Email Marketing is Not Dead

Email marketing is a great tool for reaching potential tenants and staying in touch with current tenants. Staying in touch with current tenants allows for your facility to be in the forefront of their mind for referrals.  Putting together a successful email campaign can generate more rentals for a self-storage facility.   Audience Building your database is very important.  There are a number of online email marketing platforms that allow you to store email addresses in lists or in segments, based on type of email, as well as act as the platform to send the email.  Collect and consolidate any emails that you receive from inquiries, reservations, and rentals. Any events that are attended by managers, is also a great way to obtain email addresses for the database.  Business cards are always exchanged, so add these emails for potential rentals! Your website and social media are also great places to gather email addresses.  Put sign-up forms that link right into your database on these platforms that allow people to opt-in to your email campaign. Content                 Email marketing should contain valuable content that the reader would want to read, but maintain authenticity and professionalism that reflects your self-storage facility.  Relevancy of the information builds trust that your email is something the reader will want to continue to read each time they receive the email marketing. The content of your email campaign should include calls to action to your website, in-store promotion for that period of time, happenings at the storage facility, and a lead- in to your blog that offers additional valuable information. Information in your email campaign should remind the tenants of referral programs available to them—tenants love to save on rent or earn free rewards! Make sure this program is clearly explained and prominent in each email campaign. Links to your social media should also be a staple in your email messages.  Asking for feedback on your review platforms is also a great add-in to the content.   Subject Line                 Having useful matter in the body of the email is important, but how do you get the reader to open your email? Composing a compelling subject line for your email is a must! Test different subject lines often.  Stay away from using subject lines that just state the store name and date/month.  Great subject lines contain a question or statement that makes the reader want to open the email. If offering a great promotion that is exclusive to the email marketing campaign- mention that right in the subject line.  The subject lines can also contain emojis. Making your subject line standout is important in the clutter of everyone’s inbox. Tools When choosing a tool to use for your email campaign, make sure that it contains every aspect to make your campaign successful.  The tool should be able to host your database and allow you to create visually appealing email campaign.  The tool should also be able to provide you with reporting tools.  Tracking your opens and click-throughs can be helpful in enhancing your email marketing each time a new one is sent out.  Use these reports to gain knowledge in what information was of interest to the database.  This can help in forming other email messages and keeping information relevant and valuable.  Great tools for email marketing are: MailChimp, Feedblitz, and Constant Contact.  You can also use your management software’s CRM (customer relationship management) to send email marketing as well. Other Email Marketing Campaign Tips The frequency of your email marketing is important.  You do not want to become “spam-like” in how often emails occur, but want to send enough to stay in the forefront of their minds.  A good timeframe is every other month. Always include an unsubscribe button on your email and be sure to actually unsubscribe anyone that does ask to be taken off your list. This will help keep the list clean and the message to reach better candidates. It is important that the email campaign match the branding message of the store.  The email campaign is an extension of your current marketing.