How to diversify and expand a self-storage business

Is your self-storage business booming, with customers queuing at your doors? Are you experiencing a steady success, but unable to silence that nagging voice suggesting you could be doing more and growing faster?

Even if your self-storage company has followed a completely different path, the fact is almost all businesses would welcome more new customers. The difficult question is how to get them.

It is possible to grow a self-storage business in a number of different ways. Some are riskier than others, some are more expensive and some will have bigger financial rewards. Finding the one that will provide a long term solution for your storage business can be complicated.

In this post we will share a few suggestions of ways you can change up your business plan to increase customers. We'll tackle the obvious options that carry a higher cost, and less risky ones which offer value without a big investment.

How to Grow Your Self-Storage Facility and Increase your Revenue

Choosing the best way to realign or grow your business is a personal choice. There is no single 'one-size-fits-all' solution. The size, location and utilities onsite at self-storage facilities will all affect what works for you.

Here are some approaches you can consider in your search to find the right method for your storage business.

Location, location, location

When it comes to expanding self-storage facilities, your first thought may be to grow your location.

This could mean opening a new site as well as your current location so that you can attract customers in a new area. If this idea appeals to you, make sure you pick your new location carefully, as you might not be able to rely on your current reputation or marketing. Check out any local competition as well as the local market before committing to a new facility.

If it seems like there are untapped potential customers in your current local area, you could also think about finding more ground floor space to build more storage units at your current location. This will be determined by what is available on your site, but if you are short on storage space it is always possible to open up a second site in the same general area.

Offer additional services or products

If investing in a new facility seems risky, a strong alternative for diversifying your business can be expanding your product or service offering instead.

Though the options may feel limited for a self-storage company there are definitely sensible extensions that you can make to your current offering. For example, when you're offering container storage you could also sell packing supplies or additional storage solutions for inside your units. Customers will see the sense in getting their supplies from you, and this would allow you to move into eCommerce for an additional revenue stream.

You can also look to change or grow the self-storage units you offer, either at your existing facility or at a completely new location. If you offer outdoor shipping container storage, think about expanding to offer climate-controlled indoor self-storage units as well. If your current indoor self-storage facility isn't climate controlled, is that possible to offer? Can you add full-service units alongside your self-storage facility? Do you offer storage in a range of different sizes - if not could your larger spaces be sectioned into smaller spaces to offer convenient alternatives to larger containers?

Whichever updates or upgrades you want to make to your self-storage operations, the same rules apply to shifting locations. Make sure to investigate that there is still a need for it - the fact that your current self-storage facility is needed doesn't guarantee success for an expanded service.

Upgrade your marketing

Depending on the channels you choose, an effective marketing campaign can deliver a serious increase in leads for any storage business. The key though is making it effective.

One way to increase the effectiveness of any marketing campaign is to target it directly at a relevant audience. By showcasing your service to people who already have a need for it, you will get a much stronger return on the money you invest in marketing.

Targeting your marketing can help you save time and money, as you won't be wasting resources speaking to people who have no interest in your offering.

One customer group who are proven to be open to self-storage space are homemovers. They may be looking to downsize or they may just want to take away some of the stress of moving day by setting up self-storage that allows them to move at their own pace.

Homemovers are considered an 'active market' which means they are regularly willing to make high-cost purchases to make the moving process go smoothly. Targeting your marketing to them will allow you to tell them the many ways your service will make their lives easier, giving your marketing direction and relevancy.

Targeting your self-storage marketing doesn't have to mean hours of trawling data to homemover leads either. Here at MoverAlerts we can crunch the data for you, finding those all-important moving leads that are worth contacting.

Stay up to date

Though the need for additional storage space and self-storage access may appear constant, it is still an industry that is constantly changing. Making sure you stay up to date with industry changes is as much a part of diversifying and expanding your business as it is the day-to-day running.

Advances in technology could offer areas for expansion, particularly around climate control or security. Even things as apparently small as changing the way you charge, the costs you include or the way you process payments could help you appeal to new customers. Opening hours, access options and availability could also make a difference.

Research what the market wants and whether it's achievable for you to offer it. Go back to the basics of your business plan and see what you can spot.

Go back to the business plan basics and research areas for growth from scratch. Consider your current customer base to see what services they make the most use of. Look at the service offering of your self-storage competitors to identify gaps. Sink your hours into research and you won't have to worry about sinking your storage business with failed expansion plans.

Get hold of data to support your decisions.

Make decisions based on data with MoverAlerts

Here at MoverAlerts, we can't decide whether diversifying into a new location or service will work for your self-storage business. What we can do is help you target your marketing to make sure your business growth is the best it can be.

Contact us today to find out more about how we can help you keep your marketing costs down and your returns high, through high-quality, qualified home mover leads.