A Guide to Combining Video-Content Marketing and Self-Storage

There are plenty of ways to market a self-storage business, but very few shows just how good your business really is. At first encounter, consumers tend to be distrustful of ads, so if you want to make a lasting positive impact you must make every effort to make your marketing effective.

The gist of most marketing focuses on telling potential customers who you are and what your business can offer. This allows for video to make the most out of your advertising. In a perfect world, a potential customer would have an in-person encounter with you and/or your business. But since it is not entirely possible to meet and greet every potential customer, your best bet is to show people what makes you, your brand, and your facilities desirable in business through video.

These days, everyone is looking at a screen, whether it be a phone, tv, or computer, making video marketing a great tool for your business to gain visibility in the market. Video is found to be the type of content most people prefer to engage with online and can be used to present your business without being too direct. 

Beneficial Types of Video Marketing

There are many different types of videos used in marketing today, but it is important to keep the ones that will benefit a self-storage operation the most.

First off, the biggest type of video used in the industry today: Brand video. Brand videos generally come as a part of a more extensive advertising campaign and showcase your company’s vision or mission. This method is best used when trying to enter a new market or geographic location. The goal here is to present possible customers with a better sense of who your company is and what it stands for, but most importantly of all, helps them determine if they like you or not.

Next, explainer or how-to videos. This type of video is usually used to explain how your business operates on the customer’s end. For example, it can teach new customers how to reserve a unit or sign their lease and make online payments. This type of video can help mitigate the challenges current customers have if you make a change to your website, software, or anything else that may concern the process a customer must go through to interact within their self-storage unit. Not only do they update customers, but explainer videos also help build and grow trust.

Another way to build trust effectively: testimonial videos. Testimonial videos are a great way to empower you satisfied tenants and allow them to share their stories with potential customers. This method’s biggest benefit is that it allows people to trust a real person rather than a brand that they might not be willing to listen to.

The last and newest method of video marketing that you should know about when operating a self-storage business is live video marketing. In recent years, social media platforms have enabled users to go live and interact with friends and fans. Live videos are great for promotions, events, and announcing or revealing new self-storage facilities. To ensure that your live video is to be successful, it is recommended to have a well-established following on your chosen platforms.

Getting Your Videos Out There

With the explosion of popularity surrounding video content, there are plenty of options for putting your marketing videos out there. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, pretty much any major social media website is a good place to market your videos for a fraction of the cost of a TV ad. Also, those platforms allow you to define and target the types of customers you want to reach, allowing for an increased return on investment over time. If you have a committed following, you might even be able to have followers share your videos, allowing for increased visibility that would not be possible otherwise.

Key Performance Indicators

Now that you have your videos made and out there, you may be wondering how you can measure their success to ensure that you are getting the return on investment you were looking for. With most types of online marketing, there is usually data out there that will allow you to see how your video is performing. 

To judge the engagement and effectiveness of your content, here are some key performance indicators to look for: Completion, or the number of people who watch the whole video. Completion rate, the number of people who completed the video divided by the number of people who started watching it. Click-through-rate, the number of people who clicked on your video’s call to action. And lastly, Conversion rate, the number of times a visitor completed the desired outcome.

Video marketing is easily one of the most effective ways to market your self-storage business. Do not be afraid to put your own spin and creativity into the videos you create for your business either, as your brand is a reflection of who you are. Often people will choose to do business with brands they like, so do not miss out on an opportunity to share what makes you different from the competition.