08.26.19
How do you get your self-storage audience to not only care about your content, but to want to share it with everyone they know? Your audience is bombarded with a media information snowstorm every single day, and you have to be the snow plow that attracts their attention long enough to get them motivated. How do companies do this? Do your competitors know a secret that you don’t?
It’s not a secret. It’s common sense and using what you already know. Your audience typically doesn’t think about why they’re sharing content, and they don’t understand the powerful social impact that these shares have on the site supplying the content. Something they see attracts their attention, and they pull the trigger so fast they don’t even stop to read the article. Every time they share “If you have the stuff, we have the space” or “Decorating my storage unit to look like the inside of Windsor Castle,” they’re doing exactly what we want them to do. They’re participating in content marketing. When they share with the right people, you have a bunch of new followers.
Study the following tips to so that you can motivate your audience to subconsciously share your content.
Tip 1: Be a Problem Solver – Readers want the same thing they’ve always wanted: solutions, advice, and education. They want your help in making their lives better, and they want to be the ones to make their friends lives better. Spend more time listening and less time talking and you’ll understand their problems and how to find the solutions they want.
Tip 2: Don’t Forget the Headline – Today’s internet users are sophisticated and selective. They are very aware of how and where they invest their time. They don’t like ambiguity; make your headlines explicit, yet snappy. There is a lot of information out there to help you write catchy headlines. Remember, sometimes the headline is their motivation to share before they even finish reading the article.
Tip 3: Educate and Inform – There is value and satisfaction in information and learning. Readers love to discover content that aligns with their interests and teaches them something new. This type of content is satisfying to them when they’re looking for information.
Tip 4: Appeal to Emotions – Create joy, incite rage, provoke awe. This might be a bit over the top when writing about self storage. But you get the picture. You could find joy in cleaning your house and be awed by discovering that underneath the clutter you have an extra bedroom. The more intense the emotion the more compelled a reader feels to share it.
Tip 5: An Unexpected Surprise – Readers love to stumble upon something that they didn’t really need to know or think about but were thrilled to discover. For example, “a self-storage unit is a great place to hide my high school yearbooks so that the kids don’t find them and blackmail me with threats of exposing them on Facebook.” Your readers will share this with their friends in a heartbeat.
Time to get serious. The digital economy has brought opportunities for leads, engagement, and sales at lower costs than the traditional models. According to We Are Social there were 3.26 billion people using social media on mobile devices in January 2019, with a growth of 297 million new users representing a year-on-year increase of more than 10 percent. Wrap you brain around that for a minute. When readers share your content it’s powerful. Get moving and tap into their subconscious. Are you ready to pull the trigger on this one yet?!