ISSUE: Jul/Aug 2007

Marketing Your Facility through Local Involvement

By John R. Wharton

Curb appeal, of course, is important for attracting drive-by traffic, but let’s face it: a lemonade stand attracts drive-by traffic. Marketing is what separates the market leaders from the just-getting-bys. We now consider self storage a retail business, which is a big improvement over the “if you build it, they will come” mentality. Marketing for this type of business is about building relationships, and getting involved in the local community is a great way to establish business relationships.

In fact, maintaining continuous relationships with customers and the surrounding community is the name of the game in self storage marketing. How do we do this? It’s a three-step process. We first become visible in our community. Then, with time, we become creditable. And after that, we become profitable!

Be Visible
For the first step—visibility—Jeff Grubb of Space Mart Partners in State College, Pa., asks his managers to make some “noise” in their communities. As a resident manager in Newport News, Va., I came up with the NOISE acronym shown in the sidebar below. The NOISE principles will help you get the attention of your community.

First, we must be visible to our potential customers—and everyone you meet is a potential customer. The gentleman in front of you at the Chinese buffet, the young woman who cuts your hair, the mail carrier, and anyone you come in contact with during your day is fair game. Carry yourself with pride and represent your business with a smile. Positive people attract positive people. Behave in a way so upbeat and friendly that it is memorable. Guess who people will remember when they or someone they know needs storage?

Advertising and marketing, of course, are also key elements of visibility. We often confuse marketing and advertising—lumping them together in our budgets and mixing them up when we train a new manager. Advertising is a paid announcement, a persuasive message, or a presentation delivered to many people through some type of media such as Yellow Pages, newspapers, radio and television commercials, or billboards.

The purpose of advertising is to attract potential customers to your self storage facility while promoting your brand to current and future customers. Repetitive advertising makes customers familiar with your brand name, and it is reinforced when they see or hear it again in different media or when they drive by and see it on your signage.

Marketing, however, is the theme of this article. Marketing implies action on the part of an individual. It involves hitting the pavement, making personal contact, creative thinking, planning, driving around, networking, attending events, making cold calls, and sending out thank you notes.

“Marketing is how we drive customers to our facilities,” says Heather Merritt, Marketing director of 21st Century Self Storage in Cherry Hill, N.J. “We cannot rely on drive-by traffic alone, so we are constantly prospecting customers through advertising and direct marketing.” Merritt encourages managers to get outside the office and meet the public.

Both advertising and marketing are necessary, but when it comes to visibility, marketing is really where the rubber meets the road. Going door to door to drum up local business can be highly effective. Start by making a list of five or more local businesses within walking distance. Call them up to say you’ll be stopping by—and then do it! Or you can drop by unannounced to chat and drop off pens, cups, or other promotional items that carry your logo. You can even drop off a pizza to a local real estate office.

The point is to make your self storage business more visible by talking it up in the local community. You need not be modest about self-promoting. Especially promote the “extras” your facility offers. Make some noise about the fact that you stay open later, have two free moving trucks, or wireless Internet in your lobby. Enthusiastically describe your facility and its features.

After you make a strategic alliance with a neighboring business, plan an event together or let them hold a community networking event at your facility. Other local businesses are not the only place to promote your facility. Blending into your surrounding community and supporting organizations that are important to your customer base will help you stay leased up. The association of your facility’s name with important local organizations will help steer people your way when they need storage.

Merritt notes that messaging also drives customers in your facility’s direction. Colorful banners, neatly groomed managers in logo shirts, hosting pony rides or classic car days, and attending networking events, charity golf events, and rotary club breakfasts are excellent avenues for getting your name out in your community with a positive message.

Make some noise
about the fact that you stay open later,
have two free moving trucks, or wireless
Internet in your lobby.

Representing your business in positive ways in your community and maintaining relationships are where the magic happens. Your chamber of commerce is an endless fountain of referrals and information. Its goal is to help you succeed in your business. You can’t create relationships with potential customers, business owners, chamber of commerce representatives, and Red Cross volunteers if you spend your time sweeping out your climate control hallways all day. To get a competitive edge, you must walk the streets and proudly wear your team colors. Attend grand opening events of other businesses in the area. Although this marketing approach takes effort, it doesn’t require big dollars.

