It may be rather complicated when it comes to marketing your self-storage. It is a very competitive market where most companies make significant financial investments.
Customer turnover is continual; therefore, it is necessary to have a marketing plan that brings in a regular supply of new renters.
We'll go over some of the most crucial self-storage marketing strategies, and we'll also show you how to utilize them to expand your self-storage company.
What Is Self-Storage Marketing
Self-storage marketing is defined as any activity that a self-storage business engages in, that increases the visibility and awareness of the business.
Such activities include advertising, market research, and product or service promotion.
Why Is It Important To Market Your Self-Storage Business?
Owners of storage facilities operate a business that provides a service that is constantly in demand. People will always require a location to keep their belongings. However, this does not negate the relevance of advertising a self-storage facility.
On the other hand, effective marketing is important if you want clients to choose your services over those of your competitors.
A lot of self-storage businesses put in the effort to offer the finest service possible in the hopes that doing so would draw enough clients. Unfortunately, that is frequently insufficient without effective marketing.
Self Storage Marketing Ideas That Work
Optimize and Promote Your Website
If you have a self-storage business, then it is expected that you have a functioning website. If you don’t, you might want to get one for your business.
Most people don’t rely on Yellow Pages listings to get clients anymore. This is why you may need to develop and optimize a website for your business.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is all about making it easier for search engines like Google to locate and rank your website. Through proper research and analysis, SEO entails finding the keywords that your intended audience is using to search.
Then, you must integrate them into every page of your website (but avoid keyword stuffing). Headers and subheaders, meta descriptions, optimized images, linking, and other strategies are examples of tactics.
If you have the money, it's also a good idea to buy some inbound traffic via pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements. After all, more website visitors means more rentals!
So how does PPC work? Google's AdWords program enables you to manipulate the search engine results to get to the top. You get charged each time someone clicks on your advertisement.
You may sell to a particular population with PPC advertising on Facebook, which is a little more cost-effective and allows you to base your targeting on factors like geography, age, gender, and hobbies.
Get Online Reviews
According to Invespcro , 88 percent of buyers today recognize online reviews from customers as much as personal recommendations, and 90 percent read them prior to visiting a business.
Therefore, it's crucial to amass positive feedback to persuade people that you provide the best self-storage services. Online reviews may appear on your website as well as on those of other parties, such as Google, Facebook, Yelp, and others.
Of course, providing excellent customer service is necessary to garner favorable ratings; every time you wow a customer, your marketing benefits.
You might offer incentives for reviews or just ask for one in a follow-up email. If they are pleased with your service, most customers won't mind spending a moment to leave online reviews.
Send Postcards
Let's return to the real world now that we've discussed some digital self-storage marketing strategies. Postcard mailers are a fantastic method to advertise your company.
You might target the nearby companies and communities or just the newcomers who may have downsized and do not have enough room for all their goods.
Once a consumer has moved out, you should continue to communicate with them by sending them postcards, possibly every three months. You might refer them to your website for self-storage advice or provide a "special client discount."
They will remember you and be more inclined to recommend you to others, even if they no longer require your services.
Become More Customer-Centric
In short, becoming more customer-centric means approaching your self-storage marketing in a way that focuses on delivering the best experience for the customer, and in doing so, you generate brand loyalty.
We used to just worry about storing items in self-storage, today though, we need to step it up, and that means putting the client first.
This is achieved by ensuring that the business' guiding principles, methods, and concepts are all intended to maintain customer satisfaction.
You may make more money, improve client retention, increase repeat business, receive more favorable reviews, and do other things with a more customer-centric strategy.
Merchandise Your Offerings
The office at the self-storage facility should operate like an art exhibition. Instead of merely being the manager's residence, display the various auxiliary self-storage goods you may provide to customers.
Included in these are trailer lock kits, moving supplies, tie-down straps, utility knives, boxes, furniture slides, lifting straps, mattress bags, dust covers, and more.
These products will draw notice if they are well displayed, and buyers may buy things they hadn't even considered before.
According to StoreLocal , as a general rule, 25% of the office should be set up for managerial comfort and 75% for merchandise.
Work on Referral Marketing
An inexpensive and efficient approach to increasing revenue is through referrals; in fact, most small firms are reported to receive roughly 60% of their sales from referrals. How do you obtain them, then?
You must first beg for them! You'll undoubtedly receive some unsolicited recommendations, but don't be hesitant to ask for them; doing so will almost certainly provide quicker results.
The "principle of reciprocity" states that the perfect timing for you to ask for a reference is right after you've helped a tenant out or made them happy in some other way. With an incentive, you can also receive recommendations; normally, cash is the best.
For each recommendation, you may offer a $20 gift card or, if the person is already a tenant, $50 off their subsequent month's rent. For a brand-new paying client, it's a tiny amount to pay.
Get Involved in Your Local Community
By participating or getting involved in the community, you may also meet influential locals and other community members.
For instance, you may think about supporting a local high school team or a charitable event. You might host an exhibition at a neighboring festival or adopt a nearby roadway.
It takes time to build a reputation in the community and establish yourself as the go-to person whenever residents need your services, but community engagement will ultimately pay off.
Offer RV & Boat Storage
Are boating and RVing common in your region? These specialized solutions can generate significant revenue since other storage choices are pricey, and many people are unable to park an RV or boat at their house owing to the neighborhood or local rules.
You may do some extensive research to learn more about how RV and boat storage has changed and why it could be something to consider adopting for your business.
