Adding Depth to Your Self Storage Facility

Your self storage facility is more than just a location full of storage units and an office; at least it can be more. In today's market, everybody is trying to find a way to be different. Most are trying to stand out from other places without having to put too much of a dent into their own pocket. There are many things that can be done and looking at what others have done can be a great source of inspiration.

 

Store Self Storage and Wine Storage, a Palm Beach Gardens Self Storage facility, was able to drum up some extra attention throughout the summer and into late September by opening up part of the facility for a green market. By opening up a covered portion of their facility, they were able to host essentially a farmer's market where local vendors brought in their home made or home grown goods. The event brought in people during the summer and provided a great source of word-of-mouth advertising. In October, the facility is hosting another event. They will be hosting a Wine and Design Showcase.

 

The green market and showcase that Store Self Storage and Wine Storage holds also garners them a lot of local attention from local, small media outlets. Perfect free advertising. Both events were also covered by Insideselfstorage.com. The facility saw a need in the community and offered up a venue to satisfy that need and received a lot of attention for it.

 

Your business can do something similar. Fall is craft season. People love homemade goods from holiday presents. You can open up part of your facility for a small craft fair. Advertise around your community with simple fliers and posters. Or you could open up part of your business as a meeting facility. Allow organizations to rent out portions for group meetings and such. Just find something to bring in more people that won't have a deep out of pocket expense.

 

Another Chicago Self Storage Facility, LifeStorage of Libertyville, Ill., is hosting a used car tent show. Nine dealerships are in on the event that will surely bring in a lot of attention. Not only will people throughout their local area be informed of the event, but again, the facility is receiving attention from readers of Insideselfstorage.com. This project is a little bigger and more involved, but it is just another option from which you can draw inspiration.

 

Host a flea market, local art show, bark in the park in your parking lot, or something that brings in people without costing you a lot of money. Take a look at your community and see what your facility can do to add to it. Are you in a college town where there are art students who would love to sell their stuff? Host a simple art show. Do you know of a car club that is looking for a place to show off their cars? Host a cruise-in.

 

Examine what your self storage facility has to offer and then make a difference in your community while enjoying the advertising benefits.

How To Find Albuquerque Self Storage

How many times you need to sell your antique pieces just because you don't have space to store them? How many times you've rented your neighbor's basement area to store your household items or car? In the era of consumerism, we frequently buy products even without thinking where to store them. The sizes of houses are decreasing day by day, but needs and desires are continuously increasing. If you're also looking for a place to store your belongings, Albuquerque self storage is the best place. You can accommodate all your belongings in these storage facilities without taking anybody's favor. Anybody can rent out a place here and store anything. If your biggest concern is regarding the condition of your valuable belongings, don't worry. You can look for climate-controlled self storage in Albuquerque.

Climate-controlled Albuquerque self storage offers excellent environment to your belongings. Your personal possession will be absolutely safe from bacteria, dust, viruses, mildew, and mold. These units will also protect your belongings from paper rots, musty odors, and wood degradation. The best part is that you can store anything, for example, furniture, excess household stuff, clothing, curtains, books, paintings, artwork, among others. You can also store car, boat, RV, perishable goods, groceries, and electronic items such as TV, refrigerator, microwave, and so on. Depending upon your requirements and nature of goods, you can book self storage in Albuquerque. These units are available at very affordable prices. You can rent them till the time you require.

How to Find a Suitable Albuquerque Storage?

• In this internet era, you no longer need to depend on any other source of information. You can get information about almost everything that you can think of. To find a suitable Albuquerque storage, browse the internet and look for all available self-storages in the area.
  

  
   

• There are specialized websites dedicated to help visitors find excellent storage facilities. You can take advantage of them and find a suitable storage. Although there are many websites that offer information about self-storage units, but USstoragesearch.com offers the most comprehensive information about self storage in Albuquerque. You just need to enter the zip or postal code of your area. All available options will be displayed on your computer screen.
  

  
   

• Once you get a list of storage facilities in your area, you can check out what all services they offer. You can also ask for online price quotes.
  

