Creative Ways to Convert Traffic to Rentals

This blog entry features a guest blog by Holly Ritchie-Fiorello, Director of Marketing for The Storage Group. 

What are Conversions?

Self Storage Facility Operators like to spend time focusing on how to increase leads without actually looking internally at how they are handling the existing traffic. So often we read about the newest marketing techniques for increasing your storage unit rentals, but what if we focused solely on the traffic you already have? What if your facility’s habits in determining your traffic Conversion Rate were quite literally the only things standing between your property and tons more self storage rentals? When I say Conversion Rate (CR), I’m referring to the percentage of leads that end up actually booking a reservation or rental at your facility. So if you generate one actual reservation/rental for every ten inquiries, your property’s CR is 10%.  That means that 9 out of those 10 customers are abandoned and the facility is losing money that should be yours!

Where does your Traffic Come From?

First, let’s take a look at where the majority of your traffic comes from.  The stats below are courtesy of SpareFoot.  Tenants were asked how they found out about their current Self Storage Facility and were allowed to pick more than one response. Walk-Ins: 66.04% Website: 57.37% Aggregators: 49.22% Yellow Pages: 12% Billboard: 12.23% Following Walk-In Traffic, 57% of respondents named the Self Storage Website as being the information that helped them find their Self Storage Provider.  We are going to elaborate on some measures to increase your Conversion Rate of your Self Storage Website.

Clear Call-to-Actions

A Call-to-Action (CTA) is exactly how it sounds.  It is a prompt to get the user to your goal.  For instance a Call-to-Action may be a button on the home site that says “Rent Now”.  Having a clear Call-to-Action works as an instruction to the audience to provoke an immediate response.  This doesn’t just work for your benefit, it also works for the end user, as they do not have to search for the correct link. According to Hubspot, an esteemed expert on CTA’s, CTA’s should be:

• Visually striking with copy that compels you to click the offer
• Brief: A couple of words is best, no more than five is ideal
• Action-oriented: Begin with a verb like “Rent” or “Reserve”
• Located in an easy-to-find spot that follows organically from the flow of the webpage
• In a contrasting color from the color scheme of the webpage, while still fitting in with the overall design
• Large enough to see from a distance, but not so large as to detract attention from the main content on the page
• Easy to understand and clear

Here’s a great example of one of Storage Asset Management’s Client’s Site with a great Call-to-Action.

Live Rates with the Ability to Rent

After tracking hundreds of websites, we have found that the most visited page (other than the home page) is the Units Available page.  We coach our clients to put their rates online and have an easy way for future tenants to reserve.  This helps them make a commitment to the facility.  We have also found that if customers are willing to put in their information to make a reservation for a Storage Unit, then they would go one step further and make a payment for said unit. This is where an Online Rental Platform, like ClickandStor™ comes into place.  The typical conversion rate from a Reservation to a Rental is roughly 50%.  We have found ClickandStor™ to have a near 100% Conversion Rate.  Customers are less likely to back out if they believe they have already rented the unit.

Using Social Proof

Another highly productive method is using positive testimonials and reviews on websites. After adding testimonials to one of our client’s sites, she contacted us to let us know a month later that her rentals had increased dramatically. Tenants later told her the reviews helped them make the purchase decision.  You can pull your positive reviews from other platforms such as Google My Business, Bing, Yahoo Local, or Yelp and paste them on your website.  You can also use a Survey and Testimonial Function on your website to collect new reviews.  Post the ones you like, and use the others for feedback.

Convert Traffic to Rentals

Getting more traffic is always nice, but don’t forget about maximizing the traffic you already have!  If implementing these initiatives seems daunting, contact an expert to help.  A Self Storage Management Company can point you in the direction to find an Online Marketing Company to help maximize your rentals, and ultimately your revenue. Holly Ritchie-Fiorello is Director of Marketing for The Storage Group, an Online Marketing and Website Development Company serving the Self Storage Industry.  Holly speaks at Industry Trade Shows and Consults Self Storage Operators on their Online Marketing Strategy.