Apr
01

Out of the Box Self-storage Marketing Ideas

These days business owners everywhere know it’s important to have an online presence when marketing their business; this is especially true for self-storage facilities. Many storage operators use an aggregator for additional online presence and also to accept online reservations especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Online marketing is great, but in today’s challenging economy, it is important to implement creative marketing ideas, and that includes ones that will bring more community awareness and foot traffic to your storage facility.

Create Holiday Themed Drive thru Activities

Imagine your storage customers decorating their storage unit for Halloween or Christmas? 2020 saw a record number of the socially distanced drive-thru events due to the Coronavirus pandemic. See where I am going with this? Imagine some your storage unit customers decorating their unit for Halloween or Christmas. Now offer it as a contest and get everyone involved. How fun would that be? Families then can drive-thru to experience the holiday display.

To make the event even more special, consider using a photo editing app to create promotional materials or capture and edit memorable pictures from the event. Better yet, partner with a local charity and charge a small entrance fee with proceeds going to that organization. This will put your storage facility on the map, at least in your home-town, while benefiting local charity. It’s a win-win marketing idea that is a lot of fun.

Donation Drop off

Since we are being charitable, partnering with local charitable organizations as a donation drop off point can also bring community exposure and foot traffic to your self-storage facility. Many self-storage operators like SecurCare Self Storage already support Toys for Tots during the holiday season and you can too! Why not carry the giving year around. Host a clothing drive for a woman’s shelter, can food drop off for a local food pantry or even a pet food donation drive for the local humane society. The need is great and the possibilities are endless.

Community Activities

Another way to market your storage facility is to create awareness within your local community. Hosting different types of community events is a great way to do this. Not only does it bring people together, you are helping the local economy.

Yard sales are all the rage these days. Hosting a yard sale event at your storage facility will not only help your renters to be able to sell some items, it also helps “create a tighter community at your self-storage facility”. Another plus it brings in new foot traffic to your facility, foot traffic equals prospective new tenants. Its not just for current storage tenants, why not offer open parking spaces for a nominal fee to others so they can sell at your yard sale. If they don’t sell all their wares, they may need to rent a storage unit from you. We found some great advice from Jeanette Miller, Manager of Main Road Self Storage in Summerville, South Carolina. See what Jeanette has to say.

Is your facility in a rural area? Instead of a yard sale, why not host a local farmers market. A seasonal farmers market can bring many together within the community. How about a fall holiday arts & craft fair or even a spring time antique festival. By appealing to several different segments of your community you are creating a wide range of marketing exposure for your storage facility.

Yoga & Fitness for All

There is a trend that many have set up their yoga studio and/or fitness studio in self-storage units. If you have such a tenant, why not see if they would be willing to partner with you to host a weekly or monthly yoga session. You can barter by offering free rent in exchange for teaching the class. Set aside a convenient and shady area for them to conduct the class. Your foot traffic might end up sky high during these yoga classes.

No yoga studios at your facility maybe you have a personal trainer or other fitness studio. Offer them the same deal. The idea is to create top of mind awareness with new folks so that when they need additional storage, they will think of you first.

Business Allies

Another way to add value to your self-storage business, gain new customers and create convenience for your customers is to build a great relationship with complementary businesses. Think of the types of businesses that have products that relate to your business but don’t compete with yours, what do most storage customers have in common? Most of them are moving. Your storage operation may benefit by developing complementary partnership with local realtors, apartment complex managers, truck rental companies and moving companies (ones that don’t offer storage). You can exchange web advertising or even referral s with them. But do your research first and make sure the other business is a good one.

When looking to partner with a complementary business, it is important to choose your partnerships wisely, so that both benefit from the relationship. What benefits may your partnership bring to their business? Make sure to point out those benefits when you approach them as your potential business ally. Be sure to discuss all the terms of how this new relationship will work.

Revenue streams That Bring in Foot Traffic

So your facility is full, lucky you! How can you increase revenue besides increasing rates or selling packing and moving supplies? Many self-storage facilities have successfully increased their revenue by offering post office boxes. Post office boxes don’t take up a lot of space and offer customers convenience and security for accessing their mail. With so much mail theft, a PO Box keeps residential information private and keeps your mail safe. Additionally, with so many businesses going remote these days, having a PO Box offers an excellent way to for businesses to receive t heir mail.

Package Pick up/Drop off

So many folks these days are doing their shopping online. In fact over 227 million people shopped online last year. That’s a lot of shoppers. Unfortunately, the sad fact is about 36% of American shoppers have had their packages stolen from their front door. Storage operators can help their community by offering package pick up or drop off services at an affordable rate. Packages received are kept secure until the customer comes to pick it up and customers can drop off their packages at a self-storage site that is convenient to them.

In conclusion, there are many ways you can market your self-storage facilely that doesn’t include direct advertising. Many of the ideas presented here are also very affordable; brings your community together in a mutually beneficial way as well as new foot traffic. We would love it if you would share your creative marketing ideas with us. Or if you implement one of our ideas, we would love to hear how it worked out and see pictures too. Be sure to drop us a line.

By: Lee Preston
Lee is the Director of Marketing and Promotion for EZstorit.com. When she is not working with our storage facilities partners, she is writing about topics that affect our daily lives.