By Aycha Williams

The self-storage industry has come a long way in the past two years in terms of understanding the importance of a business's online presence, which can be crucial to generating a high number of quality leads. Nevertheless, it seems a lot of smaller self-storage operators still hesitate to invest in an online presence for their facilities.

One reason is they are confused about how to implement online strategies. Web-based marketing can be overwhelming, particularly because new service providers seem to emerge on the scene nearly every month. Some offer similar if not the same services, but claim to be different. Some have better versions of the same product, while others products are hard to understand. In general, most are pricey.

Meanwhile, every single one of the 11 self-storage facilities my company manages in Florida and Houston is receiving about 50 percent of total leads online. Some are even getting more. We know because were tracking them via various methods on a monthly basis. With the increased use of mobile devices, this number will only grow.

Despite the learning curve, its critical self-storage operators begin to embrace online marketing. Here are 10 marketing channels every operator needs to master to stay competitive.

1. Search Engine Places and Maps Listings

Search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing have special sections dedicated to local search. This is how your prospects do their online search. They either go to the maps section of a search engine such as maps.google.com and search for self-storage in Costa Mesa, 92663, or they type, www.yahoo.com and search for a location by typing keywords relevant for that location, such as storage in Maitland, FL, 32751.

The search returns, in geographic proximity, a list of locations. Its an easy, convenient and accurate way of finding businesses online. Internet users prefer this search method when looking for a specific area. This is why you need to make sure your facility is listed as part of the local search. For this youll need to find and claim your listings on all main search engines. Once you claim them, youll be able to add company information and photos, and ensure the Google map is pinpointing your location correctly. You can also further customize your listing.

2. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Your website is your online home base for your business. In addition to being up-to-date and accurate, it needs to be search-engine-optimized so it can have a higher organic listing ranking. When you have more than one link available to your business on the first page of a search engine, youre basically increasing the odds of that customer clicking to one of your links to visit your website.

3. A Website That Markets Your Facility

Its crucial to have a search-engine-optimized website so it can be found quickly and easily. Once customers are on your website, the second half of the battle is to keep them there and convince them to take action. If theyre looking for storage, then youd like them to either reserve a unit online, call your facility or, at the very least, request an e-mailed quote.

If its an existing customer looking to make a payment, your website should offer effortless online payment options. In short, consider equipping your website with all the tools necessary, and it will market and sell your facility for you.

4. Mobile Marketing

I use Google analytics to track the online traffic to our facility websites. Its a free yet comprehensive tool that provides not only extensive information on Web traffic, but tells us what type of device the customer is using to find our websites. Even our facilities in rural areas have increasing number of customers each month who find our locations via their mobile device. Some people even use their mobile devices as their primary Internet source (instead of a laptop or PC) to search for products and services.

The next technological leap for your website is to become mobile-device friendly. The self-storage industry has various vendors that can recreate your website to be automatically mobile-friendly. Information should be easy to access, payments should be easy to make via a smartphone, and directions to your site should be simple to find.

5. Self-Storage Aggregator Websites

Advertising mediums such as USstoragesearch.com and Storagefront.com also use SEO to bring your advertised listing to that first search-engine page. Some of the aggregators are affordable and have excellent SEO, so they provide qualified leads that turn into actual customers. Others can be more expensive or, because of the search key terms they use in their SEO, the leads may not be as qualified.

A few years ago, we advertised with one of the aggregators and noticed a large number of the calls the facility received were through this aggregator. When we listened to the recorded calls, we noticed 80 percent of them were for auction inquiries, as auction was the keyword the aggregator was using along with other industry-related keywords to optimize its ranking. Its important to research and find the right aggregators for your advertising.

6. Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

A quick way of getting first place on the first page of search engines is to advertise via pay per click. There are numerous vendors that manage PPC advertising, and some use proven methods to continuously optimize the most relevant keywords that bring the most qualified leads for your business for a price. Alternatively, you could do this on your own and start with a conservative budget to do your own testing. Google will walk you through the process of setting up your first PPC campaign. If you dont have a first-page presence on search engines through one or more of the methods I outlined above, you may want to consider PPC until your other Web presence climbs its way up.

7. E-mail Campaigns

Dont take e-mail campaigns lightly. Collecting e-mail addresses from prospective tenants and informing them of new specials and other offers costs nearly nothing and will prove to generate new business. There are various online websites that allow you to do your own e-mail campaigns for a small price, or you may opt to hire a company to run e-mail campaigns for you.

8. Social Media

The impact of social media is still under evaluation when it comes to the self-storage industry. Some say if you have a great manager whos also actively managing a Facebook page for your storage facility and is good at getting followers, this effort may turn into rentals.

