The Internet as a Marketing Tool for Self-Storage
By Melanie R. Aaron More Hype Than Help? We are all now aware that the “dot boom” has now turned into the “dot bomb”, but does this really mean that the Internet is dead and useless for marketing self-storage? If you were planning to give up your Yellow Pages advertising and take your signs down because of the Internet, that is not such a good idea. However, if your expectations of the Internet are more modest, then the Internet may indeed be a valuable addition to your marketing program. There are over 100 million websites worldwide. Many companies believed that if they had a web page, the world would find them and a line would form at their door. This was not the case for most. Industry Search Sites (e.g. www.insurance.com or www.apartments.com) were developed to make the searches more productive. As individual websites proliferated, many were “drowned out” on the Internet unless they were part of an effective Industry Search Site. The
hype that surrounded the introduction of the self-storage Internet
Search Sites would have had you believe that all anyone was going to
do was to sit at their desk and surf the Net. Well, it didn’t work
that way because the sites were flawed in many ways. On the other hand, a lot of people are finding the Internet a
valuable tool when they want to find something or get information.
The reality is that a lot of people are turning to the Internet
to find services of many kinds. It
is quite likely that this trend will only accelerate as people become
more familiar with the Internet.
As people encounter the Internet at work or in school, the
usage of search sites will become broader and more intense.
As it turns out, there are a few rules of thumb that are
important to follow if Industry Internet Search Sites are to be a
valuable marketing tool for you. Nearly
1 billion people worldwide have access to the Internet.
What We Have Learned – Rules of Internet Marketing Rule 1:
Have a Great Internet Address: Unless customers can easily
and intuitively get to your site, you just as well not have one.
Most customers won’t go through much of a search process -
they get bored, confused and impatient easily. Many people have
learned that the first address to try is the dot com address, i.e.,
selfstorage.com, GM.com, or Maytag.com and that it will lead customers
to a useful site. Sites with unusual names, unless very heavily advertised (e.g. Amazon), simply will not draw many
hits because customers will not know they exist.
A name like Finditfastselfstorage.com just will not occur to
most people searching on the Internet. Rule 2: Get Equal Treatment on
the Search Site: Some
search sites provide banner ads or “priority buttons” for clients
that pay extra for this service. This often preempts a rental customer from doing a search for
the facility nearest to them, doing both the facility owner and the
rental customer a disservice. Be sure that you have “equal access”
to those seeking information on self-storage facilities; otherwise you
are just helping the “Big Guys” get customers. Rule 3:
Join a Site that is Easy to Use: Many search sites are very
hard to use. The site developers either do not allow enough methods to
find a facility, or they make the page difficult to understand because
they are offering multiple services. When someone wants self-storage,
they don’t necessarily want to know about apartments in the area,
moving companies, recycling companies or houses for sale -- just
self-storage!
Computer savvy folks that expect everyone to be able to
navigate complex sites develop most of these sites.
You should try the search site first yourself and see if it is
easy to get around.
Techies
need self-storage too!
Give
potential customers access to key information Why
Bother for Only 2%? Here’s
Why!!! Let us try some calculations on the effectiveness of an Internet search site if you only increase your business by 2%. Assume a 30,000 square foot facility, with rents that average $0.75 per month per foot ($75 for a 10x10). This means that if you rented 2% more units, your cash flow would go up by $5,400 per year. Because the expenses would remain constant, the value would go up about $ 50,000 and the amount you could borrow would go up by about $37,000. All in all, a $100 investment for a year does not seem like such a bad bet with potential returns like these. Another way to look at this is to say that you would only have to rent one 10x10 unit for a year every nine years to break even on being on an Industry Internet Search Site.
At
the current growth rate, the number of websites
You
Can’t Ignore a Billion People! Nearly 1 billion people worldwide have access to the Internet. And the number of people using the Internet solely for work purposes is declining. According to the latest date from The Harris Poll®, 66% of all adults are now online. In addition, there are currently well over 100 million Internet sites worldwide across all domains (.com, .net, .gov,. co.uk, etc.). The
Internet is expanding at approximately 63 new websites Businesses of all types are seeing the benefits of having a Web presence. You don’t have to be technologically savvy -- you just need to know that the Internet can truly be a useful business tool, if it’s used wisely. Too many companies that are on the Internet (not just the dotcoms) assume that simply because they are online, people will find them. This is not a good assumption. Just because you are exposing your company to a wider audience, does not guarantee sales. If no one visits your site, your presence on the Web is meaningless. You must now decide if the Internet should be a part of your marketing strategy. MM Melanie
R. Aaron is the Director of Marketing & Operations for the Argus
Self Storage Sales Network. She can be reached via e-mail at melanie@argus-realestate.com
or via phone at 1-800-557-8673. |