Case Study: Derrel’s Mini Storage

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The Operator’s Background

In central California, Derrel’s Mini Storage is a name synonymous with self storage.

Today, Derrel’s operates 60 properties throughout the region and plans to open two to three new properties before the end of 2021. Additionally, Derrel’s provides the largest storage properties in the U.S: On average, its properties span 12 acres, with newer facilities averaging 20 – 30 acres, with as many as 2,200 units.

California’s size and population make it a competitive market, but Derrel’s larger-than-average properties help set it apart from its competitors.

The Operator’s Objective

Derrel’s came to Tenant Inc. with one main goal in mind: ensure it continues to be a recognized name to those in its communities by bolstering their online presence. 

Derrel’s is a household name for residents of the Central Valley, as the company has worked hard over the past 60 years to build its large physical presence. While the company has been adopting some new technologies, it still felt that it was falling short when it came to growing its online presence as much as it has grown its physical one. 

Our team at Tenant needed to make sure that the company's brand recognition continued to thrive in the new generation of digital-minded customers. 

When Derrel's reached out to us, we determined there were three key areas to improve: 

• Increase calls to their stores
• Increase website traffic
• Improve website performance
  

“We were looking for a partner to assist us in having our online presence keep up with our physical presence in the community,” said Tosha Giuffrida, EdD, VP of Operations at Derrel’s Mini Storage, Inc. “We have been around since 1963, which makes ‘Derrel’s’ a household name for those in the Central Valley.” 

Tenant Inc.’s Approach

Derrel’s was an ideal partner because the company had a main goal in mind, and already knew its weak spots and where it wanted to improve. We approached Derrel’s request with a multi-pronged action plan. 

We knew that meeting Derrel’s goal would take an approach that would involve boosting the company’s organic traffic, increasing the company’s ranking keywords, and updating the company’s website performance. 

To ensure that we met Derrel’s needs in the quickest way possible, we leveraged our team's industry knowledge and multi-faceted teams to approach all of Derrel’s needs simultaneously. 

We enacted our plan by targeting growth in organic traffic, ranking keywords and website technical performance.

The Operator’s Results

After eight months of working with Tenant, we were able to achieve the following results.

Increased Website Traffic

When we took on Derrel’s as an SEO client, they had a respectable 216 keywords that ranked in the top 10 search listings (that’s the first page of Google). Eight months after working together, Derrel’s increased their top 10 keywords to 373, representing a 74% increase. 

Derrel’s came to us with an already-established SEO strategy. Their strategy was sound, it just needed our secret sauce. After applying industry knowledge to Derrel’s SEO strategy, we increased the company’s organic traffic by 61% on a year-over-year basis.

Increased Calls to Their Stores

Derrel’s wanted to drive more prospective customers to call into their stores, so we optimized their website to make this as easy as possible. Over the past 8 months they’ve seen a 50% increase in calls to their locations that originated from the website. 

Improved Site Performance

Tenant has invested heavily in creating the highest performing web pages in the industry. Our websites are also one of the only in the industry to offer Touchless Rentals™ that include the identity verification process online. Other websites allow you to finish most of the rental, but still come in to verify your identity online. That's not the case on websites created by Tenant Inc.

Using Google’s PageSpeed Insights to measure its website performance benchmarks, Derrel’s now scores 99 on mobile performance and 100 on desktop performance. Prior to working with us, Derrel’s website scored on the lower end of that scale.   

“We absolutely feel that Tenant has helped us approach and meet the goals we came in with,” said Giuffrida. “It has been a great learning experience, and we are excited to add new functionality so that we will continue to be leaders in the industry.”