Hersing Corp. of Singapore reported its third-quarter 2010 profit after taxes tripled to $18.9 million compared to the same quarter in 2009.

According to the company, Hersing, which operates StorHub Self Storage, achieved 21.2 percent higher turnover of $81.5 million in the third quarter ending Sept. 30 compared to $67.2 million recorded during the same period in 2009 despite the decrease in total number of transactions.

Turnover from financial services rose 8.4 percent to $7.8 million. The groups interest in the self-storage industry was reduced to 38 percent following a July sale to CapitaLand Limited. A joint venture company was created and CapitaLand Limited paid S$39.2 million to acquire 62 percent of Hersing's self-storage business.

SD Storage is hosting a canned-food drive for San Diego Rescue Mission this holiday season. In an effort to help those less fortunate, SD Storage will be accepting donations for the canned-food drive from now until the end of the year.

Community members can participate by dropping off canned or non-perishable food items at any one of SD Storages nine San Diego self-storage locations. SD Storage will be accepting a wide range of items such as canned soup, beans, pasta and more.

Established in 1955, San Diego Rescue Mission is a non-profit homeless shelter and recovery center serving thousands of homeless, hungry and poor men, women and children in San Diego.

A fire Friday at Securcare Self Storage, 6338 Arapahoe Ave., in Boulder, Colo., damaged eight self-storage units. Additional units may also have water damage.

The fire began about 2:25 p.m. in one of the units, according to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. Deputies and firefighters from Rocky Mountain Fire Protection District responded.

Fire investigators believe the blaze was started by 51-year-old Donaled Eib, who was using an open flame inside the storage unit. Eib was living in the unit, according to authorities. Eib was cited for one count of fourth-degree arson, which is a misdemeanor.

Inside Self-Storage (ISS) has released its 2011 Factbook, a comprehensive collection of articles addressing the complete self-storage experience, from the initial stages of development and finance through the nitty gritty of facility operation.

Chapters cover real estate, construction, legal issues, marketing, insurance, technology, staffing, security, add-on services and much more. The Factbook is designed to educate all levels of self-storage owners, managers, developers and investors. Published annually in November, its articles are authored by dozens of experts across all industry fields. The book can be previewed and ordered at Inside Self-Storage 2011 Factbook.

ISS produces a monthly magazine, bi-annual tradeshows, e-newsletters, webinars, an online forum, and education programs for self-storage professionals. ISS has been a well-known industry information franchise for more than 20 years.   

 

By Jeffrey Supnick

Not long ago, self-storage marketing consisted of placing a Yellow Pages ad and then waiting for the phone to ring. In todays market, not only do you face more competition for customers, YP is slowly being replaced by the Internet as a primary means for prospects to learn about your store. Unfortunately, Internet marketing has a similar limitation to that of YPnamely that it works only for customers who are actively looking for you.

Because of this, self-storage operators are increasingly turning their efforts to proactive or outreach marketing including print media, direct mail or cold calling on key community and business locations. Such marketing campaigns communicate directly with potential customers, making them aware of self-storage as a way to solve their problems.

Taking things to the next level, target marketing is a way for you to find prospects who fit the profile of your key customers, allowing you to concentrate your budget on the most potentially profitable opportunities. Simply put, its better to focus your marketing dollars on customers who are the most receptive and who will, once captured, produce the highest benefit to your stores bottom line. To find them, you must clearly define your market.

Understanding Your Trade Area

To target your best customers, you must first understand your trade area. Traditionally, the local self-storage market has been defined by a one-, three- and five-mile radius around your store. Unfortunately, the fabric of a market doesnt follow something as arbitrary as a circle drawn on a map.

A more productive approach is to define your trade area by taking into consideration how people actually travel and interact. Things like interstate highways, waterways and bridges may increase drive time and thus the convenience of your location, while different socio-economic patterns within a geographic area create real or imagined barriers for futures customers.

From where do your current customers come? This is a useful place to start. Most self-storage management-software programs have functions that will actually map your current customer base from their addresses.

You may wish to focus your marketing efforts on those geographic segments of your trade area that generate most existing customers or perhaps those from which you arent currently garnering customers. Combining your understanding of the geographic distribution of your existing tenants with an understanding of your competition can help you determine that certain areas are underserved or otherwise ripe for increasing levels of marketing.

A simple and inexpensive computer program such as Microsoft Streets & Trips will actually draw out drive-time distances around your store based on the road system and projected allowable speeds on such roads. Once you have that drive-time map, its a simple matter to also plug in the locations of your competition and your existing tenants. Often, a pattern can be seen whereby you can determine areas within the trade area that might be underserved or be a good target for the customers youre trying to attract. 

