Marketing • Section 7 W ith the exception of business tenants, the self-


storage business model centers on short-term rent- als. As such, storage facilities are constantly in flux


with tenants moving into and out of the property every month as their circumstances change and their need for self- storage evolves. To be successful, self-storage operators must effectively add new tenants to fill units as they are vacated. Ideally, the cycle should be as seamless as possible, keeping occupancy rates high and stable month over month. To keep the process going, self-storage owners and operators across the country rely on marketing and advertising to ensure new customers are aware of the self-storage facility and choose to fill empty units when they are vacated.


Well thought out marketing campaigns are vi-


tal to a storage facility’s success. The best designed plans are geared to a specific target audience and are expressly crafted to get the message to poten- tial customers via the facility’s preferred media. This puts the onus on the business to know its target audience and un- derstand how to best reach out to this demographic group.


All communications should work in tandem to help build the facility’s brand.


Owners and operators regularly invest their time and


money in developing and disseminating the self-storage facility’s message to households and businesses within the community. All communications should work in tandem to help build the facility’s brand. One step toward this goal involves positioning the business as the area’s self-storage expert. With creating a brand in mind, well thought out marketing and advertising campaigns should educate, build trust, generate attention, and establish the store’s authority in the sector.


How Do Customers Find You? Despite all the technological advances in the self-storage industry over the past decade, the customer’s first contact with the facility before renting tends to be an in-person visit. As seen in Chart 7.1, nearly 51 percent of the customers sur- veyed for the SSA 2017 Self Storage Demand Study said this was how they first had contact with the facility. Thirty-four percent reported that their first contact was by phone, while 8.2 percent of those surveyed said that the facility’s website was the first means of contacting the facility. Only 6.6 per- cent reached out by email.


When looking at this on a generational basis in Table 7.1,


the picture is somewhat different. Only 36.1 percent of mil- lennials, reported that they made in-person visits for the first


2018 Self-Storage Almanac 81


contact. This is substantially lower than the overall average of 51 percent seen in Chart 7.1 and the lowest percentage for all age groups in this category. While Gen-X renters fell slightly below that average (48 percent) and baby boom- ers reported a higher number (58 percent), it is the Greatest Generation that utilized in-person visits the most, with 83 percent of those surveyed choosing this method.


    


Phone 37.4% In-person visit


35.2%


Email 11.6% Facility’s Website


14.6%


Other 0.3% Source: 2017 Self Storage Demand Study (SSA)


36.1% 48.0% 7.8% 8.7% 0.3%


34.7% 58.0% 2.7%


14.9% 83.0% 0.0%


4.1% 0.6% 0.6%


1.6%


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