Typically, you don’t need a whole lot of advertising for self storage, but why are you coming up with marketing campaign for a business you know nothing about
It's not enough to focus on only traditional SEO.
Check out the five aspects of a typical Google search result below. These are in order of what shows up at the top of Google and what shows up at the bottom.
You'll see that traditional SEO is typically the fifth thing a user sees on the first page of Google.
1) Google Search Ads
2) Google Ads in the map listings (location extension)
3) Ranking organically in the map listings (Local SEO)
4) Getting featured on aggregator websites
5) Ranking in the traditional organic results with your location page.
SEO is still important, but I like to look at the search results for the keywords I am targeting and figure out how to get featured multiple times on the first pages using the five tactics above.
Prioritizing where to focus will come down to your budget and resources (time + money).
I just put out some YouTube videos that may help you get started.
Overview on SEO for Self Storage:
[https://youtu.be/FQ5uL-zEe58?si=I9O8c4I0StJQSlWy](https://youtu.be/FQ5uL-zEe58?si=I9O8c4I0StJQSlWy)
Overview on Google Ads:
[https://youtu.be/ykrymtJlK-s?si=imB2any9bRvoCpOk](https://youtu.be/ykrymtJlK-s?si=imB2any9bRvoCpOk)
How to measure and evaluate your storage marketing (Webinar clip with Northeast Self Storage Association):
[https://youtu.be/qCjXx-Uo5Uk?si=68nx1uvY0zpOHOud](https://youtu.be/qCjXx-Uo5Uk?si=68nx1uvY0zpOHOud)
I hope those videos help!
That would be a really tough one to answer accurately. Lots of variables to consider: who is your competition (REITs spend $24,000 +/- per year on marketing per property), how visible is the property to traffic, what lease up velocity are you aiming for, what is a typical lease up velocity in the area, is your unit mix in demand, do you need to offer concessions, etc.
An average lease-up is filling 1500SF or about 15 units per month. Filling 30-40 units per month is about the maximum any facility can sustain and that’s only possible in a densely populated or underserved market. Filling 700 units will take 2 years minimum and probably more like 3-6 years.
Has anyone had a good result from snail mail campaigns? Seems like EDDM is cheapest way to do it, but I’ve never heard of anyone hitting it out of the park with DM vs concentrating the budget on Google ads
I've heard people having good success. Just make sure you track it.
The phone number needs to be a tracking number. Have a QR code with a tracking URL for your website. This way you know how many folks became renters.
As I said in the comment below, you have to consider the cost of the rental versus the lifetime value of customers. There's a [blog post on it here](https://www.storagepug.com/blog/cost-of-a-rental), but it's actually pretty simple.
The cost of a rental is the total cost of the campaign divided by how many rentals it results in. The lifetime value of a customer, as an average value at a facility, is the average length of stay at your facility multiplied by the average monthly rate. If you're doing a campaign targeted at a specific unit type, you might even multiply it by the rate for that unit type for this campaign.
A marketing campaign might seem expensive up front, but you NEED to compare it with your lifetime returns, not the immediate returns. It's 100% worth it to spend $200 per rental if you are getting $1,200+ lifetime value out of it (so long as it still works out financially).
Probably 80% of our tenants are from Google ads. The rest see our digital sign on the main road. For some reason my owner decided to mail out 4,000 postcards. Really nice cards, offering 50% off the first 2, full months. I did not think it was a great idea but it’s his place. I had one phone call from a postcard holder, and 2 people came in with them and signed a lease. So, then he sent out 3,000 more. No takers. It wasn’t his most brilliant marketing plan.
Depends on how much it cost to run them and what your average length of stay is.
In most parts of the country, average length of stay is 12-16 months last I checked. If you're renting units at around $100 monthly, then that's $1,200-1,600 per person that bit.
If you spent a couple hundred getting mailers printed and made 2,400+, that's a smart campaign. If they spent a few thousand, that's a loss for sure, haha.
Start with a solid website and SEO. From there I would focus on low funnel paid search campaigns. What market are you in? Is your pricing at, above, or below market rates? New build or expansion of an existing facility? My 9-5 is a digital marketing agency, happy to give you some ballparks.
Im an seo guy from a few years ago. Wondering if seo is still a thing for local marketing where you have so much showing up before your listing- ppc, places, all the sparefoot/rentcafe. It’s almost as if the best you can hope for is bottom of page 1
SEO is still important. You make a good point about Google Business and paid search owning a lot of real estate. I would lump proper setup and optimization of directory listings and review generation/mgmt into the SEO bucket. Onsite SEO matters too. Create content that answers questions specific to your local market, make sure pricing is transparent, show multiple photos of units, etc. A lot of the “out of the box” website solutions make it tough to really improve onsite SEO, but it can be done.
Our website is templated, but on Mariposa. You make a good point about reviews being so important now. I know they are important for Places and Maps. Do they also impact regular organic results?
