Olympia Moving & Storage on Marketing Your Company
With moving season officially in full swing, marketing your moving company is likely at the top of your to-do list. But, it’s no secret that doing so requires an incredible amount of time, effort, and often, a deep wallet.
So, we sat down with Olympia Moving and Storage – with over 20 years of experience, they know a thing or two about relocation marketing strategy. They’ve consistently exhibited the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that makes their company truly stand apart from the pack, whether that’s through their Moving Resources Portal or their transparent way of doing business. Either way, it’s come with big return – their company was selected to receive the Wheaton Agent of the Year award in 2013, and they consistently receive positive feedback from their customers.
Read on as Olympia’s Marketing Manager, Rachael Fischer, shares a few marketing pro-tips and dishes on just how to tackle moving company marketing.
It’s all about education
We all know the statistic – the average American moves around 11.6 times in their life. All things considered, that’s not that often, which means that customers often don’t know what to expect when it’s time to start packing up the house. With this in mind, Fischer encourages moving companies to create marketing content that’ll inform their customers at every step of the move. “The more information people have about the industry, whether they’re a client or not, the better they’ll be able to select their mover and understand what needs to happen,” she says.
For Olympia, that meant including useful moving hack videos on their Moving Resources Portal, where they share instructional videos on things like how to move a wine collection or how to estimate the number of moving boxes you’ll need for your move. It not only establishes their company as a thought leader in the industry, but it’s a great value-add resource that they can send to their current clients in the days leading up to the move.
Keep it digestible
As a professional in the relocation industry, it’s second nature to throw around terms of the trade – bill of lading, binding estimates, van operators, weight additives, and the list goes on. But for the first-time mover, it can often sound like you’re speaking a foreign language. Fischer suggests that moving companies make sure that all communication with their customers is broken down into language that their customer will understand, regardless of whether that’s via phone calls, marketing e-mails, or even on your moving estimate forms. “We always try to stay away from industry terms and present everything from our customers’ perspective,” Fischer says. “When we try to explain a topic, we relate it to other services that our customers use on a regular basis.”
For example, Rachael shared that Olympia found that their interstate movers often asked what a “delivery spread” meant. They found that their customers best understood the practice once they compared it to something that their customers related to – receiving a home package delivery. They explained that a “delivery spread” was similar to the 2-3 day delivery estimate when expecting a package to be delivered to your home. Simply explaining what’s happening at every touch point – and on their terms – eliminates any unneeded frustration on the customers’ end.
Know your audience?
Over the years, Olympia has invested heavily in their marketing strategy, between building out their Moving Resources portal and staying in touch with current and past customers through e-mail marketing communication. While they’ve seen high levels of customer engagement with their online resources, Fischer says that it’s equally important to consider who your audience is before you engage with customers. “We know from experience that if we just did online communication, people would say that our customer experience amounted to saying ‘Go checkout the website,’” Fischer shared.
The key here is that going digital is important, but what’s more important is recognizing the different needs of your customers and catering to those needs accordingly. Customers will naturally go toward the line of communication that’s best for them, which means that marketing newsletters and e-mails aren’t always the best way to go. Clarify with your customers how they’d like to receive communication at the beginning of the relationship for best results. For some, nothing beats an old-fashioned personal phone call.
On marketing your moving company on a budget
Let’s face it – marketing your moving company is a daunting task. Well, not exactly, says Fischer, who suggests to skip the big advertising campaigns. Instead, it’s all about building out a content presence, whether that’s through social media, your company’s blog, or through something like Olympia’s Moving Resources portal.
And there are a few low budget and low-commitment ways to do this, she says. For example, Fischer suggests that moving companies consider hiring an intern to work on building out content for their website or blog. A former intern herself at Olympia, Rachael recommends, “For the right person, it’s a great opportunity to build a marketing presence and a brand. There are ways that you can bring resources like this to the table, without too high of a commitment.”
What we can learn from Olympia’s marketing strategy is that it often comes down to the basics; it’s about remaining attuned to your customers’ needs, thinking about what resources and kinds of communication makes the most sense for them, and planning accordingly.
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