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BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS MARKETING
Delivering The Message To Potential Commercial Customers
By Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell
Marketing has been one of the biggest challenges for the mobile self storage industry, especially considering that the product it offers is unfamiliar to many consumers. Thus far, most of the industry’s advertising has targeted residential customers on the move. Just as with traditional self storage, however, commercial customers are the real door prize because they tend to be repeat customers who spend more with you overall.
Industry experts who have marketed mobile self storage all agree it hasn’t been easy getting the word out to potential businesses customers. Like marketing to residential customers, all the basics have to be in place. “Mobile self storage is really only about a decade-old business. I think the business is evolving,” says Dusty Rhodes, vice president of business development for SMARTBOX Portable self storage in Richmond, Va. “Mobile storage has been dominate in marketing to the residential customer and I think we are just now beginning to see where and how businesses can utilize this service.” Understanding its applications for various businesses is obviously a prerequisite to understanding how and to whom the industry’s marketing to commercial customers should be directed. Then, as with all sales and promotion, marketing fundamentals apply.Mobile Marketing Basics
Possibly the most important first step in marketing is to make sure your branding is in place. This is especially critical for mobile self storage because the containers act as billboards wherever they are placed. “Many companies know what their needs are, and if they know you exist, they will find ways to use your containers,” says Bob Landsinger, president of GO-TAINER, Inc., based in San Francisco, Calif., whose brand includes a “My Place or Yours,” logo.
Matt West, president of Charleston, S.C.-based Strategic Marketing Solutions, says once your brand is established, the basics of marketing to business clients begins with showing them you can service their needs through your fundamental storage advertising. “First, you need to set your annual advertising budget and strategically think about what you can do,” he says. According to West, the two most fundamental types of advertising—the Yellow Pages and a Web presence—must be placed wisely. Yellow Pages listings should be under the headings of self storage, moving services, and portable storage. “These are the three headers ads should be under,” he says. Surveys completed in the industry indicate that the Yellow Pages is still the number one resource where new customers find self storage services.
An optimized Web site should appear professional and should be easy to navigate. Industry experts still disagree on the effectiveness of Web sites as an advertising medium for the industry; however, potential business and corporate clients are probably more likely to find your services through the Web.
West says the key to a successful Web site is making sure it is optimized, meaning it ranks high among search engines for the geographic area under the same headings as the Yellow Pages ads. He also offers this tip: “Give enough information, but don’t burden potential customers with information.”
Daniel Bacon, director of operations at Tucson, Ariz.-based A-Atlas Mobile Storage, says one of his company’s biggest returns on investment for their advertising dollars is coupon mailers as part of a larger direct mail campaign. If embarking on your own direct mail campaign, sending tri-fold mailers without envelopes usually works best.
Print ads in local and regional business newspapers and magazines such as the city’s local business journal are other venues that may be effective. Radio and television ads are other venues. While experts disagree on how effective these media are, based on cost, many mobile self storage operators are finding them effective when targeting business clients—especially when the ads are tied to talk radio.
Networking in the community, a fundamental of marketing to the residential customer, is even more important for bringing in new business and corporate customers. Joining local chambers of commerce, attending business networking events, and establishing a presence at trade shows are all effective ways to develop new business clients. Just as important, says West, is knowing the industries that are predominant in your city and becoming involved in industry organizations.
Rhodes says networking may begin as close by as next door. “We have franchise owners who initially lease warehouse space,” says Rhodes. “At one location, the owner was able to make his neighbors at the warehouse customers, and started handling their storage needs.”
Helping out in the community and developing good will is another wise marketing strategy. An often overlooked approach to marketing mobile self storage to businesses is for company representatives to sit on the boards of local non-profit organizations. Donating containers for local causes is effective as well. “Gaining business is not the objective, but it is being socially responsible, and [new customers are] sometimes a result of that,” says Betsy Harris, marketing director for Mobile Attic, based in Elva, Ala. She says sitting on boards with other business owners and executives gives you the chance to network in the community.
Mobile Attic has also donated storage containers to agencies responsible for a local Meals on Wheels program, a school rummage sale fund-raiser, and a Toys for Tots drive at a local Wal-Mart. These opportunities to help out gave Mobile Attic an unintended benefit: exposure. Meals on Wheels placed an article about the company’s donation in their newsletter and the school sent home a copy of a thank you note to Mobile Attic with each child’s report card. And the container, which was located in a high-traffic parking lot, served as a mobile billboard.
The Benefits
The first selling point to be considered is what the business customer can gain from mobile self storage. Residential customers are using mobile self storage as extra space for home items, to store household furniture and goods while remodeling, or to de-clutter during the sales process. For business customers, there are countless other uses. A number of the leading commercial customers of mobile storage are related to the building industry—contractors, builders, cabinet makers, electricians, and plumbers who might need to store their products on site until a business or home is ready for installation. Professional businesses such as insurance companies, medical offices, and attorneys often need extra storage space for records. Retail stores and wholesale warehouses may stock extra inventory around holidays such as Christmas and Halloween.
School districts and government agencies are institutions that should not be overlooked. Both residential and commercial real estate brokers are also good marketing targets. For instance, many brokers work with professional organizers paid to stage homes for people wishing to sell, and mobile self storage companies can be a perfect fit.
In addition, commercial real estate agents know which businesses are moving and may need temporary storage or mobile moving services. Corporate event planners and caterers can also be marketing targets for mobile self storage, as they have to store different types of equipment for specific events. “We’ve even had a traveling shoe salesman as a customer,” says Harris, who notes that the possibilities are really endless.
Harris and her marketing team have a goal to come up with two industries each month that might use mobile self storage and create a packet for them. The general information about the company and the containers remains the same, but Harris inserts a special page for each industry that shows how these business owners can effectively use mobile self storage.
The Main Selling Point
When selling to residential customers, the main selling point is usually convenience. The same holds true for business and commercial customers who see mobile storage as a convenient and secure means to store files and other items that may be taking up valuable space. The most important thing to remember when selling to business and commercial customers, however, is showing them how cost-effective mobile storage can be for their bottom line.
“Companies want to know how they can save or even make money using mobile self storage,” says West. The ways businesses can profit include on-demand access that doesn’t require sending an employee who is on the clock to a traditional storage unit to retrieve files or other stored items.
It also frees up office space, allowing business owners to utilize their square footage for more profitable purposes. And for many companies, mobile storage can provide additional space for inventory. Harris says the best way to show the business or corporate customer how effective mobile self storage can be for their business while developing goodwill at the same time is to institute a temporary free-use program. “When our salespeople go to a commercial business, we take a mobile storage container on a truck and leave it for them to try for a month,” says Harris. “A lot of times they will want to keep it.”
In brief, the best marketing approach to gaining commercial customers for your mobile self storage operation is first to be sure your branding is effective, then identify potential business customers and the ways mobile storage can benefit them and create a straight forward message. With your targets and message in place, try several approaches to spread the word, using the ones that are easiest on your budget first. Once you begin quantifying the results from each method, it will soon be clear which approaches are best for growing your operation’s commercial accounts.
Kerri Fivecoat-Campbell is a freelance writer based in Shawnee, Kansas. Her work has been published in The Kansas City Star, Women In Business, and Entrepreneur magazine.
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