Self-storage is one of the oldest industries in the world. In the US, the average self-storage unit is used for 1.9 years. If we talk about the revenue, In Australia, the industry is worth $2.5 billion. In the UK, it’s worth £1.7 billion. And in the US, its annual revenue is worth $ 39.5 billion. So, it seems like an industry that’s here to stay. But how can you make your self-storage business thrive in this competitive market?
For those considering starting a self-storage business or taking the next step in an existing operation, growth hacking is a must. Growth hacking is a trendy term that means marketing and technology are used to increase exposure and grow a company. If you want to grow your self-storage business rapidly, here are five growth hacking tactics which you must include in your growth strategy.
1. Make Your Units More Accessible
Shoppers often have a hard time finding a self-storage unit. It’s not enough to show up at the right time. You also have to be able to stand in front of them when they arrive. This is a big task. Consider the circumstances. You’re meeting your potential client in a store. Most people prefer to go to the restroom first. But if the bathrooms are too far away, they’ll wait in the store. And once they leave the store, you might not see them again for a long time or forever. Now, on the other side of the coin, you might be the type of person who doesn’t like to linger. You want to get what you need and leave. But if your product or service is worthwhile, customers will give it a chance. While shopping for things, they’ll take a look at the nearest unit and see if it fits their needs. By using the following strategy, you can make your units more accessible –
Make a Master Index
It would be best if you make a master index of the units, and this master Index should be easily accessible to the customers who come into the store. You may paste this Index on storage or the main entry gate and keep a digital copy in the computer to be accessible from anywhere and any time.
Label every box with an Item description
When you have thousands of boxes in the store, it would not be easy to search an individual box without Indexing it. So if you have labeled the box with the item description, it would be easier to find if they are stacked.
Make a Map of the storage unit and store premises
A map of store premises and storage units would be beneficial while searching for an item. Customers would find the exact location of their stored items without anyone’s help. It will make sense of comfort among the customers, which will ultimately affect the company’s goodwill and profit.
Don’t overpack the box
Overpack would make it hard to find the item out of the box, and items inside it can smash if they are perishable.
Keep the storage clean & hygiene
You should keep your storage clean and maintain hygiene because it indirectly affects your business. The customer who doesn’t find your storage clean would not be interested in storing their goods in it. If you are an Australia-based storage unit, cleaning storage might be costly for you if your storage size is large. But don’t worry, you need a proper strategy to tackle this problem as well. In Australia, it’s very easy to start a cleaning business, so new entrepreneurs continue to come into the market and offer the best services at low prices. You only need to do one thing, search on Google. See the price there and call them which best suits you.
2. Use Social Media
Today, it’s hard to find success without knowing how to use social media. It’s an essential part of any business’s growth strategy, especially in the self-storage industry. But many are struggling to find the right approach. Perhaps your company’s strategy is to promote your self-storage unit online without Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social platforms. It’s still an excellent strategy to have, but social media marketing should be combined with other traffic-driving tactics. In fact, a study from BI Intelligence and researchers at the University of Pennsylvania revealed that 43% of companies are using social media marketing or blogging platforms to drive revenue. So you should not rely only on search engines like Google and Yahoo. You must incorporate social media strategy for your business if you want to see long-term growth. Social media also helps to promote your brand online and create goodwill among the customers.
3. Identify Local Growth Opportunities
It may seem obvious, but one of the most powerful growth hacks I know is identifying local growth opportunities. Why local? Because your ideal customer is already nearby. With any type of business, it helps to look at the local market first. The people who live in your area are often more likely to drive to your store than a potential customer from the next town over. For example, consider Lufthansa, a German airline. They launched a new service called Lufthansa CityFerry. This is a new type of passenger ferry for travelers in the city. The ferry is equipped with wifi and power outlets, making it a more pleasant way of traveling into the city. This type of ferry has never existed before. In fact, only one other ferry is operating in Europe.
4. Offer Storage Services to Businesses
When you’re launching a self-storage facility, you want to attract business owners. They have two needs. A) Space to store their things and B) Jobs to be filled. So, why not let their customers store their possessions for them? This tactic is called “offering storage services to businesses.” “By offering storage services to businesses, we can be sure that there’s always space at the very best locations.” Find companies that are in the same region as your customers. The growth of self-storage is a hugely exciting market in developed countries like the USA, UK, Australia, and Canada. McLeod, an Australian-based self-storage startup, told Business Insider in an interview that, “One in every 10 Australians now rent out space in their property to others for self-storage purposes.”
5. Offer Storage Services to the Public
You may have to drop the price of a unit to make it more competitive. But if you are an established business, and it’s more likely your competitors are stuck in the old days of needing to renovate your self-storage unit as frequently as you do, you can offer additional services. Specifically, you can offer customer storage space, enabling people to get stuff stored for them. Who’s your customer? If you’re a smaller operation, it may be your friends and family who will be using your storage. But in Australia, it could be your neighbors and business partners. In the UK, 80% of owners use self-storage for under £25 per month. So, your customers are probably fairly young or young at heart. Keep in mind that the average self-storage unit in the UK is used for less than six months. In the USA and Australia, it might be a little longer.
Conclusion
In this article, you’ve seen five growth hacking tactics for self-storage businesses. Every market has unique challenges and opportunities. In that light, you should always be looking for new growth strategies. One way to do so is to read industry trends and do your research. The birth of Digital media, AI, and machine learning are creating new challenges and opportunities in front of every business. So you will always have to be prudent and vigilant to grab the new opportunities coming into the market and safeguard your business from upcoming potential threats.
Author Bio:
Vidyarthi Ram is a Digital marketer from India. In his free time, he loves to listen to Pop music, especially Jennifer Lopez.
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