You didn’t open a storage facility to spend your weekends tweaking Google Ads and chasing quotes. Yet, that’s what a lot of self-storage owners end up doing. They grind for every lead, manually respond to every inquiry and juggle a never-ending list of tasks.

“First month free” might get clicks, but it won’t grow your business by itself. Today, more than ever, the typical self-storage owner relies on one thing to attract new renters: a discount. Usually, it’s a free first month or a $1 move-in special. While that works for getting attention, it doesn’t always bring in profitable renters.

You opened the doors. Now, how do you get the word out? If you’ve launched a new self-storage facility, you’re probably hearing the same advice everywhere. Run Google Ads. List on SpareFoot. Do SEO. Offer a free month. While those tactics aren’t wrong, they’re not enough to separate your brand in a saturated space.

The good news: people are using more storage facilities than ever before. The bad news: if your storage facility isn’t seeing the conversions you want, more traffic won’t help. You could double your visitors, but if your site is slow, clunky or confusing, people will choose someone else.

Traditionally, self storage facilities used newspaper and radio ads in their local community to drive new customers, but in today’s digital world it requires a strong online presence to attract new self storage customers.