The Shelfie Way of Growing a Business - One Wild Marketing Idea at a Time

20 Jun

Written By Ola Zajac | Founder of Shelfie Storage

When we first started Shelfie Storage in Antwerp, we didn’t have a big budget, a marketing team, or a well-oiled sales machine. What we did have? A deep belief in our idea that storage should be local, personal, and not boring, a good pair of walking shoes and a stack of flyers.

Inspired by Paul Graham’s famous Y Combinator advice to “do things that don’t scale,” we literally took to the streets. And we mean that in the most literal sense possible: we knocked on doors. Lots of them.

Step One: The Cold Outbounds & Door-Knocking in Antwerp

Most startups dream of going viral. We went local. Our first marketing campaign was ourselves: started by tapping into our local network and gathering every email address we could, then crafting introductory letters and emailing them one by one. Then we tried the hardest way - walking door to door, introducing Shelfie to our neighbours – local residents, bookstores needing backstock space, event companies storing gear between gigs, real estate agents and moving companies looking for storage space for their customers, and every other local business or individual we could find. People who didn’t just need storage - they needed our kind of storage, and who - we deeply believe - one day will become our customers.

Did everyone know what storage is? No. Did everyone need it? No. But what we achieved is a raised awareness about what self-storage is, how is our concept different to others, and why one day we might come handy to them. We made people, that never thought they might need storage realise the convenience of having one with Shelfie Storage.

Step Two: Coworking & Coliving Collabs - A Match Made in Urban Living Heaven

Not long after, we realized: coworking and coliving spaces were exactly our kind of people. They’re flexible, urban, always on the move and often short on space. So we visited the coolest and most central coworking offices and coliving residences we could find in Antwerp and met incredible people that became our first Shelfie brand ambassadors. What came out of it were some of our most symbiotic partnerships with Silversquare, Clockwise, Humgy, Sheltr and House of Co and more. Imagine storing your stuff just down the road from where you live or work? Modern problems, meet modern solutions.

Step Three: Window Display That Stop You in Your Tracks

Our physical location on the second floor of Stadsfeestzaal facing the beautiful, gold encrusted market hall, had one big opportunity: massive windows. We wanted them to say something. So we worked with the amazing team at 3DWD to create hyper-authentic vinyl stickers that do more than decorate — they explain how life with Shelfie Storage can look like.

But we didn’t stop there. With 3DWD’s help, we created something truly special: a lit-up, 1x2 metre replica of a Shelfie storage unit, complete with realistic items you might actually keep inside. It’s like a real-life Tetris of someone’s stuff - beautiful, chaotic, and very relatable. It’s a tiny cube of curiosity that stops people in their tracks.

Step Four: Quirky Flyers & Wildposting

Flyers? Sure, we tried them - but not the kind you immediately throw away. Ours were weird, witty, colourful little pieces of Shelfie’s soul. We wanted people to remember us - whether or not they needed storage right that second. We distributed 7,000 of them within a 1 km radius from our Meir location and got 70 highly engaged website visits resulting from scanned QR code and over 100 direct visits from people searching Shelfie online over the 7-day period. That’s 2.4% engagement rate – higher than typical for flyers 1.5%. While we wished those numbers were even higher, it was a cool experiment to run and we hope that from those 7,000 flyers there are few hundred that people kept and will convert in the future.

Then came one of our favourite projects: a wildposting campaign that splashed Shelfie’s quirky personality across the walls and alleys of Antwerp. If you walked around town earlier this year and spotted an absurdly relatable poster about how many things you think you own versus how much you actually own, or a word search puzzle with our favourite storage keywords. Was this 2-week campaign and it’s 1,000 posters effective? Depends how you measure it. But they made people smile. That’s a start. And we loved the nonconventional nature of it, just like Shelfie’s.

Step Five: The Coolest Self-Storage Instagram Account Out There

We didn’t go all-in on Instagram – the cost per click is still higher than through paid search, but we used it to tell our story, spread awareness of our brand and sneak into the feeds of younger folks who’d never even considered that they, too, might need storage one day. For us, it wasn’t just about promotion - it was about starting a conversation with a crowd that most traditional storage companies ignore. Now, during the summer we are working on reaching through Instagram the students of Antwerp to offer them absurdly discounted and super convenient storage solution just for the July and August months, so when they need it most.

Step Six: The (Disco) Cargo Bike aka Mobile Billboard with 6 million Views

The Disko Bike is one of our favourite things. Originally, it was a cargo bike for a local DJ - he used it to haul his decks to outdoor sets. We gave it new life.

Now, it’s fully wrapped in Shelfie graphics and parked right on Meir - Antwerp’s busiest shopping street. With over 6 million people passing through Stadsfeestzaal every year, it’s become a mobile most visible (and Instagrammable) billboard that never asks anyone to click.

People notice it. Some ask about it. Some take selfies with it. And some of those people become customers.

*Disco Bike posing in front of Stadsfeestzaal entrance*

What We Learned?

Building Shelfie this way wasn’t easy. It was scrappy. Sometimes awkward. Sometimes exhausting. But it was also incredibly fun. We tried things most companies wouldn’t dare. We made mistakes. We learned fast.

What we learned most is that people don’t connect with storage boxes. They connect with people. With stories. With creativity. With a sense of humor. And if you can make someone feel something while they’re thinking about where to stash their skis or sofa — that’s powerful.

We’re still figuring it out. Still experimenting. Still showing up.

And if you’ve been with us since that first flyer, first knock, or first Instagram post — thank you.

We built this with you.

Ola Zajac | Founder of Shelfie Storage

Ola is the founder and driving force behind Shelfie Storage. With seven years of experience in real estate investment, an MBA degree, and two years of investing in startups globally, she discovered a gap in the market for a more customer-friendly self-storage solution. Originally from Warsaw, Ola studied and worked in London before moving to Lisbon.