Home Services / Moving, Storage & Specialty Home Services
Self-Storage Marketing
Self-storage marketing from MBI is one acquisition programme for a storage facility: direct mail to nearby prospects, Meta ads to recent movers, college students at break periods, newlyweds and people merging households, and an SMS re-engagement campaign for the enquiries that went quiet.
Not sure where to start? Talk with our teamThe audience
Who rents a self-storage unit, and what just happened to them?
The short answer
Recent movers, college students at break periods, newlyweds, and people merging households — the four audiences self-storage Facebook targeting can reach. A facility does not set those dates: the ads run to recently moved households or to college students during school breaks, so the campaign follows the moment a unit is needed rather than the facility's own calendar.
The four audiences. Self-storage Facebook targeting can reach recent movers, college students at break periods, newlyweds, and people merging households; Meta can also promote a specific unit feature or special.
One team. MBI is one company that plans, produces, and delivers direct mail, print and digital campaigns from a single team in DeLand, Florida, and data, print, and delivery have been in-house since 1989.
Somebody else’s calendar
Also promoted
Direct mail
How does self-storage direct mail reach the prospects nearest a facility?
The short answer
A self-storage direct-mail campaign goes to nearby prospects. MBI builds the address selection around the facility, prints the piece and mails it. USPS Move Update requires each address in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices, or USPS Marketing Mail prices, to be updated within 95 days before the mailing date.
The researched campaign. The researched direct-mail campaign for this vertical is a self-storage direct-mail campaign to nearby prospects.
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5 provides that each address, except for mail bearing an alternative address format, in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices or USPS Marketing Mail prices is subject to the Move Update standard, and that each address and associated addressee used on the mailpieces in a mailing must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date with one of the USPS-approved methods, which include Address Change Service and the National Change of Address Linkage System (NCOALink).
USPS Domestic Mail Manual 602.5
direct mail marketing services targeted direct mail direct mail mailing lists
Nearby prospects
Postcard · Direct Mail
Postcard · Direct Mail
Mailer · Direct Mail
Facebook and Instagram
When do self storage Facebook ads reach someone who has just moved?
The short answer
Around the move and around the school calendar: Facebook ads go to recently moved households or to college students during school breaks. Self-storage targeting can also reach newlyweds and people merging households, and Meta can promote a specific unit feature or a special rather than the facility in general.
Around the move and the school calendar. The researched Meta campaign runs Facebook ads to recently moved households or college students during school breaks.
Meta's advertising standards state that advertisers are responsible for understanding and complying with all applicable laws and regulations, and that ads must not promote products, services, schemes or offers using identified deceptive or misleading practices.
Meta, Advertising Standards
digital advertising services direct mail and digital marketing
Meta ad · Facebook
Meta carousel · Facebook
Reel · Instagram
SMS
What does self-storage text message marketing do with a quiet enquiry?
The short answer
One more message, sent to a number the facility collected itself. An SMS re-engagement campaign goes to lapsed storage enquiries, and CTIA's messaging principles say messages should be sent only after the consumer has opted in and that senders should not use opt-in lists that have been rented, sold or shared.
Re-engaging a lapsed enquiry. SMS re-engagement of lapsed enquiries is specifically listed in self-storage marketing guidance, and the researched campaign is an SMS re-engagement campaign for lapsed storage enquiries.
CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that message senders should support opt-in mechanisms and that messages should be sent only after the consumer has opted in to receive them, and list entering a telephone number through a website, clicking a button on a mobile webpage, sending a message from the consumer's mobile device containing an advertising keyword, initiating the text message exchange in which the message sender replies only with responsive information, signing up at a point-of-sale or other on-site location, and opting in over the phone using IVR among the mechanisms by which a consumer might demonstrate opt-in consent; senders should also document opt-in consent by retaining, where applicable, seven data points, among them the timestamp of consent acquisition and the consent acquisition medium.
CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023, §5.1.2
CTIA's Messaging Principles and Best Practices state that message senders should not use opt-in lists that have been rented, sold, or shared to send messages and should create and vet their own opt-in lists, that consumers should have the ability to opt out of receiving messages at any time through multiple mechanisms, and that senders should acknowledge and honor all opt-out requests by sending one final opt-out confirmation message per campaign.
CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, May 2023, §§5.1.3–5.1.4
SMS
SMS
Landing page · Web
Printing
What does self-storage brochure printing cover?
The short answer
Brochures, flyers, leaflets and direct-mail pieces. Commercial and variable-data printing is produced in house, and data, print and delivery have been in-house since 1989, so the piece that is designed is the piece that is printed and delivered — one team rather than a printer, a mail house and an agency.
The formats. Brochures, flyers, leaflets and direct-mail pieces.
In house. Printing at MBI is commercial and variable-data printing produced in house.
One-sheet · Printing
Checklist · Printing
Questions
Questions a self-storage facility asks before it mails
Searched for self storage marketing, storage facility marketing or self storage advertising? Same work, same answers.
How does MBI market a self-storage facility?
With three campaigns: a self-storage direct-mail campaign to nearby prospects, Facebook ads to recently moved households or college students during school breaks, and an SMS re-engagement campaign for lapsed storage enquiries. Direct mail here sits alongside brochures, flyers and leaflets, and it can be coordinated with digital marketing rather than run separately.
Who should a self-storage facility be targeting on Facebook and Instagram?
Recent movers, college students at break periods, newlyweds, and people merging households. Those are the audiences self-storage Facebook targeting can reach, and Meta can also promote a specific unit feature or a special instead of the facility in general.
Who does a self-storage direct-mail campaign go to?
Nearby prospects. The drop goes to the addresses closest to the facility, and the mail can be coordinated with digital marketing rather than run separately — MBI selects the addresses, prints the piece and mails it, and the same team runs the Meta campaign beside it.
What happens to the enquiries that never turned into a rental?
They get one more message. An SMS re-engagement campaign goes to lapsed storage enquiries — a short text to someone who asked about a unit, went quiet, and may only now be at the point of needing one. MBI writes and sends it to numbers the facility collected itself.
How does a facility get permission to text a lapsed enquiry?
From the enquirer, before anything sends. CTIA's messaging principles say messages should be sent only after the consumer has opted in, and list entering a telephone number through a website, clicking a button on a mobile webpage, texting an advertising keyword and signing up on site among the mechanisms. Senders should not use rented, sold or shared opt-in lists.
Recent movers change address — how does the mail still find them?
The storage file is updated first. USPS Move Update applies to each address in a mailing at commercial First-Class Mail presorted or automation prices, or USPS Marketing Mail prices — mail bearing an alternative address format excepted — and each must be updated within 95 days before the mailing date by NCOALink, Address Change Service or another approved method.
Does a self-storage mailing run on its own, or beside the ads?
Either, though it is built to run beside them: direct mail here can be coordinated with digital marketing rather than run separately. The same household can get the piece and then see the Meta ad for the same facility.
What moves the total on a mailing around one storage facility?
No list price exists for direct mail: every quote resolves to two costs, producing the piece and mailing it, and seven decisions move those two numbers, among them quantity, format and finished size, paper, data and personalization, and postage and sortation. /capabilities/direct-mail/direct-mail-cost sets out all seven behind a storage facility's drop.
Get started
Start a self-storage campaign.
Say which of the three campaigns it is, and the facility it runs from. It goes to a real member of the MBI team, not a queue.