elf-storage facilities offer different products and services to remain competitive, but they all have a few common denominators. First, all new facilities must make reliable lease-up projections. Once that magic number is reached, operators need to adjust their marketing and operations to ensure tenants remain long term and to maintain a high occupancy rate.

If you’re new in the game, you may be wondering what that target lease-up range should be. “I view this question like the holy grail,” says Jim DiNardo, self-storage consultant and owner of J. DiNardo Consulting. “It’s not the same percentage for all facilities. There are many factors to consider, such as facility unit mix, facility management, market conditions, with sizing being the most obvious. But stabilized occupancies tend to range from 85 percent to 95 percent on average, and 90 percent tends to be the sweet spot.”

Lauren Feeney, director of acquisitions at Trojan Storage concurs. “The goal should be between 90 percent to 93 percent.” However, she cautions to make room for variation depending on your target market and seasonal demands. Generally, you know you’re on target when your percentage goal has leveled off and is increasing and decreasing accordingly with normal seasonal rental activity.

Once you reach that goal, it’s time to adjust the sails. “There are many considerations once a facility reaches stabilization,” adds DiNardo. “This includes rates, rent increases for existing tenants, marketing spend, staffing, etc. … It’s not that you stop doing things entirely, but you should rethink everything and optimize whenever you can.” This is essential, since the cost of acquiring new tenants is higher than the cost of retaining existing ones.

Moreover, you can’t improve what you don’t measure, so making a list of operational and marketing metrics to track is a fundamental first step. While these also vary depending on your target market, there are a handful of factors that remain the same across the board.

The good news is that once a lease is signed, there’s a high likelihood that turnover rate will be low. “Tenants are generally sticky,” states Austin Khym, director of acquisitions at Liberty Investment Properties. So, once you’ve reached stabilization, the priority should switch to rate management.

To ensure that you’re charging reasonable rates, you should consider the value of the real estate. What’s the location? What are the traffic patterns? “These things will give you confidence in your value,” says Khym. “If you’re on top of the market, but then a large competitor comes in, I wouldn’t be too scared if I’m already 90 percent occupied and have a good pricing system.”

A good way to gauge what constitutes a good pricing system is to monitor competitors. “Visit them online and in person,” advises DiNardo. Doing so is crucial to understand whether you’re optimizing revenue management. “How often and how much you are increasing rents is a balancing act that will vary depending on the size of the operator and the market.”

You should also pay close attention to your turnover rate. “If it’s too high, that’s a huge indicator of the sustainability of your pricing,” adds Khym. Therefore, if you’re using a SaaS platform to monitor your business intelligence, which you should, include this one to your data dashboard.

“Effective rent should be pushed accordingly throughout lease-up,” says Feeney. “But this should be a renewed focus once you hit the occupancy goal you set out to hit.”

You’ll also want to prioritize the tenant experience, as this ensures not only that they remain using your facilities for as long as they need them; it can also result in them bringing in additional referrals through word of mouth.

“A good customer experience is most important,” says DiNardo. “This applies to both the renters who fill a unit and don’t visit much, if at all, as well as the renters who visit the facilities daily and are more aware of operations.”

There are many ways to provide a positive tenant experience, such as keeping the facilities clean and well-maintained, providing moving supplies, collaborating with a moving company, offering move-in help, asking for feedback, implementing recurring suggestions, being flexible to tenants’ changing needs (e.g. rolling over paid rent to a smaller or larger unit), and/or matching or beating pricing to that of a competitor if a tenant mentions intent to go to that competitor.

At the end of the day, this is a service-based industry, and people keep coming back to seamless experiences. “Don’t mess it up,” warns Khym. “Don’t make them have a bad experience. Make sure you’re available when people need you.”

A good way to ensure ease of use and around-the-clock availability is through technology. This starts with an intuitive, user-friendly website that’s also optimized for mobile devices (both phones and tablets). “Tenants also like access control and ways to monitor their individual units,” DiNardo says. “This can be very market specific, with urban renters tending to want more amenities and services; they’re typically willing to pay for them, too.”

Finally, if you’re going to increase rates for existing customers, let them know well in advance, explain the reasoning for it, and don’t be overly aggressive with the new pricing. While the higher prices may increase your profits short term, they’re more likely to increase your churn rate as well; then you’ll be back to square one, trying to attract new tenants. And if you’re offering lower introductory prices, make that known when the tenant signs the lease. Don’t hide it in boilerplate language, as this can make them feel hoodwinked when the price increases. Being less than honest about discounts can also damage your reputation.

In addition to adjusting operations, your marketing also needs to be narrowly tailored to this stage. Doing so effectively requires being proactive to ensure you always know what your target audience wants. In addition to market research, good old networking provides you with a gold mine of information. “Participate in local and national self-storage associations,” says DiNardo. “This way you’ll know what’s the latest and greatest in the industry.” Self-storage associations also often provide marketing conferences, as well as assistance in how to best implement your strategic approaches. What’s more, you’ll gain insights from other operators and managers about what has worked well for them in the past.

DiNardo also recommends modifying your messaging (e.g. targeting longer-term tenants or renters who are less price conscious), even as your Google AdWords budget decreases. And if you offer climate-controlled facilities, make that feature prominent at every marketing touch point (website, ads, marketing emails, and social media posts) since it’s a popular market preference that’s always in high demand. “Not every facility needs to be climate controlled, but customers are perceiving self-storage as offering this option more and more,” he says.

Keeping in touch regularly shows tenants that you value their business. Once they’re in your customer relationship management software (CRM), segment them based on need and send them personalized and relevant communications. For example, if your facilities are located somewhere that’s regularly hit by hurricanes, send emails, letters, and text messages every hurricane season about how they can keep their homes and belongings safe and what your facilities are doing to protect their personal property. By the same token, let them know about your referral bonuses and loyalty or rewards programs and/or create a newsletter with information on discounts, upgrade opportunities, and participation on local events (bonus points if you’re a sponsor).

You’ll want to seriously consider social media marketing. It’s an easy way to share updates, discounts, and programs and to post photos and videos of your facilities. It also makes it easier for existing tenants to share that information with their own networks. SaaS platforms can streamline this process if you get one that syncs with all your accounts (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok) from one centralized login account.

These extra touches help you establish ongoing relationships with your tenants, which ultimately provide you with the insights and referrals necessary to maintain that lease stabilization for the long term.