  
   

• To request for a price quote, simply submit your requirements, mention the type of storage units, space required, and time period, and submit. You will get price quotes within few moments.
  

  
   

• Compare Albuquerque storage quotes. Select the best among them according to your requirements and budget. Once you have rented the space, you can store anything including electronic items, precious documents and belongings, furniture, clothing, car, RV, boat, and perishable goods.
  

 

Finding Albuquerque self storage is not difficult, especially when you have websites like USstoragesearche.com.

Self Storage in Times of Need

With the recent devastating storms to hit the US in the past few months, self storage companies continue to be one of the most giving industries when it comes to helping those in need.

During the holidays we listed many of the generous things that the storage industry was participating in our self storage blog, but the self storage and mobile storage generosities don't only occur during the holidays.

Here is a list of just a few of the recent activities the industry has participated in:

1. Extra Space Storage recently offered two months free storage and a free $50 package of moving supplies to those affected by the devastating storms to hit Alabama. Link
   
2. Scenic City Self Storage of Hixson, TN offered two months of rent free storage and was a drop off location for donations of food, clothing, and household supplies. Link
   
3. A recent employee of a New England Self Storage Management group told us at a trade show that each and every month they ask their customers to "round-up" their rent payments to the nearest $0.50 or $1.00 and all proceeds from the "round-up" program are then donated each month to the great people and great program called Kure-It. Kure-it is a non-profit organization dedicated to funding innovative kidney and other cancer research. Kure-It Link
   
4. Many of the employees at USstoragesearch.com recently participated in a blood drive in Omaha, NE. Over 30 people attending and donated. We had so many donations that the blood mobile ran out of bags and turned a few people away!!
   

Each and every day the self storage industry continues to give and give, and we're very proud to be a part of it.

Keywords Can Be a Key for Success

Whether you are a college student looking for "storage unit prices" on the internet, or a father of 3 looking to move into your new home this summer, there are a lot of people who will need, use, or utilize a storage unit in the upcoming summer months.

It's no surprise that many people are now turning to the internet to do most of their shopping or turn to the internet to at least research for moving & storage. Many of the keys to reaching these individual customers all starts with your company's website and the "keywords" that drive searches. These keywords can either be bought through "Pay per Click" (PPC) advertising sites like Google or you can simply place keywords in the "content" on your websites.

There are broad keywords like "self storage," "storage unit," and "mini storage," but these keywords are very heavily contended for and it may be almost impossible to beat out some of the larger named companies in the industry.

Despite the competition for the broad keywords - there is still hope! Although you should definitely try to put these broad terms into your "keyword efforts," you can still gain a lot of traffic from working on keywords with less competition. Try multiple variations of phrases or put a "local" feature into your keyword. While your competitors are out spending a lot of money on pay per click for "storage unit" you could be spending very little and gaining customers with "Austin storage facility" or "self storage in Las Vegas" or "Colorado Springs Storage Units"

One Important Note– Be extremely careful when it comes to Pay per Click advertising as you can waste of lot of your hard earned dollars if you are not careful. There are a lot of very reputable companies in the storage business that can help you manage your PPC budget and we suggest you reach out to them if PPC is something you're interested in. In the meantime, while you are arranging a PPC strategy, use your imagination when you are writing your website content and it may bring you in a few more clients than your competition.

Winter Boat Storage Tips

 

As the first freeze and snowfall are already upon many of us we know that some of our favorite warm weather activities are well behind us until next year. If you haven't already stored away your boats and personal watercraft for the year it is time to stop procrastinating. If you don't take some proper boat storage precautions items corrode, burst, fail, or just go bad in extreme cold temperatures. Proper boat storage, especially draining fluids and making sure parts that can corrode are removed, can save you a lot of heartache and money next spring.

