hile “The Godfather Part III” may not be in the same league as the previous two installments of the mafia saga, one Michael Corleone line is a stand-out: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!” It’s a sentiment that Lauri Longstrom-Henderson, MSM’s director of sales and marketing, could have said herself when it comes to the self-storage industry.
“I have been in and out of this industry so many times,” says Longstrom-Henderson with a laugh. “But to be honest, I’ve never been completely out. I’ve always been around, at least peripherally.” Sometimes this was due to her industry friends and colleagues; other times it was to accompany her husband Eric Henderson, who’s also in the business, to self-storage events. “Self-storage is like a tight-knit family,” says Longstrom-Henderson with a wink. Maybe that mafia connection wasn’t so far off after all!
Of course, each time she comes back, she finds things a little different. Her most recent return has presented her with the most significant changes. “I went from Mini-Storage Messenger to Modern Storage Media–‘modern’ being the key word there,” says Longstrom-Henderson. “This is not the publishing world of the 20th century, or even the 2010s. Today it’s a whole ‘nother ballgame.”
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves, so let’s first take a quick look back at her history in the industry.
Longstrom-Henderson took to publishing like a pro and quickly learned the ropes of print advertising. The rapport she’d previously established in self-storage circles was invaluable, helping her to sell an unprecedented amount of ad space. However, for her, it was never just about making the sale. “I like to help people,” says Longstrom-Henderson. “I work with them on placement, pricing, sometimes even messaging. And when their ad in our publication brings them new business, and they call me raving about the ROI, I couldn’t be happier.”
She stayed in the position for more than 10 years before it was time to move on. While she was away, Longstrom-Henderson focused on building a self-storage marketing and consulting business. In 2019, after about eight years running her own show, she hung up her hat.
“I thought that was it,” she says. “I was moving into … well, let’s call it semi-retirement, because I began volunteering as a court-ordered child advocate for Mesa County, Colo. Working to ensure children that were abused or neglected find safe and loving homes is near and dear to my heart.”
But then came another call. This time it was Poppy Behrens, publisher of Mini-Storage Messenger, whom Longstrom-Henderson had worked with at MiniCo. She wanted her to come back into the fold as the sales and marketing director, with a catch: Mini-Storage Messenger was being acquired by Storelocal and would now be known as Modern Storage Media (MSM). Each publication would be, as the name suggests, a much more modernized version of the old ones. Longstrom-Henderson was intrigued. “The thought of rekindling the relationships I’d built since 1996, forming new ones, and moving the magazine into a new digital direction was really exciting,” she says. “It didn’t take much convincing. ‘Let’s do it,’ I said.” Just like that, she was pulled out of semi-retirement and back into self-storage–again!
“There are so many things we can do now that weren’t possible just a few years ago,” says Longstrom-Henderson, and her excitement is palpable. “The days of PDFs and flipbooks are over. Now, we’re using a cutting-edge scrolling format for our magazine, with all sorts of moving parts. We bring ads to life with innovative digital enhancements that make them really pop and integrate them with the magazine so much better. There are responsive ads with animation, with video, and the crème de la crème, a sponsored edition wrapper, which lets advertisers wrap our digital magazine in their branding.”
Of course, that’s just the digital edition of the print magazines (Messenger and Self-Storage Canada) and special publications (Self-Storage Almanac, RV & Boat Development Handbook, Development Handbook, Expense Guidebook, and more). The MSM website offers another host of opportunities, and Longstrom-Henderson is happy to share those, too. “We recently launched our new online Buyer’s Guide. It’s a searchable listing of everyone who’s anyone in the self-storage industry. There are basic and premium listings, but I highly encourage everyone to go premium. Not only do you get better placement, [but] you also get your own company-branded webpage where you can include video, photos, social links, charts—just about anything you want.”
Longstrom-Henderson says that while most people tend to look to the MSM homepage when considering advertising—it does get the most views, after all—she says that it’s worth speaking with her about placement on other pages where your dollars could do more. “For example, if you’re selling self-storage insurance, we can put you on every news or exclusive story that’s tagged with ‘insurance/risk management.’ Those stories may not get as many eyes as the homepage, but they’re much more targeted eyes, and it costs less, so that’s a win-win. The same goes for all our other tags; there are 28 of them, from ‘architecture’ to ‘technology.’”
Without numbers, how will an advertiser know if it was money well spent? “We provide transparent data reporting—real numbers that you and your team can sink their teeth into,” states Longstrom-Henderson. “I will tell you, however, our advertisers are typically very pleased. But if the results aren’t what they’d hoped for, we look at why and what may have gone wrong. Then, we can come up with other ideas or placements that might produce better results. We like to say that we’re in this together.”
When asked to sum up in one sentence why a prospective advertiser should contact her (Lauri@ModernStorageMedia.com), she’s quick with a response. “Our print and digital subscriptions are up, our website has nearly quadrupled the amount of traffic it had since before the rebrand, and when it comes to advertising, if you can think of it, we can do it. Take advantage of these opportunities and let us be your vessel to grow your business.”
But that’s two sentences. “Well, good things come in twos,” she says. Like the two phone calls that brought her back into the industry? “Absolutely,” she says with a smile.