Space Centre Self Storage

With a family history in the storage and transport industry dating back to circa 1900 and having established the current storage business in 1995, the Space Centre Self Storage family-run business with 3 self-storage sites based in Bristol, Gloucester and Stroud was well-established in the West Country. However, with increased competition from larger national storage brands and more and more customers searching for a business like theirs via the internet, Space Centre Self Storage needed a digital marketing specialist company to give them a better online presence.

Friendly, approachable, very knowledgeable and highly professional

Disillusioned with their current web agency, who were difficult to deal with and finding communication nearly impossible due to the distance between the two businesses, it was of paramount importance that they found a local company who they could trust to deliver the services they required.

Says Lucinda Dangerfield:

''We wanted to find a local trusted company that we could meet regularly with face to face, who would have a better understanding of what our business was about, what challenges we faced and what we wanted to achieve. After our previous bad experience we only looked at agencies that were local to us.''

After obtaining a glowing recommendation from a local company whose website Lucinda had been impressed by and who had benefited from the services of WSI, Lucinda contacted the Gloucestershire based digital marketing specialists to help boost her company’s Google organic rankings as well as managing a PPC campaign for them. Says Lucinda of her first impressions of WSI, 

''We were really impressed. They were very professional and what they said made sense. They had loads of ideas and vision and were very friendly, approachable and easy to get on with. We did look at a few agencies in Cheltenham but chose WSI as they were friendly and approachable, very knowledgeable and highly professional.''

Marketing activity that brings real results

As 80% of Space Centre Storage business comes from online enquiries it was vital that their business was found on the internet by those looking for a storage solution. So how did WSI help Space Centre Self Storage? They started by streamlining their online activity and improving the company's search engine optimisation by the use of directory listings, back-links and correcting their Google places listing. WSI have continued to migrate and manage the company’s Google places listing through the many changes to what is now Google+ Local and have continued to be Space Storage Centre's trusted partner. 

They continue to provide digital marketing support by content marketing and writing regular, relevant blog posts to an agreed content plan. They also do some reputation management work for them, calling clients for their feedback to populate their 5 star review facility with their clients' comments. This review facility is indexed by Google, further improving their Google position ranking. Says Lucinda:

"Our Gloucester branch was struggling and we desperately needed to improve our Google places listing for that branch. Our placing listings were all in the wrong location and WSI sorted all that out for us and did so much more.''

WSI’s expertise also extends to web design and the Dangerfield family, pleased with the ongoing digital marketing support they had received and the mobile site that WSI had already created for them, worked with WSI on a major development project to create a brand new fully responsive website design, (removing the need for a separate mobile one), complete with a blog platform which enables WSI to populate with client reviews and engaging content-driven articles. As Lucinda explains;

‘’We knew that our existing website was outdated and was written more for search engines than for real people. With Google making algorithm updates, we needed to make changes. The responsive website design that WSI created for us not only looks good but combined with the digital marketing activity that they have done for us is bringing us real results. Since they have done the work we have noticed from our web stats that we are getting more hits and visitors are staying longer on the site.''

Feedback for the new responsive website design has been overwhelmingly positive, with comments that it is ‘easier to read, easier to navigate and easier forpeople to find the information they are looking for’. Since WSI launched the new website, the Dangerfield family have seen a decline in the number of general queries, as customers can now easily find the answers to their questions on the website. This has freed up more time for them to pursue sales leads and more important managerial tasks. WSI now have full control of the hosting and maintenance of Space Storage Centre’s website. 

Much to Lucinda’s relief, she now also has full access to the website to make minor changes if needed but also has time included in the WSI maintenance plan for them to make changes on her behalf, (unlike their last provider who gave them no access to the site and charged a set hourly rate for any changes made, no matter how minor). Lucinda recalls how their previous web developer made everything as difficult as possible for them and how Rob Thomas took away a lot of the headaches handling all the technical discussions with the old provider during the new web development transition. 

‘’Due to problems with our old web provider we had to go live a lot quicker with the new one than we anticipated but WSI were able to meet the challenge head on.’’

The work that WSI does for us is essential in helping our business grow

Good communication is very important between any business partners and WSI have not disappointed Lucinda Dangerfield as they are always readily accessible and responsive. They conduct monthly face to face reviews to discuss the data, analytics and performance not only of PPC campaigns but all marketing activity, measuring and making adjustments where necessary. However, Lucinda knows that WSI are only a quick phone call away, easily reachable and always ready to help and offer advice:

‘’The time we have saved having WSI do the work for us has saved us having to employ another member of staff. WSI offer a real value for money service which is backed up by the statistics they provide. They always have new ideas to suggest and are very proactive. They care about the results and the success of our business. We are really impressed with what they do for us.’’

Communication is a two way process and WSI in turn acknowledges that Space Centre Self Storage are a great client to work with in partnership, as they are always open to discussing developments, change, new ideas and technologies and are always receptive to the reported data. 

WSI has restored Lucinda Dangerfield’s faith in web agencies and she now trusts them with all her company’s marketing and responsive website design needs and has already recommended them to other companies confirming that she will continue to do so:

‘’They are very professional, highly knowledgeable, very friendly and approachable and really care that your business performs well. They get results and the work that they do is essential in helping our business grow.’’