CMO Radio: Marketing Exec A Repository Of ‘Tradigital’ Insight

In the age of social media, it’s easy to forget that email blasts, sponsored tweets, and LinkedIn campaigns aren’t the only ways to advertise. In fact, taking out physical ads in Yellow Pages isn’t as outdated as it sounds. Old school? Maybe. Does it work? It does for StorageMart.

In the age of social media, it’s easy to forget that email blasts, sponsored tweets, and LinkedIn campaigns aren’t the only ways to advertise. In fact, taking out physical ads in Yellow Pages isn’t as outdated as it sounds. Old school? Maybe. Does it work? It does for StorageMart.

StorageMart is one of the largest privately held self-storage companies in North America, with 168 properties across the U.S. and Canada. Fifteen years ago, now former CMO Tron Jordheim joined the team to launch an inbound call center to capture calls that were being missed at local stores. The company saw a 30% increase in rentals from that initiative alone, and a marketing effort that once looked like a few physical ads has now transformed into more than 100 different lead-generation sources, most of which are digital and mobile.

Still, Jordheim said StorageMart won’t part with its roots. “I will tell you that print Yellow Pages is still 5% of our business,” Jordheim said. “I’m not giving up 5% of our business!”

Beyond offering clean, safe storage spaces for an affordable rental price, StorageMart positions itself as a community-oriented presence that remains after the transaction is complete. The company cares about its customers and makes frequent donations to the Red Cross, women’s shelters, and no-kill animal facilities—organizations that are relevant to the group of people they serve, those who are often in transitional crisis.

“We try to give back when we can, and it helps us feel good about doing something fairly boring, renting empty space to people,” Jordheim said. “But it shows people that we’re people, too.”

Other highlights from this week’s episode of CMO Radio include:

• Tracking attribution from all sides (6:41)
• Blending traditional and digital marketing (13:10)
• Combatting negative reviews (20:47)
• The importance of content marketing—for everyone (23:55)

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Click here to listen to previous episodes of CMO Radio.