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04 Dec 2019

You’ve Got Mail, How Sending Emails can Help you Convert Leads

author

Laura Gattis

Marketing Specialist

Let’s face it! It’s the digital age and without modern marketing strategies, your facility could fall victim to REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and big-box competitors in your area. With more than 3.7 billion email users worldwide, this is a market that you really should be targeting. For any self storage facility looking to grow their online presence, email marketing is a natural and highly-recommended strategy. By honing in with email campaigns, you can increase lead generation, conversions, and overall facility revenue. Find out the types of emails you can send, what makes a good email, and how to get started if your facility has never tried email marketing before.

Types of Emails

The type of email communication you’ll want to send out will depend on your end goal and audience. If you’re following up on a customer service request or a direct email, stick with the tried-and-true, personal emails. Over-designing an email can make it feel less personal and like you didn’t send it personally with them in mind. Staying true to the old-fashioned email is the best way to go.

However, for mass marketing campaigns, facility-wide updates, and other emails that will be received by lots of people get creative! Use Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or other third-party email software that allows you to easily design and send emails to larger groups. These are great for grabbing someone’s attention and honing in on your message.

On average, people receive about 121 emails a day, so standing out in the crowd with an exciting email is key. Do this with strong branding, clear content, and a call-to-action. Your call-to-action should be obvious to a reader skimming on their phone, drawing them to your website or to reach out for further information.

Abandonment Emails

When a potential tenant is checking out and gets cold feet or steps away from the computer and never completes the checkout process, what happens? With automated abandonment emails, you can set up a special offer or discount to automatically appear in their inbox after they’ve left your facility’s website. This encourages them to come back and finish the rental process, helping increase conversions and overall revenue.

Without an abandonment email, your facility risks either never closing the sale or having to manually follow up via phone or email, eating up valuable time and manpower. According to Moosend, 40% of abandonment emails are opened, making this a great option for facilities.

What Makes a Good Email

The Storage Group has talked a lot about email marketing before (you can read their guest post for ISS here). One major takeaway is to have simple, clear subject lines that explain the value or offer the reader will receive by opening the email. With so many emails coming through inboxes every day, it’s important that yours stands out with a subject line that engages.

The hardest part may be getting someone to open your emails, but once they’ve done that, what do they see? Please, don’t send emails full of small text and buttons with no images! More than half of your audience is likely reading from their phones. Large, easy-to-click buttons and responsive email design is crucial. Most third-party email software platforms will automatically create responsive emails, but it’s a feature worth checking. Non-responsive emails will look clunky and be difficult for tablet and mobile users to navigate. Don’t shy away from graphics and images either, as those will help break up your text and make it easier for people to read.

The average click-through rate on emails is about 13%, but don’t be discouraged if the first few emails you send are falling short of this number. Watch your analytics and play with link placement, content, and branding.. Keep your branding consistent across emails for your facility so that it’s easy for recipients to remember your facility and gain brand visibility.

Getting Started with Email Marketing

Once you’re equipped with the tools to start sending emails, develop a process. Have another person look over mass emails before they go out to check for any grammar, spelling, or content issues you may have missed. It’s always better to have someone else look it over than have a mistake go out! As you develop a robust email marketing strategy, conversion rates, lead generation, and brand awareness should increase. Track analytics, and adjust email campaigns, lists, and frequency to make sure emails are converting into actual rentals.

Are you interested in integrating abandonment emails into ClickandStor®? Reach out to The Storage Group sales team at 888-465-6247 or sales@storagegroupinc.com for more information. Happy emailing!

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