However, having to check on your site manager to ensure proper social-media conduct with customers and prospects can be time-consuming. Any improper social-media conduct on your managers part may create larger issues. Nevertheless, staying in touch with customers via Facebook and other social-media outlets via predetermined weekly posts wouldnt take much time so long as employee social-media guidelines are clearly defined and followed.

9. Yellowpages.com

I find it necessary to list Yellowpages.com as its own category. If youre a long-term player in the industry, in the past you must have spent a big part of your marketing budget on Yellow Pages print advertising. Since the shift to the Internet, one by one, many operators either downsized their ads or completely pulled out of printed Yellow Pages.

Some converted to Yellowpages.com thinking it was a replacement of the print version. While I cannot speak for others, we tested it and found we didnt break even. We also found there are other online advertising channels that provide a higher number of quality leads for a fraction of the cost.

10. Your Site Manager

All of the above online marketing methods are in place to generate phone calls, walk-in customers, e-mail requests or online reservations. If the request is in the form of an e-mail, industry statistics reveal a 15-minute turnaround time is required to contact that customer. Otherwise, the prospect will move on to your competitor. A timely, service-oriented reply is of the essence. If the contact is in the form of a walk-in or a phone call, the manager should be aware of all Internet promotions. Site managers should also be knowledgeable to guide an existing customer on how to use your facilitys website to make online payments or a new reservation.

Once our managers realized how much time they could be saving from manually processing payments, they became motivated to convince existing and new customers to make their payments and even reservations online. We also mention to customers that the Web specials are only available via Web reservations. This again helps with more automation and time savings for our managers.

Adapting and embracing the change in self-storage marketing is of the essence to take your facilitys share of Internet leads. With some guidance and industry expertise, you can be on your way back to profitability within a short period of time.

Aycha Williams, marketing and training strategist for AC Commercial Property Management, has more than with 15 years of experience in the marketing of commercial real estate and high-tech and consumer products. Based in Orlando, Fla., her company manages more than 1 million square feet of self-storage and other commercial holdings in Florida and Texas. For more information, call 407.481.9899, ext. 111; e-mail  awilliams@accommercial.net; visit www.accommercial.net.

Compass Self Storage, a self-storage operator with facilities in several states, has partnered with Charity Storage to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).

Created by Lance Watkins, founder of self-storage auction site Storage Treasures.com, Charity Storage donates the proceeds from a self-storage auction to local and national charities. Compass Self Storage, which is owned by the Amsdell Cos., became involved with the charity after company president Todd Amsdell heard about the organization.

We got set up very quickly on the Charity Storage website and also at Storage Treasures.com, and within a month we held our first Charity Storage auction, says Gus Maragliano, a senior district manager for Compass Self Storage.

Watkins launched Charity Storage after seeing the popularity of self-storage auctions grow. The net proceeds from the sale of each unit at a Charity Storage auction are split three ways. The Self Storage Association Foundation receives 10 percent, Kure It Inc., which raises awareness and funds for kidney cancer, receives 30 percent, and the individual facility chooses a local or national charity to receive the remaining 60 percent, as Compass Self Storage has done with LLS.

Weve been aligned with LLS for many years and have set forth to continue our relationship at the highest levels the company has ever seen, says Sean Bentley, a district manager for Compass Self Storage. Our alignment with Charity Storage has only solidified our meeting the goals.

To date, Compass Self Storage has raised $1,274.50 through eight auctions. The companys goal is to reach $8,000 by the end of the year.

Charity Storage is in its first year of existence and seeing a company like Compass Self Storage realize its goal of supporting the LLS cause through our program is what we are all about, Watkins says. We hope more self-storage companies and facilities across the country join in with the same enthusiasm.

Compass Self Storage operates facilities in Florida, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Headquartered in Cleveland, the Amsdell Cos. draw its roots from the family-owned construction company founded in 1928. The company has since been active in several billions of dollars worth of real estate ventures with a primary focus in self-storage.

OpenTech Alliance Inc., a Phoenix-based provider of self-storage kiosks and call-center services, has released its INSOMNIAC Online demonstration utility, a free, interactive presentation that gives self-storage operators a functional view of its new cloud service. INSOMNIAC Online is a self-service solution designed to rent storage units on personal computers and mobile devices, catering to new buyer behaviors.

The online demonstration allows users to "rent" units for a virtual storage facility called INSOMNIAC Self Storage. The application performs just like a facility website or mobile site, using the same technology through which customers rent units at self-storage kiosks.

Several self-storage operators are already using the INSOMNIAC Online service, which integrates with many popular self-storage software systems.

