Operating a self-storage business can be a lucrative venture, but attracting customers is always a challenge. Aside from conventional marketing, such as Yellow Pages and radio, television, newspaper and online advertising, there are some simple steps you can take to improve your self-storage marketing. By focusing on visibility, professional relationships and the available services at your site, you can attract more business to your self-storage facility.
Reach out to military bases in your community. Most military bases have an office dedicated to helping soldiers and their families settle into a community. If you have a military base within your target area, speak with the community liaison and offer discounts to active military personnel. Military families are itinerant by nature, and may not stay in an area long. They frequently require self-storage services.
Network with apartment managers. Apartment managers can be a gold mine for your self-storage business because they cater to itinerant populations and because most apartments lack storage space, such as garages and basements. Provide literature on your facility to the managers of the major apartment complexes in your community, and consider offering discounts to their customers.
Use upgrades and promotions to enhance your appeal. Your community may be aware of your self-storage business, but perhaps there are things about it that they just don't like. Consider adding more lighting, or marketing the security features of your facility. If you live in a cold-weather area and don't have temperature-controlled units, this also can hurt business. Consider installing at least a few heated units for customers who demand them.
Invest in visibility. You can't move a bad location, but you can make it more visible. If your facility is not visible from major roads in your community, consider whether taller signage would fix the problem. Your community may have regulations regarding signage, but in areas zoned for self-storage, those rules are sometimes relaxed. Also, consider renting billboard space on your community's major roads -- those billboards act like signage for your business.
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