Self Storage shows how Yellow Pages is dying

According to self-storage guru Anne Ballard, the cost of acquiring a new customer in terms of advertising through Yellow Pages in the US used to be about $61 but has now risen to $1,162. Certainly the large US operators have all increased their marketing spending and promotions ‒ so much so that 75% of them are now offering the first month’s storage for $1.

Others in the UK industry have spoken of the decline in the effectiveness of directory advertising. In the Asian storage market Jonathan Perrins, who is developing the Extra Space company in Singapore, simply says that for him “Yellow Pages doesn’t work”. His preferred methods of gaining business are Internet and signage on the walls of the storage facility itself, and to get more business he uses referrals and mail box drops.

The rise and rise of the Internet

According to a recent Mintel report on how UK customers find self storage, it is 35% Internet, 25% signage and 17% referrals. Fourth is directories generating 16% of enquiries, but these seem to be dropping year by year in importance.

This is mirrored in the experience of one particular South London self storage company that for 15 years found Yellow Pages and Thompsons were generating over 50% of lettings enquiries; but in the last few years the cost per enquiry from directories became so high that they started using other ways of getting customers and dropped their directory entries.

The methods that work best for this particular storage company are signage and local advertising and by giving away promotional items locally. More important than any of these are referrals from past customers or local businesses. Such enquiries also have more likelihood of converting into actual sales.

The Internet, which is such a rapidly growing source of business for removals and storage companies, should not all be lumped into one grouping because it includes quite different elements:

• pay per click advertising, using Google or Yahoo;
• prospective customers finding the website of the operator;
• leads generated by third party sites (like this one!)

And, of course, the old technologies such as Yellow Pages have moved on line and are still generating Internet leads.

People ask each other, “Who did you use for your storage?”

Interestingly people will often ‒ as with TripAdvisor ‒ take the recommendation of an online stranger in preference to that of the company itself. This makes it all the more important that operators keep their customers happy, and happy enough to give testimonials on websites they come across.

One Response to “Self Storage shows how Yellow Pages is dying”

1. Susie says:

   September 4, 2010 at 10:49 am

   I do agree to a certain extent – but when you say yellowpages I hope you meant the Book version, because the online yellowpages are keep growing year on year. Our site, Citybunch UK yellowpages, gets decent visits per day and keeps growing, and one of the most important categories is Storage, removals, and plumbers etc.