You are just asking for trouble if you don't drain the fluids. Some manufacturers recommend completely draining the fuel tank, while others want you to fill it up and mix in a winter/storage additive - ask your dealer or consult your manufacturer's website to be sure. An oil & oil filter change along with draining all the transmission fluid, if applicable, is advised. Changing or cleaning all of your filters (fuel filter, fuel tank pick-up screen, carburetor fuel screen, etc.) now is also a good idea so.

Water left in hoses can freeze or cause corrosion so be sure to drain water from hoses where this could happen including the engine circulation pump, transmission cooler, raw water pump, cooling system, etc. Clean the hoses and store them somewhere they will not be subjected to freezing temperatures and be sure to remember where you put them! Now would also be a good time to remove the battery to store it in a dry place that also won't be subject to freezing temperatures. If you are utilizing a self storage unit for the storage of your boat or personal watercraft you may want to look at a climate controlled self storage unit - the price is normally a little bit more but your boat will be safe from extreme temperatures while in storage.

Clean and wax your boat one last time before placing it in storage. If you are storing the boat outdoors a boat cover may be a good investment. If you are storing your boat outside you may also want to remove the drain plug. When removing the drain plug it may be a good idea to replace it with a mesh screen so water can get out but pests can't get in.

If you have other questions about storing your boat consult your manufacturer or your local marine center and if you are a do-it-yourselfer, your local marine center will most likely provide winterization services.

RV Storage Tips at Self Storage Facilities

Storing your RV can be pretty basic if you're storing it for a short period of time. In that case you just need to find a suitable self storage facility that allows RV's to be stored either in an indoor or outdoor RV storage unit. You'll need to make sure you can show proper ownership of the RV and insurance on the RV. If you're storing your vehicle for an extended period of time however you may need to take special steps to ensure mechanical problems don't arise. Here are a few quick "to do's" if you plan on using vehicle storage for an extended period of time:

• Change the oil and filter
  
• Make sure coolant levels are proper
  
• Inflate the tires to proper pressure
  
• Clean and wax the car
  
• Slightly open a window
  
• Release the parking break
  
• Lock the doors
  

Other things to think about when you place your vehicle in storage for an extended period of time is making sure you periodically check the vehicle and run it for a short period of time (outside of your storage unit, of course).  Storing your vehicle in a secured storage unit could also lead to insurance discounts so be sure to let your insurance agent know when you place your vehicle in storage so you can see if you qualify for any discounts.

When choosing a self storage facility, be sure to look for the amenities that meet your needs. Are you able to access the facility after hours or on weekends - times you may want to take your RV out of storage?  Does the storage facility have any special rules about storing a vehicle - such as all fluids must be drained?

Last but not least, make sure you always pay your storage rent on a timely manner.  Most storage facilities have automatic payment options that allow you to pay your rent by credit card, e-check or automatic checking/savings account debit.

There are many different places to find more information on storing your possessions and a good self storage blog on a reputable website can provide you with a wealth of money saving and headache preventing information.

New Storage Amenities

There was a very nice article at Oregonlive.com about one of our members, Rose City Self Storage &
Wine Vaults, today and their recent investment into their wine vaults. The headline was "Nearly $4 million for a storage unit?", which was a little misleading but surely grabbed reader's attention. The developers of Rose City Self Storage & Wine Vaults found an excellent use for the subterranean space that existed in a historic building renovated to house self storage units. Not only did they turn their basement space into a product that meets the needs of a growing niche market but also found a way to differentiate themselves from other Portland Self Storage and Oregon Self Storage facilities.

Reading this article made us think about other amenities our members are adding to their self storage facilities in hopes of:

• Meeting the specific needs of their self storage clients, or
  
• Utilizing space for a higher and better use than traditional self storage, or
  
• Gaining a competitive edge or unique selling tool over their competition
  

We know that over the past decade more facilities have added specific amenities to accomplish one or more of these 3 goals. Community centers, business centers and moving centers have become more common place as value-added services at many storage facilities.

Comment back with how you have added specific amenities to increase occupancy and make your self storage facility stand out from the competition. What is the most unusual amenity you have seen added to a facility? What amenities have you tried that haven't worked? We will post a follow-up blog next week with the responses from all of our members.