Why Reputation Management is Key in Local Self-Storage Marketing

With the rise in demand for self-storage, competition among local facilities has also increased, making it more important than ever for self-storage operators to stand out from the competition and attract new customers. To build trust and credibility with prospective renters, you must invest in reputation management and make this a core component of your marketing strategy.

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This guide will examine the importance of reputation management in local self-storage marketing and explore some of the key strategies and tactics that self-storage operators can deploy to manage and enhance their reputation.

What is reputation management?

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Reputation management is about actively managing and shaping the perception of your brand in the local community. This can include monitoring and responding to online reviews and ratings, as well as promoting content that showcases renter experiences and positions your business as the go-to self-storage solution in the area.

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To attract new customers to your facility, you must take reputation management seriously. When prospective renters are searching for self-storage options in their area, they are likely to rely on online reviews and ratings to help them decide which facility to choose. If a self-storage facility has a high rating and positive reviews, it is more likely to attract new business.

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This can enable you to compound growth for years to come. When tenants leave positive reviews and ratings, it will help you attract more customers who are likely to post more good reviews, which in turn boosts your reputation further.

Why is reputation management important in local self-storage marketing?

Improve search engine rankings

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When you establish a solid reputation locally and further afield as a good self-storage operator, authoritative website domains are more likely to link to you. This will inevitably strengthen your backlink profile and enable you to rank higher as a local storage unit operator. The more backlinks you receive from reputable sources, the higher your website will rank in the SERPs (“Search Engine Results Pages”).

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This is just one of the many non-obvious benefits of reputation management.

Control the narrative with online reviews

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If you can encourage tenants to leave online reviews about their experiences with your self-storage facility, then you will be able to control the narrative and ensure that prospective tenants can read real-life testimonials from satisfied customers. By doing this, you can ensure potential customers are presented with an accurate picture of your facility and service.

Gain a good standing in the local community

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For those operating in a tight-knit local community, reputation management is key. The more customers you can attract from the local community, the more likely it is that your business will benefit from word-of-mouth referrals. Establishing a good reputation in the local area will help to make sure your facility stands out from local competitors.

How can self-storage operators manage their reputation?

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In today's digital landscape, a self-storage business's online presence plays a pivotal role in reputation management. To ensure your business has a good standing online, here are some key tactics and strategies to consider:

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• Incentivize tenants to leave online reviews.
• Develop strong links with the local community.
• Build backlinks with authoritative domains.
• Engage with key figures in the local community.

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Want to learn more? Listen to the Self Storage Lab

Episode 5: Reputation Management

What technology can operators leverage?

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Here are just some examples of solutions operators can leverage for reputation management:

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• swivl to automatically capture Google reviews and improve Google My Business profiles.
• Google Alerts enables you to receive notifications for local keywords.
• BrandMentions allows you to track mentions across every social media platform.
• Reputation.com is a reputation management tool to track competing local operators and much more.
• YouScan is a social listening tool that uses image recognition to track brand mentions.

Building Your Reputation (Next Steps)

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We have produced an Operator’s BluePrint to “Building an Unmanned Facility” — the all-in-one resource of all the tools accessible to an operator to run their self-storage business more effectively.

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To learn more about the self-storage technology landscape and how you can leverage self-storage software, get your hands on the PDF blueprint today.