Marketing Tips

pcss

Hi!  I'm wondering if I could get some input on marketing tips.  We are a locally owned facility, located on a major highway in Powhatan VA.  In recent years Powhatan has seen substantial growth and we're no longer strictly an agricultural community.   There are a few small storage facilities that are no competition and also have one chain facility 5 miles from us.

Will you please share some of your marketing/advertising tips?  We are currently partnered with Sparefoot and have a website through StorEdge. 

Thanks!!

themage

Much of our traffic comes from internet search, followed by word of mouth and repeat tenant. We ask people to write honest reviews on Google or Yelp, and that really seems to help keep us more visible on the internet. Just make sure to check any reviews once in a while and respond to any negative ones.

JamesStorage

@themage I tend not to ask people to use Yelp. I've found that whenever someone has a five star experience, Yelp will nearly always bury that review behind one that's even slightly lower. It's very aggravating to have all the good reviews hidden behind one bad/mediocre experience from 5+ years ago. I prefer to talk up Google.

Orkocean

Yelp is a joke as far as i'm concerned... Feel like it's modeled after the gaming industry and is a "pay to win" mentality. I'll stick to google and even facebook reviews before I push for yelp. We show 3 reviews on yelp that they "Suggest" yet we have over 30 "not recommended" that are all glowing reviews we didn't even ask have to ask for. 

themage

True, Yelp's algorithm is a bit strange. We just wanted to offer an alternative to Google.

Clyde_Lord_Jr

Do you have the ability to put signs or banners out by the road? Something that can draw attention to specials or anything? Maybe one of those triangle signs maybe? A moving van with your company name on the side that can sit in the parking lot when not in use? Those are a few passive suggestions I've seen work.

teamcapitola

Have you reached out to local real estate/ property mgt. offices? We get a lot of referrals from Real Estate peoples & rental agencies, usually from people new/ moving to the area.

Just beware of Real Estate Agent calls that start out with "...I'd like to pre pay a unit for 2 months for these tenants of ours, after which they will be paying for it...."