Making The Best Use Of Digital Marketing
Social Media
When businesses choose to use digital marketing, social media marketing is crucial. One of the finest digital marketing platforms for quickly connecting with your consumers is social media.
Utilizing social media sharing platforms allows businesses to connect with a broad audience. As a result, if your storage company doesn't have a social media marketing strategy, you might be lagging.
You must set up company profiles on a variety of social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram. The audience will become aware of your brand as a result.
Additionally, you should upload images and share content about your merchandise on these networks. These postings will interact with current clients and draw in new ones.
Local SEO & Maps Optimization
If you want to stand out from the competition and draw in more clients, you must use the most effective techniques like conventional local SEO strategies, and map optimization.
SEO doesn't have to be complicated. Here's a quick approach to dividing SEO into two major groups:
On-site SEO
This entails determining the keywords that members of your target market use to find websites, and then successfully incorporating those keywords across your website.
Effective headlines and subheadlines, relevant tags and meta descriptions, optimized pictures, and the usage of optimization plugins like Yoast are all examples of effective on-site SEO methods.
Off-Site SEO
In its initial version, Google's algorithm used to be dependent on how many other websites on the Internet linked back to yours. In other words, Google used to give websites a higher ranking if many other websites were connected to it.
Although the algorithm has become a little more complex, building connections to your website throughout the Internet is still crucial. This process is known as "off-site SEO."
Remember, if you're just a real estate investor interested in self-storage for the profits or a manager of a self-storage facility juggling daily operations, you don't have time to dig into the details of SEO.
One reason why SEO firms are springing up all over and offering on-site and off-site optimization services to small businesses is because of this.
Content Marketing
By producing and publishing significant articles relating to self-storage, talking about relevant topics in podcast episodes, recording and editing applicable videos, and utilizing other media content marketing practices, content marketing can be used to draw in, hold onto, and grow your self-storage audience.
When it's time to patronize you, people will think of your company first, thanks to this strategic promotion of brand recognition and establishment of competence. It includes:
- Video content
- Written content
- Graphics
- Email Marketing (Newsletters)
Google My Business
Many self-storage companies register a Google business listing in an attempt to increase their visibility on the search engine.
You can take control of your self-storage business profile by creating a Google My Business account. This will also provide you access to extra free tools that can improve your online presence.
You may maintain and enhance your Google Business Profile using the service known as Google My Business, as was previously explained.
Storage-specific Google My Business marketing advice:
Pick the right category for your site
Google lets you select a primary category and alternative categories. There are other categories relating to storage, such as moving and storage services, automobile storage facilities, etc.
We often advise self-storage facilities that it's crucial to select the category that most precisely describes your service unless there is a compelling reason not to.
Set your landing page to your storage location page
If each of your storage facilities has a unique URL, this is the page you should connect to from your GMB profile. Your ranks in the local results will improve with this landing page's optimization.
Decide on your access hours
Storage businesses frequently have office hours that are different from the hours that clients may use their storage. The "More Hours" Feature may be used to set these.
Keeping in Touch With Previous Customers
A wonderful source of revenue can be past clients. According to Storist , consumers who have previously purchased a storage unit from you are likely to do so again in the future as 41% of customers have previously utilized storage.
This is why it's so crucial to stay in touch with your clients. Email marketing is perhaps the most effective approach in this situation. There is a thin line between informing someone and pestering them so much that they decline further communication.
Offline Marketing Tactics
Any form of marketing that is not conducted online is considered offline marketing. This covers a wide range of channels and structures, including billboards, print advertisements, and television and radio commercials.
Even while the amount of money spent on offline marketing is decreasing, it may still be beneficial, particularly in markets where other strategies have already saturated the market or where the target audience is more inclined to interact with these forms.
Offline marketing offers a wide range of options with a variety of benefits for marketing your self-storage facility. You can market offline through the following mediums:
- Flyers
- Newspapers
- Billboards
Integrating Self-Storage Marketing Into Your Property Management Tool
Task automation using property management tools are very important for marketing your self-storage business because it makes things easier, more seamless, and faster.
Self-storage property management systems, often known as Self Storage PMS, are powerful programs created to assist you in managing your self-storage business.
A PMS often incorporates a number of functions pertaining to the operations, management, accounting, and other facets of a self-storage company.
There are several options for self-storage management software, and it is important to choose the one that is the most appropriate for your business.
With the Booking Ninjas Self Storage Management System , your storage facilities are well managed and optimized to serve your clients better.
Take advantage of remote access, ticketing and POS systems, online customer acquisition, and many more with our one-stop system. It is time to store better.
To learn more about how we help self-storage businesses like yours transform their management operations, schedule a free meeting with us right now!
Final Thoughts
You now have access to our comprehensive collection of marketing suggestions for your self-storage business. We sincerely hope you found it helpful and that it inspired you to try a few new things.
While many of these concepts may be familiar to you, the trickiest aspect of applying them is frequently doing so.
Also, we dare say that task automation may be the most important aspect of marketing your self-storage business, so we do advise that you take it seriously.
Managers utilize self-storage management software for handling payments, facilitating electronic signatures, and seeing facility maps.
Furthermore, by connecting with customer relationship management (CRM), financial, and job management solutions, sophisticated systems provide users with more management possibilities.
Additionally, a number of software vendors like
Booking Ninjasprovide business intelligence solutions for data analysis and visualization.
