Major Marketing Moves: Is Your Self-Storage Business Prepared to Survive the Loss of Third-Party Cookies?

Digital marketing has transformed the way self-storage operators discover and retain customers. The ability to target potential renters online by identifying their geolocation, affinity, behavior and device significantly increases your return on ad spend. That said, there are changes on the horizon that’ll change the way you promote your business in the years ahead. Unfortunately, there’s nothing you can do about them other than to adapt and move forward.

Next year, Google is phasing out the use of third-party cookies on its Chrome web browser. These are used to track someone’s online activity across various websites to help advertisers target them with personalized ads. For self-storage operators, this means you’ll be limited on the data you’re allowed to collect about your website visitors and prospects without their knowledge or consent. Read on to understand what that means for your operation and its marketing efforts.

Issues of Data Privacy

Though many consumers enjoy the products and services they find through targeted advertising offers, they dislike the intrusive methods marketers use to collect their personal data online. They’ve spoken out against what they feel is a violation of privacy, and legislatures across the globe are listening.

The European Union made the first move in 2018 with its General Data Protection Regulation. In 2020, California passed its Consumer Privacy Act, which gives people more control over the information businesses collect about them. Colorado, Connecticut, Utah and Virginia enacted their own data-privacy acts, though each is unique. Similar legislation will soon be effective in Florida, Montana, Oregon, Texas and Washington. All of this creates headaches for self-storage operators with facilities in multiple states.

On the federal level, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce approved the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) in July 2022 to “provide consumers with foundational data-privacy rights, create strong oversight mechanisms and establish meaningful enforcement.” However, until it passes the Senate and is signed into law, individual states will continue to implement their own versions, further complicating the situation.

Third-Party Cookies and the Data They Collect

The use of third-party cookies yields a vast array of data points a marketer can harvest about your website visitors. Here’s just a small sample of what is commonly collected to create a profile of a person’s online activity:

This data helps self-storage marketers customize their messaging and campaigns to maximize ad spend and conversions. It also helps them measure outcomes by identifying which channels or campaigns resonate with your target audience.

Without this data, self-storage operators who use Google Ads, Facebook ads, directory sites and other online ad placements couldn’t optimize their efforts, which is problematic in a hyperlocal industry. For example, without access to a user’s geolocation, your ad could reach someone in another city or a lead who clearly isn’t your ideal tenant. Either way, it’s wasted money.

Fortunately, Google is postponing third-party cookie deprecation for its Chrome browser until next year. And hopefully, Congress will soon enact the ADPPA to standardize the data marketers can collect, so we won’t need to follow the unique legislation in every state. In the meantime, you can continue rolling out your digital-marketing campaigns as you’ve been doing, providing you follow any data-privacy laws that may have been passed in your state. Just be prepared to go cookie-less next year, as the change is coming.

A Return to Offline Advertising

Understanding that anything you do now to comply with the current data-protection landscape may not fulfill the requirements of future laws, what can you do to compete in the self-storage marketplace and avoid expending needless time, effort and money? A safe approach is to revisit your traditional, offline marketing channels, which many operators have reduced or abandoned since embracing digital options. Tools such as fliers, direct mail and billboards are still effective. Since many of your competitors aren’t aggressively using them, those channels present an opportunity that can grow into a strong advantage.

I know what you’re thinking: Offline marketing (also known as out-of-home advertising) isn’t as sexy as digital marketing. Or is it? Consider billboards. A survey conducted by Statista in 2022 found that 30% of respondents like billboards. In fact, 9% like them a lot. Research from “OOH Today” indicates that offline ads show much higher brand recall for consumers than audio (including podcasts and radio), live and streaming television, online ads, and print ads.

A digital billboard is still considered an offline method, and yet it can yield fantastic results. According to HubSpot, consumers who see digital-billboard advertising will search for the business’ website or search for the brand online. Additionally, 20% of them later recommended that product or brand.

Even traditional billboards can enhance your self-storage marketing plan, encouraging consumers to search for your business online or driving traffic to your social media profiles. In fact, cross-promoting your billboard with your website and social platforms is an approach that distinctively appeals to Millennials and Gen Z consumers, who classify digital billboards as an “experience”—and they are famously seeking new experiences.

Another offline yet effective marketing channel is direct mail. According to a recent report by marketing-solutions company Lob, it not only delivers the best return on investment, it has better response and conversion rates than any other channel. Of course, the performance of direct mail or billboards requires compelling messaging across all your offline channels.

Finally, don’t forget about your facility signage, which is one of your most visible self-storage marketing tools. To be effective, it must be well-designed, well-placed, clean and fresh. It’s often among the first things a customer sees upon visiting your property. If it looks out of date, broken or worn, they may pass you over for a facility up the street.

The Solution? A Mixed Approach

To cope in the upcoming cookie-less world, I recommend implementing a well-rounded marketing plan that incorporates digital and offline methods to reach all potential self-storage renters. Gartner and LinkedIn both report that it takes an average of eight to 12 touchpoints with a company before a customer converts. The more touchpoints you offer, the sooner a prospective tenant will rent from you.

For example, consider distributing printed brochures, postcards or fliers throughout your community that include a QR code linking to a promotional page on your website. Once you’ve convinced a prospect to visit or tour your self-storage facility, offer them printed materials such as a brochure or flier they can take with them to keep your business top-of-mind. These collaterals should outline easy steps to rent and move into a unit, with targeted links to your website.

While digital marketing is, and will remain, critical to marketing self-storage marketing, the ability to target ideal customers in your area will change radically in the near future. Your new cookie-less strategy should integrate offline tactics like billboard advertising and direct mail with your online efforts. This won’t only foster community relationships, it’ll enhance brand recognition and customer loyalty.

Stephanie Farber is the creative principal for San Antonio-based Creative Blend Design, a full-service marketing agency founded in 2004. The company not only offers creative offline solutions, it develops and deploys multi-channel digital campaigns using a proven, comprehensive approach to ensure client success. To reach Stephanie, email [email protected].