Does Self Storage Have a Silver Bullet? ECommerce Articles | April 11 Zach Gentry Elite Jersey , 2008 Quickly learn the secret that will increase occupancy, decrease expenses, and enhance manager performance. Every self storage operator will benefit from the topics discussed in this article.
What if I told you a secret that increases occupancy, decreases expenses Benny Snell Jr. Elite Jersey , and enhances manager performance? Intrigued?
Well without further adieu, the secret I'm referring to is marketing tracking... tracking your marketing effectively so you know what marketing efforts are really working for you and which ones are wasting your money. When I say marketing tracking I'm not referring to just asking the customer how they found you. Today's customers use multiple marketing channels to find your facility and most likely have done the same for other facilities as well. So by the time you ask them how they found you, they are not going to have an accurate answer. Not only that, they honestly don't care to remember how they found you. They have a hectic schedule and all they care about is getting their stuff out of their messy garage.
If customers can't accurately tell you how they found your facility and that's the only data you're using to track your marketing then you're going to be making decisions based on faulty data. And since the goal of tracking your marketing is to be able to determine what's working and what isn't Justin Layne Elite Jersey , it's very important to have accurate data.
So how do you ensure that your tracking data is accurate? If asking the customer doesn't work what are your other options? First let's talk about what to track, and then we'll get into the how.
Tracking Prospects. When you look at a marketing source you really need to analyze all of the ways prospects can contact you from that marketing source so you're sure to track them all. For example, if you have a website that gives the customer the option to reserve online, you might think that the main thing for you to track will be online reservations. But don't forget that your phone number is also posted on your website Diontae Johnson Elite Jersey , so you need to track calls. Many times your email address is also, so be sure to track emails. And lastly, do you have your address posted or any maps or driving directions on your website? Because of this you also will be receiving walk-in customers. We'll talk more in depth shortly about how you can track each of these, but just keep in mind that with every marketing source you need to carefully analyze every avenue prospects use to contact you.
Tracking Rentals. Here's where it matters most...you want to be able to track how many rentals each of your marketing sources is bringing you.
The main reason for tracking rentals down to each marketing source is to determine your Cost per Acquisition Devin Bush Elite Jersey , or Cost per Rental. Simply put, Cost per Acquisition (CPA) is how much it costs you to get a new tenant. CPA is the most effective way to evaluate which marketing sources are working and which ones aren't.
Once you're effectively tracking your prospects and tenants CPA is easy to calculate. Just take your monthly or annual cost for that marketing source divided by the number of tenants it produced in that time and you will have your CPA. Once you know your CPA for all of your marketing sources you can compare them head to head to see which ones are most effective. In fact, CPA is the only way to effectively compare marketing sources that cost you $3,000 per month with those that cost you $100 per month. You may find that the marketing source that costs $100 per month only brings you two new tenants ($50 CPA) and the marketing source that costs $3 James Conner Elite Jersey ,000 per month brings you ten new tenants ($300 CPA). At first glance, you might think that the one that brings you ten new tenants is more effective because it's bringing you a higher volume of tenants; when in fact, you're paying 6 times as much per tenant with that marketing source as you are with the other one! In some cases you'll find that some of your marketing sources are so ineffective (have such a high CPA), that you can make the decision to cut them immediately. This is where the value of tracking really kicks in!
Where do you start? Now that you know how valuable it is to ensure you are tracking JuJu Smith-Schuster Elite Jersey , what can you do to ensure your tracking methods are accurate? Two tracking methods I recommend most (beyond just asking the customer how they found you) are unique phone tracking and unique coupon tracking. Both are pretty simple and entail using a unique phone number and unique coupon code on each marketing source you want to track. By doing so you can know that when a customer calls in on a specific line or mentions a specific coupon code he or she has found you from the marketing source connected with it.
Phone Tracking. Phone tracking technology is inexpensive, very simple to use, and the data is foolproof. It allows you to run reports on your calls such as volume of calls, duration of calls T. J. Watt Elite Jersey , time of day most calls are being answered or missed, and more. Also, most phone tracking technologies allow you to record every call. Once you have all of this data, you can then start to get a feel for the number and quality of calls being provided by each marketing source. By listening to the calls you can know without a doubt whether or not a prospect rented.
I recommend you use unique tracking phone numbers in as many places as possible ' definitely on Yellow Page ads Terrell Edmunds Elite Jersey , any direct mail pieces or newspaper advertising, your website, and on any affiliate websites you may advertise on.