Marketing Your Storage Facility to Apartment Renters

By Nick Bilava, Storage.com

Storage facilities near apartment complexes have a unique opportunity to improve occupancy rates. Knowing how to best reach the customers currently living in nearby apartment complexes is just as important, if not more, than knowing why someone may need storage.

Learn which two ways are best to use when marketing to apartment renters nearby and to help them better understand how storage can benefit them.

Emails

One of the more popular ways of getting in touch with potential self storage customers living in nearby apartments is with emails. Before you can start sending any email, though, you need to build your email list.

A simple way to build an email marketing list is by developing a partnership with the management companies of the apartment properties around your facility. This way, you can get a more complete list of current apartment renters, allowing you to directly target people who you know are nearby and who may be looking for storage.

Emailing is particularly useful when trying to reach apartment renters in two phases: before moving to a new apartment and when needing to store seasonal items.

Moving to a New Apartment

For anyone who is currently renting, moving for any reason can almost feel like an inevitability. For the storage facilities close to an apartment complex, it’s important to build a rapport with or create a partnership between you and the management company of the complex to help you get information you can use. That information being emails of current residents and upcoming move out dates.

Talk about how your facility can provide them with a place to store extra pieces of furniture for if they’re moving in with a significant other; it’s a place to hold children’s belongings if moving to a larger space; or it can serve as a place to keep some items out of the way during a move, which can make the whole process easier on customers.

Storing Seasonal Items

With an affordable storage option nearby through your facility, the chance for apartment renters to free up some space is always welcomed. As it was with moving, emails may be your best bet to getting your facility in front of customers, but direct mail is another great option.

Where trying to pinpoint when a renter may be moving apartments is difficult without the right information, the changes in season and the timing of certain holidays stays the same. As a new season approaches, a triggered email informing customers of storing winter and summer clothing can be a quick way for renters to have more space for what they wear most in certain months.

Additionally, in regard to seasonal decorations (e.g. Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.), having a place to keep items can help someone better organize their home when they can quickly pick up or drop off items throughout the year.

Informational Handouts

Many storage facilities today have some type of handout available that will help potential customers better understand why storage can be of use. While some types of storage, such as those mentioned previously, can seem obvious to many storage seekers, others don’t stand out as prominently. Particularly, when it comes to storing or garaging a vehicle that you may not want to leave out in the open at an apartment complex.

The simplest way to reach customers who will benefit from this type of storage most is to provide the apartment with the necessary materials and when they ask what vehicles they will be keeping at the complex, have them give your information to the new tenant. Many customers will take the information and use it when necessary.

Storing a Vehicle Without a Garage

One drawback to renting an apartment is that even if you want a garage, they’re not always available, leaving you to keep your vehicles out in the open. For many, this is not an option they want to live with. Your storage facility should should work with the apartment complex to help educate renters on how storing vehicles with a storage facility will help to protect them from both theft and the elements. By keeping it in storage, they have the chance to come and grab it when it’s convenient, all while knowing it’s safe.

Don’t hesitate to begin working with apartment complexes close to your storage facility. Doing so will help you to expand your customer base while continuing to provide customers with the help they need to get back the space they want in their apartment.

Nick Bilava is Sales Director at Storage.com and a contributor for Inside-Self Storage, Mini Storage Messenger, California Self Storage Association, Florida Self Storage Association, Massachusetts Self Storage Association, and Connecticut Self-Storage Association.