"We captured our first online rental in less than 24 hours after going live on our website," said Rex Jennings, owner of Ten Oaks Storage, a  two-facility operation in the heart of Texas. "INSOMNIAC Online will likely be a game-changer for independent self-storage facilities like us." The value of the first rental covered the cost of the service for a year, Rex said.

Infinite Self Storage was the first company to implement the new service for its entire portfolio of 23 properties. "We have been very pleased with the INSOMINAC Online rental service and use it in conjunction with onsite managers and self-service kiosks at all of our properties. We have rented over 40 units online since implementing the new service earlier this year," said Steve Lavery, vice president of Herman & Kittle Properties Inc., which manages the Infinite brand.

Self-storage operators can get $225 off the cost of INSOMNIAC Online when they "rent" a virtual unit through the online demonstration utility.

"While over 40 percent of storage customers still choose to visit a facility to rent a unit, completing the rental online prior to showing up at move-in may be a preferred option for other consumers," said OpenTech President and CEO Robert A. Chiti. "Our demonstration was launched to allow storage owners to explore this new self-service alternative."

In addition to its self-storage cloud services and seven models of INSOMNIAC self-storage kiosks, OpenTech offers the INSOMNIAC Live! call center and the INSOMNIAC Self Storage Network for online storage reservations and rentals.

Managers from a U.K. Big Yellow Self Storage last week helped a local hospice add storage to its center.

Volunteers from Big Yellow Romford assisted Farleigh Hospice in the preparation of a storage shed. The managers prepared the ground for the shed base, painted fence posts, put the frame in place then filled it with concrete. The shed will be built by additional volunteers in the coming weeks.

Farleigh Hospice provides care and support to people with life-limiting illnesses and their families. The charity has two centers in the mid-Essex area.

Big Yellow Self Storage has 53 wholly owned and 65 total facilities in the United Kingdom, with most concentrated in Greater London.

The Amsdell family of companies has acquired five self-storage properties in the Cincinnati area for $13.2 million. The new facilities will be operated by Compass Self Storage LLC, giving the brand a foray into the Cincinnati market. The properties amass 308,635 in net rentable square feet and are located at the following addresses:

• 3951 Nine Mile Road, Cincinnati
• 4700 Wilmer Court, Cincinnati
• 9343 Princeton Glendale Road, Hamilton, Ohio
• 10000 Sam Neace Drive, Florence, Ky.
• 2020 Northside Drive, Hebron, Ky.

"We are thrilled to expand our service to the greater Cincinnati market," said Todd Amsdell, president. "We plan to continue to expand our footprint to additional markets and look forward furthering the growth of the Compass brand."

Brett Hatcher, a senior associate in the Columbus, Ohio, office of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services, and Matt Amos, an associate in Cincinnati, represented the Cincinnati-based seller.

With the acquisition of this portfolio, the new owner has taken advantage of an opportunity to capture favorable efficiencies in the Cincinnati-area marketplace, Hatcher said. The properties are located predominately in infill areas, and the surrounding market features favorable density and demographics with a solid mix of residential and commercial development.

Headquartered in Cleveland, the Amsdell Cos. draw its roots from the family-owned construction company founded in 1928. The company, which owns and operates self-storage properties in Florida, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, has since been active in several billions of dollars worth of real estate ventures with a primary focus in self-storage.

Self-storage operator StorageMart recently launched a contest on its Facebook page, encouraging sports fans to share their favorite baseball moments captured on camera.

The contest, Show and Tell and Win, asks fans to upload photos to the companys Facebook page, including shots such as catching a foul ball, an autographed scorecard, ticket stubs from a World Series game or even Little League trophies. Winners will be chosen based originality, team spirit and the best use of storage and organization for keepsakes, souvenirs, collectibles and memorabilia.

Two grand-prize winners will each receive two one-day passes to the 2012 MLB All-Star Game FanFest at the Kansas City Convention Center. Passes may be used on July 6, 7 or 10. Two second prize winners will each receive four tickets and a parking pass to see the Kansas City Royals on either July 15 against the Chicago White Sox or July 22 against the Minnesota Twins. Official contest rules can be found on StorageMarts Facebook page.

Headquartered in Columbia, Mo., StorageMart is a full-service self-storage company with more than 130 locations across the United States and Canada.

XPS Solutions, a provider of Web-based reservations services and other outsourced solutions for the self-storage industry, is now offering a pay-by-phone tool, powered by its proprietary ECHO platform, that allows self-storage tenants to make secure payments over the phone through a voice-prompted teller. IVR Pay by Phone is an integrated voice response (IVR) system integrates with a self-storage facility's property-management software.

Intended for use by small to mid-size self-storage operators, IVR Pay by Phone frees self-storage personnel form having to manually process payments over the phone and reduces the risk of exchanging credit card information between staff and tenant. In addition, self-storage operators can generate revenue by charging tenants an optional service fee.

