You search “storage units [your city], [your state].” Your facility is at the bottom of the first page, or worse. How is anyone going to find you? And if they did, why would they choose your facility over the six REITs they scrolled past?
Look closer.
Are you really competing with all those REITs, or are you on the outskirts of town? That could explain your rank. And you’re not likely to displace a REIT in the center of the city for that search.
You don’t need more muscle. You need better aim.
Our Scouting the Competition ebook can help you line up that shot!
Key Points:
The national brand across the street is spending thousands on Google Ads, and their cut-throat discounts are driving your rates into the ground. Small businesses can’t compete with those resources, can they? After all, they can lose money longer than you can stay solvent.
But maybe their customers aren’t your customers.
If you offer a sparkling-clean facility, top-notch service, and precise temperature control, you don’t need to be racing them on rates. Some renters want the cheapest option, but some want the highest quality and are willing to pay for it.
Then, of course, we’ve got different types of storage, different unit sizes, and different amenities. If you don’t know who you’re competing against, you could be losing a lot of potential revenue and potential renters due to the mismatch.
Once you know who your real competitors are, three things get a lot easier.
First, your marketing sharpens up. You stop spreading budget across areas that don't matter and start focusing where the actual battle is — or better yet, where your competitors have blind spots. Got large 10x30 units and the other facility doesn't? That’s your window.
Second, your pricing gets smarter. And it's not just about matching rates. If a competitor charges $10 more per month but runs a 50%-off-first-month special, most customers only see that they're cheaper than you. The sticker price doesn't tell the whole story.
Third, you stop measuring yourself against the wrong benchmarks. You don't need to be the best facility in the world — you just need to win your renters.
Interested in going deeper? Download the eBook today for a quick guide to positioning your business to win more renters:
Your business is different from your competitor's. Different goals, different risk tolerance, different customers. But when a potential customer is shopping, they can’t see all of that.
You have to tell them!
Tell renters who you are and what your facility offers. Tell them why they should pay more at your facility if you charge more. If you charge less, tell them how you save them money.
If you're the Class A climate-controlled facility, don't get into a price war with the neighboring drive-up spot. Attract the customers who care about quality and service, or vice versa. You don’t need to grab all the renters in town. You just need enough to keep your facility making money.
The key is knowing enough about your competition to make smarter decisions, without losing sight of what makes you the better choice for your customers.
We put together a free guide that walks through all of this in detail — from identifying who your real competitors are, to setting rates based on what they're doing, to finding niche markets they're completely ignoring.
It's the playbook you didn't know you needed. And you can read the whole thing over halftime.
Looking for more ways to gain an edge? Check these out:
At StoragePug, we build self storage websites that make it easy for new customers to find you and easy for them to rent from you.
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