Starting a customer newsletter will also keep you visible to your customer base, and who better to refer you than someone currently using your services? Writing is an excellent way to promote your brand. Local newsletters, community newsletters, church bulletins, and special interest publications are great opportunities for visibility.

Learn to write press releases, and send them out whenever there is a change at your facility or you host an event. Editors of smaller publications are always looking for community news. Are you offering local law enforcement a place to train police dogs? Write it up. Did you donate a unit to a local family that suffered the loss of their home through fire? Write it up. Contact local newspaper editors and develop a business relationship.

One of the best ways to remain visible is through on-site events such as retirement seminars, garage sales, job fairs, or child fingerprinting events in cooperation with local law enforcement. Send out a local events calendar or community newsletter Stay visible. Have fun. Lease up.

Be Credible
Becoming visible is only one leg of the three-legged stool that makes self storage marketing successful. After you become visible, you must become credible, which means you must deliver what you promise. Merritt says operating with integrity within the business community creates credibility. “If we say we have superior customer service, we deliver it,” she says. “If we say we have the cleanest facilities, we deliver it. The fastest way to lose credibility is not to deliver.”

You must deliver the customer service you advertised in the local paper. You must have the clean, safe facility with video surveillance your full-page ad in the Yellow Pages advertises. You must meet your customers’ expectations on a regular basis and with consistency.

Getting involved with the local fire department, schools, civic organizations, police department, churches, and charities are other ways to gain credibility. Contact these organizations to see if you can help them out with space, boxes, a moving truck, or event planning. Then deliver what you promise. Merritt’s company donates units to the local police and fire department. “By giving back to the community and delivering what we promise, we gain trust and credibility,” she says.

Be Profitable
Although we want to see the monetary results of our marketing efforts right away, we have to be patient. First, we must be visible, then credible, and then the profits will come in. Merritt and her team know their marketing efforts lead to dollars. When managers are visible and involved with the community, a strong referral culture will develop.

“We all want to make a profit as soon as we hang out our shingles, but we do need to put in pavement time and street and community credit before we become profitable,” Merritt says. In other words, before you can enjoy the quiet satisfaction of a profitable facility, you have to make some “noise” in your community.

NOISE

To really make “noise” and attract attention from your community, adopt these practices:

N is for Neighbors.
Introduce yourself to your business neighbors. You might be missing out on sales opportunities by not introducing yourself to the owner of the nearby bakery. Who better
to refer customers to you than the business next door? Perhaps they’ll have a storage need you can take care of in the future. You want to break into their circle of contacts, so you must become visible to them. Know your immediate surroundings. Walk into the offices next to you, introduce yourself, and ask if you can be of assistance.

O is for Outside.
Remember that marketing is an action verb. The age-old strategy of hitting the streets and going door to door works!

Of course, you’ll hear “no” more often than “yes”, but that’s the way it works. The numbers work out eventually, and you never know whom you may meet.

I is for Inside.
Don’t forget to focus on the customers inside your facility. Who is a better resource for you than current customers who know and use your product? Your customer base is a true referral goldmine. Tap into it and set up a dynamic referral program. This, too, requires getting out of the office. Walk the property to get to know your customers, their needs, their businesses, and what is going on in your community.

S is for Sales.
Doing some reading on sales techniques will help you see what you are best at and weakest at.

You should be consciously varying your sales approach for different groups, such as single mothers, commercial customers, or soldiers. Regardless of which approach you use, ask for the sale. “Do you want to pay for that with a credit card or cash?” is a simple question to ask. “Would you like to rent it today?” and “Can we move you in right away?” also work. Create a sense of urgency. At the least, get a phone number and follow up the next day.

E is for Educate.
Continue to educate yourself about your competition, your industry, and your surroundings. Information is powerful. Educate your customers about self storage, what your competitors offer, and why they should choose your facility.

JRW

John R. Wharton is Resident Manager at Space Mart Self Storage in Newport News, Virginia.