Marketing & Web Services

Marketing is the fastest way to fill empty units

When occupancy is low, you have two choices: lower your rates, or get more eyeballs on your facility. Marketing is the second option, and almost always the better one. Done well, marketing can lift your occupancy 5 to 15 percent in a few months without dropping your rates. The trick is knowing which marketing actually works for storage.

Google is where almost every rental starts

The vast majority of new tenants find their storage facility on Google. They type "storage units near me" or "self storage [city name]" and pick from the first few results. That means your single most important marketing asset is your Google Business Profile, the free listing that shows up on Google Maps. Claim it, fill out every field, add photos of your facility, and ask every happy tenant to leave a review.

Local SEO, in plain English

SEO stands for search engine optimization. Local SEO means doing the work that helps your facility show up higher when someone in your city searches for storage. It includes:

• A complete and active Google Business Profile
• Your business name, address, and phone number listed consistently on a few dozen online directories (Yelp, Bing Places, Apple Maps, etc.)
• A facility website with your address and unit information clearly visible
• A steady stream of new reviews

A specialty self storage marketing agency will handle all this for $400 to $1,200 per month per facility. For most single-facility owners, that's money well spent.

Paid ads: when they make sense

Paid ads on Google and Bing put your facility at the top of search results for a fee per click. They work, but they're not free. Cost per click in storage runs $3 to $12 depending on your market, and the cost to turn one of those clicks into an actual move-in usually lands between $50 and $150. If you're brand new or trying to lease up after a renovation, paid ads can fill units faster than SEO. Once you're stabilized, they're a maintenance lever.

Your website's only job: get the reservation

Don't overthink your website. It needs to do one thing well: turn a curious visitor into a reserved unit. That means showing what unit sizes you have, what they cost, and giving the person an easy button to reserve or pay. Pretty design is a distant second to a working reservation flow. Specialty self storage website companies (Tenant Inc Sites, storEDGE Websites, others) build sites that already know what works.

How to pick a self storage marketing company

Three things matter most:

1. Do they specialize in self storage? A storage-specific agency already knows your seasonality, the keywords, and what converts. A generalist will spend six months learning what a specialist already knows.
2. Can they show you case studies from facilities like yours? Same size, same kind of market.
3. Are fees and ad spend separated clearly? You should always know how much you're paying the agency vs. how much is going to Google. If they bundle it, ask them to unbundle.