The Importance of Demographic Factors

In reviewing market studies, its not unusual to find that within a given three- or five-mile radius around a store, some locations perform better than others. After factoring in considerations of the relative quality of the competing stores and their managers, the proximity and competitive intensity between some of the stores in the submarket, rental rates and other similar factors, we are often left to conclude that certain socio-economic factors play an important role in peoples relative willingness or propensity to rent self-storage.

The most obvious example of this might be a difference between a lower-income area around an older industrial city, and the suburban upper-income area located as much as 10 miles away on the opposite side of a five-mile radius around your site. You might even find that factors such as income relate to the size of the rental space a tenant might choose, with lower-income tenants renting smaller spaces and more affluent tenants renting larger ones. This is an important factor to consider in target marketing if you have an abundance of either large or small units.

Get Data

Once youve geographically defined your trade area, there are several ways to obtain demographic information that you can overlay onto your map. Demographic data is available directly from the U.S. Census Bureau and can be accessed for free at Census.gov. There are some limitations with this data, for example, its difficult to map corresponding data to the dimensions of your defined trade area. If, however, there are several ZIP codes within your defined area, the Census data can be shown in ZIP-code format, which also becomes easy to use in mailings.

There are also various paid sites such as Nielsen Claritas, CACI Inc. or Easy Analytic Software Inc. that can supply demographic data to be mapped to whatever youve determined your target trade area to be. Mapped variables can include concentration of businesses, percentage of renters, housing type or income amongst many of the variables you may wish to consider.

There are several national companies such as InfoUSA, Equifax, Accenture and others who can provide you with mailing lists of residential and business addresses in your target trade area. These lists can be broken down and refined by specific demographic criteria such as credit score, income, or a series of other demographic criteria for residential addresses or business type, number of employees or similar factors for businesses.

Most important, this same data can be broken geographically into specific areas within your defined market. The mailing list can then be generated down to the level of a given street, mail-carrier route or ZIP code. In this way, you can focus your advertising dollars specifically on those areas youve determined will produce the best results for you and the marketing needs of your store.

Jeffrey Supnick is president of Supnick Real Estate Co., a full-service firm devoted exclusively to self-storage brokerage, consulting and property-management services. A 25- year veteran of the self-storage industry, Supnick formerly served as a real estate officer for Public Storage Inc. and Storage USA. During his career, he has been responsible for the development of more than 30 self-storage sites. For more information, call 856.722.1414; e-mail [email protected]; visit www.supnick.com.

By Julie Purcell

Hosting special events at your self-storage facility is one of the best ways to get local residents, current tenants and businesses to your door. Planning a successful event can be very rewarding, but there are some key things to consider.

First, special events need to be, well, special. They should be memorable, creative and create a sense of urgency that this is the one event people dont want to miss. Having a run-of-the-mill open house doesnt sound like much fun and probably wont attract many people. However, naming your event something unique and creating some excitement around it increases the likelihood that folks will attend and participate.

Special events will help people remember younot your competitorswhen they need storage.

They also create networking opportunities. Every interaction is important because if you do an excellent job, people will go out of their way to bring you business.

Its like getting a haircutif your barber or stylist does a mediocre job, you probably wont refer him to others. But if he does a fantastic job, youll mention it to other people without any prompting. The same applies to your event; the more effort you put in to it, the better. The more energized you are about it, the more excited others will be, too.

Three Cs of Special Events

There are three Cs to keep in mind when planning special events: commitment, creativity and community. Lets look at each.

Be committed. Determine your budget (plus a little extra) and create a master to-do list with a timeline so you stay on target. The timeline should include sending out invitations, handing out postcards, talking to other local businesses, writing and sending press releases, ordering materials, etc. You should also include an emergency plan such as what to do in inclement weather.

Be creative in your theme. Make your event fun and memorable. This will entice people to come and will attract media attention. Lets say your facility is surrounded by corn fields; ask a local farm to donate some corn and have a corn-shucking contest. Then donate the corn to a local food bank. Come up with a clever name for your event that incorporates your theme.

Another theme could be family movie night complete with popcorn. Host a costume contest or invite a local celebrity for a meet and greet with fans. Think of something that makes sense with your facility branding and the time of year in which your event takes place. You can capitalize on holidays, seasons or other community events.

Come up with some fun activities, such as a bounce house, particularly if you have great drive-by traffic. Kids playing in a jumping castle can be seen from several blocks away. You can also include games such as a dunk tank, cake walk or other game and give away inexpensive prizes. Having kid-friendly attractions will draw more people to your event. You can also attract attendees by offering free food. Again make use of local business donations to fulfill this need.

Partner with your community. Consider working with a local charity. Not only will this help promote a great cause, it will build goodwill toward your facility. An example of this would be supporting a local food bank. Have a raffle and give everyone a free raffle ticket per canned-food item donated. Ask a local retailer to donate small prizes or gift cards for winners.

Look for partnerships with like-minded businesses to reap the most rewards. Everyone is looking for inexpensive marketing opportunities right now. By getting other local businesses involved, youll get them to promote your event, reach more people with your marketing message, and possibly defray some of the events costs through donated goods or services such as food or party supplies.