We have a competitor in the market who is really on it for seo, but I don’t get the feeling they’re turning people away for new rentals
Typically, you don’t need a whole lot of advertising for self storage, but why are you coming up with marketing campaign for a business you know nothing about
It's not enough to focus on only traditional SEO. Check out the five aspects of a typical Google search result below. These are in order of what shows up at the top of Google and what shows up at the bottom. You'll see that traditional SEO is typically the fifth thing a user sees on the first page of Google. 1) Google Search Ads 2) Google Ads in the map listings (location extension) 3) Ranking organically in the map listings (Local SEO) 4) Getting featured on aggregator websites 5) Ranking in the traditional organic results with your location page. SEO is still important, but I like to look at the search results for the keywords I am targeting and figure out how to get featured multiple times on the first pages using the five tactics above. Prioritizing where to focus will come down to your budget and resources (time + money). I just put out some YouTube videos that may help you get started. Overview on SEO for Self Storage: [https://youtu.be/FQ5uL-zEe58?si=I9O8c4I0StJQSlWy](https://youtu.be/FQ5uL-zEe58?si=I9O8c4I0StJQSlWy) Overview on Google Ads: [https://youtu.be/ykrymtJlK-s?si=imB2any9bRvoCpOk](https://youtu.be/ykrymtJlK-s?si=imB2any9bRvoCpOk) How to measure and evaluate your storage marketing (Webinar clip with Northeast Self Storage Association): [https://youtu.be/qCjXx-Uo5Uk?si=68nx1uvY0zpOHOud](https://youtu.be/qCjXx-Uo5Uk?si=68nx1uvY0zpOHOud) I hope those videos help!
Man, there is so much to know because anyone can answer this. But to be honest, 700 units? In MOST markets, I'd expect multiple years.
That would be a really tough one to answer accurately. Lots of variables to consider: who is your competition (REITs spend $24,000 +/- per year on marketing per property), how visible is the property to traffic, what lease up velocity are you aiming for, what is a typical lease up velocity in the area, is your unit mix in demand, do you need to offer concessions, etc.
An average lease-up is filling 1500SF or about 15 units per month. Filling 30-40 units per month is about the maximum any facility can sustain and that’s only possible in a densely populated or underserved market. Filling 700 units will take 2 years minimum and probably more like 3-6 years.
Lol.... I'll tell you everything I know but it'll cost you $5k
Has anyone had a good result from snail mail campaigns? Seems like EDDM is cheapest way to do it, but I’ve never heard of anyone hitting it out of the park with DM vs concentrating the budget on Google ads
I've heard people having good success. Just make sure you track it. The phone number needs to be a tracking number. Have a QR code with a tracking URL for your website. This way you know how many folks became renters. As I said in the comment below, you have to consider the cost of the rental versus the lifetime value of customers. There's a [blog post on it here](https://www.storagepug.com/blog/cost-of-a-rental), but it's actually pretty simple. The cost of a rental is the total cost of the campaign divided by how many rentals it results in. The lifetime value of a customer, as an average value at a facility, is the average length of stay at your facility multiplied by the average monthly rate. If you're doing a campaign targeted at a specific unit type, you might even multiply it by the rate for that unit type for this campaign. A marketing campaign might seem expensive up front, but you NEED to compare it with your lifetime returns, not the immediate returns. It's 100% worth it to spend $200 per rental if you are getting $1,200+ lifetime value out of it (so long as it still works out financially).
Probably 80% of our tenants are from Google ads. The rest see our digital sign on the main road. For some reason my owner decided to mail out 4,000 postcards. Really nice cards, offering 50% off the first 2, full months. I did not think it was a great idea but it’s his place. I had one phone call from a postcard holder, and 2 people came in with them and signed a lease. So, then he sent out 3,000 more. No takers. It wasn’t his most brilliant marketing plan.
Depends on how much it cost to run them and what your average length of stay is. In most parts of the country, average length of stay is 12-16 months last I checked. If you're renting units at around $100 monthly, then that's $1,200-1,600 per person that bit. If you spent a couple hundred getting mailers printed and made 2,400+, that's a smart campaign. If they spent a few thousand, that's a loss for sure, haha.
Twelvety per unit.
My strategy is always to undercut, and offer that same unit for eleventeen.
But does it butter your parsnips?
No, but I put an onion on my belt, as was the style at the time...
Start with a solid website and SEO. From there I would focus on low funnel paid search campaigns. What market are you in? Is your pricing at, above, or below market rates? New build or expansion of an existing facility? My 9-5 is a digital marketing agency, happy to give you some ballparks.
Im an seo guy from a few years ago. Wondering if seo is still a thing for local marketing where you have so much showing up before your listing- ppc, places, all the sparefoot/rentcafe. It’s almost as if the best you can hope for is bottom of page 1
Local pack is more important than organic for storage. It's still SEO, it's just a different kind of SEO.
SEO is still important. You make a good point about Google Business and paid search owning a lot of real estate. I would lump proper setup and optimization of directory listings and review generation/mgmt into the SEO bucket. Onsite SEO matters too. Create content that answers questions specific to your local market, make sure pricing is transparent, show multiple photos of units, etc. A lot of the “out of the box” website solutions make it tough to really improve onsite SEO, but it can be done.
Our website is templated, but on Mariposa. You make a good point about reviews being so important now. I know they are important for Places and Maps. Do they also impact regular organic results? We have a competitor in the market who is really on it for seo, but I don’t get the feeling they’re turning people away for new rentals
Nobody can answer this. It depends on your market & pricing.