s critical to consider your business goals. Be specific. Do you want to increase web traffic? Generate leads? Improve customer retention? Clear objectives will guide your content creation, distribution and promotion to achieve desired outcomes.

Identify your target audience. Who are they? What are their needs, and what pain points can you solve for them? Think about the questions they likely have about self-storage. Understanding your primary viewers will help you create content that resonates with them and drives engagement.

Choose content types and set timelines. Determine the types of content you’ll create, such as blog posts, videos, podcasts, emails, infographics, etc., then create a calendar that outlines when and where you’ll publish each. If you’re a small self-storage operation or working with limited resources, start small. Creating even just one or two pieces of content each month can add up to make a positive impact over time.

Create high-quality content. The success of your strategy hinges on quality, so aim to generate content that’s informative, engaging and relevant for viewers. It’s better to produce a few really good pieces that resonate with your audience than a bunch of inferior ones. Prioritize material that adds value and aligns with your business goals, and use a mix of formats to keep things fresh. Search engines continue to become more sophisticated, and low-quality items will inevitably be buried in results, making it challenging or even impossible for people to find.

Pick appropriate channels. The next step is to decide where you’ll distribute your content. Consider where your audience spend its time online and the channels that are most effective for reaching them. For example, you might publish posts on your own website, in your emails or on your social media platforms.

Gauge performance. Finally, it’s essential to measure the results of your efforts and optimize your strategy based on what works best. We’ll get into this more below, but essentially, you need to track website traffic, engagement and sales with the help of analytics tools, and then review the data to identify which pieces of content are performing well and which channels drive the most traffic. You can then use this information to make informed decisions.

Maximizing and Measuring Success

Here are a few additional tips to ensure your self-storage content marketing is a winner with your audience:

Include a call to action. This is essential in content marketing because it directs the audience to do something specific. Make it clear to the consumer what you want them to do next, such as follow you on social media, sign up for your e-newsletter or rent a unit.

Be constant in how and when you publish. Consistency is key. Once you create your calendar, stick to it. This’ll help build trust with your audience. It’ll also keep them engaged and wanting more.

Be consistent with brand voice and messaging. Make sure they align with your company identity and resonate with your intended audience, then stick to them!

Promote it. If you’ve invested valuable time and resources to create high-quality content but aren’t getting the traction you’d like, don’t overlook opportunities to boost it. Paid advertising and social influencers can be effective, but they’re also an investment. If they’re outside your budget, then social media, email and other free channels are still good.

Measure performance. To determine how well your content is doing, you’ll need to track and analyze key metrics. Here are some that’ll help you identify the marketing channels and content types that are generating the most traffic, creating the most engagement among viewers and driving sales:

By incorporating these tactics into your content-marketing strategy, you can create a comprehensive plan that helps you achieve your self-storage business goals. This is an ongoing process that requires constant monitoring and adjustment, so be adaptable and adjust as you go; but don’t forget to have fun, too!

Mike Beutler is digital-content specialist for Extra Space Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust and management company. He joined the business in 2020 after working in the airline industry for several years. He holds an associate degree from Weber State University and a bachelor’s degree from Thomas Edison State University. For more information, call 866.447.6522; email [email protected].