One of the most important aspects in promoting your event to potential partners is having a sponsorship letter. It should include details about your event and incentives why a business might want to be a part of it. These incentives could include adding their logo or information on your marketing material or website and signage at the event.

In addition to reaching out to your communitys business leaders, remember to talk to your own communityyour customers. Oftentimes, were looking for the next big marketing avenue and forget to make use of the relationships we already have! See if any of your tenants would like to participate or have goods or services theyd be willing to donate.

Get the Word Out

Your marketing materials should be creative and include all the pertinent details. Dont overload fliers or postcards with too much information, but be sure to highlight the date, time, address, facility phone number and your website if you have more info posted online. Make sure its clear the event is free and open to families and the community.

Then get the word out. Grab your new fliers and promote the event to everyone. Drop them off at local businesses, and hang them on bulletin boards at coffee shops and grocery stores. Promote the event to your current and past tenants via e-mail, facility signage or postcards.

Another marketing option is radio stations. While radio advertising can be pricey, it gives validity to your event and brings people in the door. If youre working with a charity, some radio stations will give you a discount rate or even announce the event for free. Also, check with our local newspapers community section. You can often announce an event for free or at a very low price point.

You should also take advantage of social media. While social-media marketing is free, it will take some time and effort. Setting up a Facebook business page is an easy way to promote your event and keep people updated. Twitter alerts are an even quicker way to spread the word about your event. After the happening, you can use these outlets to stay in touch with people as well.

Market to Attendees

Once you get people to your facility, capitalize on the exposure. First, hand out the promotional materials. Brochures are expensive and really dont need to be handed to everyone who comes through your door. Instead, consider offering coupons, which can be inexpensive to create and have a better call to action. Save the brochures for those definitely interested in your services. Also, handing out special coupons offers a good way to track the return on investment of your event.

You should also collect attendee information for future marketing campaigns. One of the best ways to do this is by having a raffle. Add attendee info to your mail or e-mail list, then follow up with a short letter thanking for them attending your event and offering a small discount on a future rental. But be sure to put an expiration date on the discount so you create a sense of urgency.

Evaluate Your Event

After the event, spend some time evaluating it. Did you meet your goals? What could you have done differently? Perhaps you didnt get the response from the community you expected. Rather than being disappointed, remember that even if you didnt attract a huge crowd, you learned a few things during the process and still built brand awareness in your community. Plus, you may not see immediate results. Theres no expiration date on brand awareness. Someone who attended your eventor even heard about itmay not need storage today but could in the future.

The whole point of any marketing campaign is to create top-of-mind awareness to those who need storage and events are a great way to make your facility memorable on a larger scale. Hopefully, youll also have some fun while doing it.

Julie Purcell is the marketing director for Storage Asset Management Inc., a third-party management and consulting company that manages 27 self-storage facilities across the mid-Atlantic region. For more info, call 717.779.0044, visit www.storageassetmanagement.com.

Pogoda Cos., a self-storage operator and broker headquartered in Farmington Hills, Mich., has acquired Maximus Self Storage in Livonia, Mich., a foreclosed property, from Flagstar Bank for $1.6 million. The property will be rebranded with the companys facility name, National Storage Center.  

The two-story facility is located off of Interstate 96 at the intersection of Merriman and Schoolcraft Roads. It has nearly 39,000 net rentable square feet in 338 climate-controlled units, with two elevators, door alarms, two ground-level loading docks, two truck wells with levelers and a digitally monitored camera system.

Founded in 1987, Pogoda Cos. has approximately 3 million square feet of self-storage space under management in 38 facilities in Michigan and Ohio. The company provides brokerage, management, investment and consulting services to the self-storage industry through its Pogoda Group Inc. and Pogoda Management Co. divisions.

Roemer Way Self Storage in Santa Maria, Calif., is giving away several turkeys this Thanksgiving to needy families in the community.

Community members can nominate families by submitting a written paragraph and a photo to [email protected] by Nov. 20. Winners will be announced Nov. 22.

The self-storage business is also serving as a drop-off for the U.S Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program. Customers who donate new, unwrapped toys between now and the third week of December will be eligible to receive free advertising in the companys online marketing. The company or person who donates the most toys will receive recognition in the companys e-mail newsletter, which is sent to 3,000 recipients, and a message of thanks on the companys website, and Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages.

A self-storage building in Tacoma, Wash., has been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places.

Tacoma Self Storage originally housed a cold-storage plant run by Tacoma Ice Co., one of the state's oldest companies. Founded in 1887, the company provided ice and refrigeration for commercial and residential use. The plant closed in 1988 and the building was converted into self-storage in 2004. The facility has 652 climate-controlled units and RV parking.

The building is eligible for individual listing based on its contribution to the citys industrial area and its architectural significance.