The new tool integrates with self-storage management software produced by Centershift Inc., Domico, QuikStor and SMD Software Inc.

Pay by Phone enables the inde¬pendent operator to follow the strategy of the REITs by deploying a turnkey, secure payment-processing system for rental payments. The goal is to reduce collections while providing better customer service, said John Traver, CEO.

XPS provides a suite of products for self-storage operations that captures and tracks leads and processes payments through the XPS call center, Web platform and IVR tools. Services include call recording, lead tracking, Web-chat support, search-engine optimization strategies, Web hosting, data analysis and more. XPS is integrated with most site-management systems.

By Robert Vespa

Mobile self-storage is the fastest growing segment within the storage industry. More and more consumers are learning about mobile storage as an option and using this service. Also, in ever increasing numbers, they're choosing to use containers to move their households in lieu of traditional movers. With these trends in place, how does a self-storage operator get into the mobile-storage business? There are two primary methods: invest in containers or become a franchisee.

To determine which model is right for your operation, first consider what youre trying to accomplish as a business owner. Are you attempting to capture the occasional customer interested in mobile storage? This strategy allows you to add a few customers to your existing base. The second strategy is that of building mobile-storage into a standalone business. Lets take a look at the pros and cons of each model.

Adding Containers

Lets assume youre just trying to capture some customers who would otherwise go elsewhere. The real difficulty here is where to store the containers. Most will not fit into your existing facility. The only options may be to store them outdoors on your current property, or locate some warehouse space you can rent.

Today, there are some very good manufacturers that offer containers that can be exposed to the elements and left outdoors. Even if your current location would support something like this, youll still need a delivery system to provide the service. You can certainly find those in the marketplace as well. The advantages of this approach are clear: You can grow at your own pace, the initial investment can be limited, and youll have no real obligations going forward.

However, this strategy has its downsides as well. Youre not actually growing a business but developing a line extension that may be an additive to your business. With this option, you can never really get to scale on your business, and youll have to figure it out on your own. Youll likely make some mistakes and burn a lot of man hours along the way. Finally, theres no network that would give you access to cooperative market or leverage for interstate moves if this is a segment you want to participate in as well.

The Franchise Option

If youre more serious about the mobile-storage business, you should consider looking at a franchise opportunity within the industry. Franchising allows entrepreneurs to take advantage of a total business system thats in place and allows them the best opportunity to succeed. A good franchise organization will provide three key elements to its franchiseesbrand, operating systems and ongoing support.

A strong brand is critical to any businesses success. You need to be able to develop a brand in your market; it's essential for your ability to get customers. There needs to be a clear direction for your brand and a plan to grow and develop it.

As a franchisee, you benefit from the collective efforts and investment of the many franchisees as well as your franchisor. Through everyone's efforts, you gain great leverage. Remember, name recognition will allow you more opportunities to speak with potential customers.

Another important deliverable from your franchisor is the operating systems it has in place. Examples of these systems are marketing, technology, product delivery, business, customer service and accounting. These allow you to get your business up and running quicker and cost-effectively than if you were going to do this on your own. Think of all of the time and money youll save by not having to reinvent how you operate your business. Youll get time-tested systems.

Most mobile-storage franchises will handle many of the important aspects of a franchisee's business, allowing them to focus on other necessary day-to-day business activities. The things they do on behalf of their franchisees help them save time, money and resources.

What to Expect as a Franchisee

Franchisees are expected first and foremost to provide the necessary capital to operate the business. Theyll have to do local face-to-face marketing in their territory to develop long-term referral partners. Franchisees need to provide customer support at the local level and, finally, they need to deliver the service and operate the storage facility.

Financing is available to franchisees, allowing them greater access to capital to grow their business. As a franchisee, you purchase the rights to an exclusive market for 20 years. A typical market is a population of 500,000. Mobile-storage franchisors are looking for entrepreneurs interested in building a successful business.

Before jumping into the mobile-storage industry, first consider your long-term goals. Are you looking to add a few customers or start a standalone business? Once you know what kind of service youd like to provide, do your homework. Find out what mobile-storage operations already exist in your market, and talk to a variety of vendors so you can compare pricing, operations, container and delivery systems, and support. The mobile-storage industry is growing every day, and can be great source of revenue for entrepreneurs looking for their next business venture.

Robert Vespa is chief operations officer for Mango Moving LLC. He also serves on the board of directors for the Mobile Self-Storage Association. He has 20 years of experience in the moving and transportation industry. To reach him, call 888.330.0801; visit www.mangomoving.com. For information about the MS-SA, visit www.ms-sa.org.