Introduction
No matter who you are everyone needs a place to store their stuff. Storage units offer a great way for people to do that. In the world of commercial real estate self storage is also one of the best assets you can own. In order to make it great your CRE marketing needs to reach people who are actively looking for a facility and to do that you need to attract the right people you must also appear first and stand out among the market competition. In this article by the Cindtoro team we will teach you all the various ways how to market a self storage property helping you to stand out and build a long lasting impression.
Who This Article Is For
We created this article for some of the following types of people. owners/operators, third-party managers working on lease-up / stabilization as well as single-site and portfolio teams.
Know Your Demand & Segments
To reach the right people you need an understanding of your local demographics. Knowing the types of people are in your local area will help inform any and all advertising messages used to reach each audience. It will also help you to map various pain points that your facility can solve for.
Listing Fundamentals that Convert
To ensure that you attract the right people to your space you should list out various fundamentals of your space. Include things such as the unit mix (sizes, climate/standard, drive-up/indoor, upper-level). Hours of operation, security protocols, RV/boat storage and professional visuals of the property and spaces avaliable.
Make Your Property Easy to Find
You need to make it as easy as possible for people to find you. Local search dominates the way people search for businesses. Making your property easy to find online also includes how a search engine understands your business.
A good place to start your Google business profile. To maximize the benefits there are a few things you can do first, ensure that you have a consistent name, address or phone number In search optimization this is known as NAP data.
This information helps a search engine classify your self storage facility as a legitimate business and helps to increase your trust signals. This data is also required for people to contact you to get a self storage unit. To attract users to your your website you should also include relevant photos of the exterior, demo unit, carts, elevator and more.
Local Paid Reach
Place your property at the top of the search engine using digital ads. This is one of the fastest ways to significantly increase your number of tenants as fast as possible. Doing this will allow you to reach people as they are searching for a self storage facility in their local area.
Digital ads can also be a great way for you to reach specific types of people (by job title) or “in-market” those who recently searched for a storage facility. Once people visit your website if they do not convert into a new tenant, retargeting ads can be implemented to “follow” users around the web helping to keep your self storage facility top of mind.
Friction-Free Reservations
People want a process that is easy to use. The goal should be to make it fast and easy to reserve a space and lease it. The checkout process online and automate it. Consider things such as a live inventory (if desired) to build urgency. The less steps you have the better. You should also include a way for people to get in touch with members of your staff if they have any questions prior to leasing the self storage space.
Tours & On-Site Experience
Before someone can say yes to leasing from you they may need to “test drive” the space. Be prepared to facilitate that process with a tour. Take time to demo the area and showcase different offerings available (climate controlled, standard, large and small spaces alike.)
Tours can also be provided using VR (virtual reality) helping to ensure potential clients can view your facility even if they live far away, or your staff is unable facilitate a tour due to being busy.
Partnerships that Drive Move-Ins
Look to create partnerships with other businesses like apartment buildings, student housing, movers, and contractors. Doing this will help create a strong community of the most likely prospects who are likely in need of storage space on a regular basis.
This process takes nothing more than a little leg work and a few good creatives. To increase your chances of a business saying yes to your partnership offer, consider adding an exclusive code on to your one-pager or by offering a referral fee.
Reviews & Social Proof (Trust Builders)
To make informed decisions people need to see that your self storage facility is highly rated among people who have leased space with you in the past. This is where reviews and social proof tie into the mix. Timing is important a good rule of thumb could be to ask for reviews at two different times. First three days after move in, 14 days after and 3 months after to conclude your cadence,
You can also display a QR code on the checkout counter or within promotional emails. Reviews are like a double edged sword if you do not have them if will be hard to convert people into paying tenants AND it will be difficult for a search engine to trust your business enough to be showing to more users. Most importantly if your service quality is “off” you will cause people to lose even more trust further decreasing your chances of leasing more space.
Retention, Upgrades & Re-engagement
With successful marketing comes retention. Holding your existing client base is the best way to stay consistently profitable. There are additional things you can do to keep your current tenant base while at the same time providing a better quality service. Think things such as “right size” check-in’s strategically performed at 60 – 90 -120+ days. For your best customers you can also offer “long-stay appreciation perks” or referral rewards.
Re-engagement can be done via an email list or phone call to past tenants of your facility. To make re-engagement an effective marketing strategy cadence is key. For example your first call-back could be 90 days after a tenant has left your facility. Followed by a “we miss you” email sent every 4 to 6 months until a response is received or your set email cadence is hit.
Seasonality Opportunities
Different times of the year present different areas of opportunity to reach people at different stages. For example if your self storage location is near a university you could advertise to people looking for a place to store stuff as they move in or out. Another example could be targeting people with boats or RVs that need storage because the “season” is finished for the year.
Finally, you can create season based discounts for spring, summer, fall and winter. Seasonality specials allow you to maintain a competitive edge above other self storage facilities.
Conclusion
We hope you learned something useful about self storage advertising methods. you do not need to use all of the methods mentioned here to be successful to lease your self storage space efficiently. It can be done with the right marketing strategy and partner. If you need help filling your facility the Cindtoro team would love to serve your needs.