Whether you’re opening another location or starting a new Self Storage business, there are a seemingly endless number of essential steps you need to take before you can open your doors. Don’t let this stress you out; just take it one step at a time. Once you’ve tackled the essentials, like understanding growth potential, start-up and operating costs, hiring the right staff, and local business licensing requirements, it’s time to establish a marketing and promotion strategy.

We’ve included all you need to know here in our checklist. G5’s Self Storage Marketing Checklist prioritizes marketing activities so that you can be seen when and where people are looking. It covers your website, Google My Business (GMB) listing, social media channels, online review sites, search listings, and digital advertising.

Combine this checklist with a schedule and calendar of your own, so that you can break up prioritized tasks into a weekly and monthly to-do list. This helps you stay on track toward your end goal and open date. Start with a content strategy, website landing page, and an initial digital advertising budget. Then, use the following guidelines to maximize your online presence through search engine result pages (SERP), social media, and review sites.

Start your Self Storage Business: Ramp up your Online Presence

Digital advertising includes paid social, which are ads you place on social media to increase brand awareness and facility features. Display ads are a little different — these ads are placed on third-party websites like news sources, retail, entertainment, or wherever your potential tenants spend time online. Paid search are ads placed on search engines like Google and Bing. You can also choose to remarket prospects by placing online ads on other channels after searchers have visited and spent time on your website. Remarketing follows previous visitors to the websites they visit in the future to remind them of your brand, website, and any special offers you may feature.

Be Seen When and Where People are Looking: the Ins and Outs of Online Activity

  • Are you on Facebook and Instagram yet? If not, it’s time to take ownership of your website domain with a verified business page. Your social media content needs to be relevant and up-to-date. Give followers and searchers reason and opportunity to like, share, and interact with your content. Make sure you actively respond to comments and reviews, and that your photos and videos are up-to-date and give potential renters an introduction that adds value to your facility and staff.
  • Tier-One listings are your branded pages on sites like Bing, Google, Facebook, and Yelp. Take ownership over your accounts to manage brand consistency, accuracy, and relevance. These pages must in be place and ready-to-go before your open date.
  • Your Google My Business (GMB) listing is more comprehensive than the standard SERP result. It provides additional local and map information such as nearby businesses, online reviews, photos, and additional uploaded content. Make sure this listing includes accurate information, especially name, address, and phone number, as well as recent photos. Once your GMB listing is set-up, you can access data and insights to know how searchers interact with your SERP result such as call tracking, website referral, accessing driving directions, and reviews.

Still feel underwater when thinking about your self storage marketing and social media strategy? Brush up on current lingo with G5’s digital marketing “buzzword” glossary. If you’re ready to partner with the leading innovator in real estate digital marketing, it’s time to get to know G5. Our Intelligent Marketing Cloud outperforms other real estate marketing solutions by 2.5 times. Schedule a demo today.