All business owners know that the single largest way to get their brand recognized within their local community is advertising. Advertising comes in many forms of mediums but all of them have one common goal…brand recognition. Brand recognition usually leads to a great R.O.I. We offer all U-Haul Self-Storage Affiliates an opportunity to advertise their business with the Storage Affiliate Advertising Van. We believe the R.O.I. is great for storage facility owners. See if it is a good opportunity below.

Advertising = Brand Recognition

Brand Recognition means that members of your local community understand a product or service your business offers just by seeing your logo or your advertising. The advertisement and or logo could be placed at your building or anywhere around town. Increasing your brand recognition to more and more people is crucial to success and is easier than you think.

Measuring R.O.I. with an Advertising Van

Cost effective advertising means the money you spend increases your revenue by MORE than you spend on the advertising. This is defined as return on investment and commonly uses the acronym R.O.I.

To ensure our advertising dollars are bringing in more than they cost we need to first find out what works and do more of it and find out what doesn’t work and do less.

It can take extra effort to track your R.O.I. when advertising, but the effort means you understand if what you are doing is working. Below are examples of how a couple affiliates using the advertising van track their efforts with the Advertising Van.

Mike from ABC Self Storage – “I know my van is moving around my community, but I ask every customer who calls or walks in how they heard about us. When they say they saw the van in town, I now can pencil their revenue towards the cost of the van”

Brian From Aiken Self Storage – “I am an offsite manager, and because of that I had a phone number on van that is not published anywhere else. Each month I review my incoming calls and look for this number. I know the ratio of calls to move-in’s so it allows me to factor the vans ROI”

Some facilities use a promotion so they can track how many use the exclusive van promo and track the advertising efforts. If your website allows customers to make reservations, consider having U-Haul put a QR code on the van. This way when the van is parked, customers can scan the code and pull up your website. They then have the option to make a reservation right at their fingertips.

Keep the Van Busy

These are just some of the things you can do but they key is keeping the van busy. It also doesn’t hurt to keep your van in front of your business. Parking in front of your facility is usually right in traffic where your customers are. Schedule the use of the van effectively and say yes to every customer! This will keep the van moving and increase the area customers are seeing your brand.

Develop a Plan

• It is critical to plan before your van arrives at your facility so you can hit the ground running. The sooner you start making money the better! Ask questions like these below to help you develop your plan.
• How are you going measure it?
• Will you ask customers how they heard of you?
• What about publishing a specific phone number or promotion on the van?
• How can I track the success digitally? (How did you hear of us question or a QR code?)

As a small business owner, it is important to make wise decisions. Every dollar spent advertising is valuable. With the advertising van you will be able to use it to advertise and as incentive for customers storing their belongings there. You will be pulling in more revenue than it costs. We hope as an affiliate that this will remove the unknown and increase your businesses bottom line.

Advertising alone cannot increase your business and fill your storage rooms. Being a part of a network definitely helps your business get noticed by more customers. For more information on becoming a part of the U-Haul Self-Storage Affiliate Network visit: https://storageaffiliate.emove.com/affiliate/sign_in.aspx

Have you tried mobile advertising? Share your experience in the comments!