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09/19/2016

How long does it take to start getting customers?

Tracy Enscore - All In Self Storage

Hello and good day, we have opened our new facility and our first. how long does it take to start getting customers and or fill up?

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5 Comments

Kevin Leebrick   on Tuesday 09/20/2016 at 09:21 AM

A lot of it is word of mouth. That being said you should be doing some marketing to get things rolling. Contact HOA's and get into there newsletters, have a large sign made to let passing traffic know you are open and go introduce yourself to your residential AND commercial neighbors. I don't like aggregators at all, I'm a huge detractor of them, but I believe they can be a big help for the locally owned and operated facility in the first year of operations, just to get things treading in the right direction. Should you use one be very careful about how long you sign a contract for and the cost.

Olivia Austin   on Thursday 09/22/2016 at 04:39 PM

Hi Tracy
There are many tools available, I would make sure to have a website up and running that can take payments and reservations and tie into your software to update automatically.

More and more people use the internet to shop and find out information, if they don't see you there, or see your prices, and that they can pay online, they move on to the next storage facility.

Make sure that your sign is highly visible and clearly states your name and phone number.

Kevin Leebrick   on Thursday 09/22/2016 at 05:19 PM

Olivia makes a great point. The Website is probably the MOST IMPORTANT point. I thought that rather obvious, but I'm glad you pointed that out as many folks don't view it as marketing.

Jan Ockers   on Thursday 10/20/2016 at 04:25 PM

Hi, I'm sorry to say, but if this is the first time that you are thinking about your marketing plan, you are in for big surprise. Field of dreams (if we built it they will come) does not apply in the self storage business. Please prepare or have someone else prepare a marketing plan based on your area competion , their occupancy and the rents for each unit. Then advertise your storage rooms at a rate below your competion. When your rooms fill,up slowly increase the rent to what your competion is charging. Of course, if you have no competion, this doesn't apply and you must advertise via all media. Good luck!



Kevin Leebrick   on Friday 10/21/2016 at 08:54 AM

Agreeing with Jan for the most part here as well. One really good way to have a solid marketing plan is to know your competition. SiteLink, if you use their software, has a competition comparison tool that is great. You need to know what your competition has and rates, absolutley. You also need to figure out what seperated you from each of your competitors. Do you have better security features, are you newer, have they had break in's, are you the know locally owned facility left. Those knid of questions help you market and sell your facility to potential renters. They can also give you a heads up as to what you put into you marketing materials, ie website, trifolds etc.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in the comments shown above are those of the individual comment authors and do not reflect the views or opinions of this organization.