By Ray Schultz, MediaPost
One of the classic maxims of direct marketing was that new movers are the best prospects for almost anything. They’re moving — they need things.
It’s still true, judging by The 2022 Perspective on Mover Marketing, a study from V12, a Porch company, conducted by Ascend2.
Over half of all brands with a mover marketing program give it a ranking of eight or greater out of 10 for impact. Moreover, 57% rate their program as very successful in meeting their goals (or best in class). Another 39% are moderately good at it, and only 4% unsuccessful.
In addition, 41% of firms doing mover marketing saw their customer acquisition increase significantly, versus only 8% of non-users. Another 54% of the users experienced a moderate increase, compared to 65% of non-users.
Here’s the opportunity: Only 45% of B2C brands with customer retention and acquisition programs in place have mover marketing strategies.
What’s the potential payoff? Users see the greatest impact in these areas:
- Customer acquisition — 43%
- Customer retention — 41%
- Customer experience — 39%
- Brand awareness — 32%
- Data collection — 30%
- Data integration — 28%
- Brand loyalty — 25%
- Omnichannel initiatives — 22%
And, 33% of the best-in-class users devote over 20% of their marketing budgets to target movers, compared to 10% of the rest. Only 7% budget more than 50%, and 41% are in the 6-10% range.
Of the companies polled, 28% have a measurable mover strategy in place, and 26% are rolling one out. Another 18% have plans to implement a program in the next 12 months.
Of the non-users, 7% target new mover audiences in other programs and 20% have no plans to start.
Email and direct mail are tied for first place in terms of new mover marketing tactics:
- Email/personalized offers — 43%
- Direct mail — 43%
- Personalization — 42%
- Loyalty/rewards programs — 41%
- Print advertising — 33%
- Segmentation and targeting — 28%
- Paid social—26%
- Customer journey mapping — 25%
- SEO — 23%
- Paid search — 23%
- Omnichannel — 17%
Of course, as with any activity, challenges come with trying to conduct a mover marketing campaign:
- Making data actionable — 47%
- Measuring ROI — 43%
- Integrating with existing programs — 41%
- Creating a strategy — 38%
- Allocating budget/resources — 34%
- Accessing data — 33%
- Buy-in leadership — 21%
The types of data being used have not changed much from the old days:
- Household and contact data — 57%
- Consumer segments (first-time home buyers, active adults, etc.) — 49%
- In-market shopping indicators — 45%
- Property data (mortgage amount, square feet, dwelling type, etc.) — 45%
- Pre-move indicators — 26%
New mover marketers are prevalent in these sectors: automotive (25%), personal services (33%), hospitality & travel (27%), professional services (30%), retail (27%), technology (41%), utilities & telecom (!3%) and financial services & insurance (21%).
In general, brands are utilizing these tactics as part of their customer acquisition and retention programs:
- Social media marketing — 66%
- Email/personalized offers — 62%
- Digital advertising — 60%
- Direct mail — 45%
- Print advertising — 37%
- Loyalty/rewards programs — 31%
- SEO — 31%
- Affiliate marketing — 29%
- In-store promotions — 28%
What’s next? Brands plan to focus on these tasks in the year ahead:
- Customer experience — 53%
- Customer acquisition — 50%
- Customer retention — 50%
- Brand awareness — 40%
- Data collection — 26%
- Data integration — 23%
- Omnichannel initiatives — 16%
Ascend2 surveyed 253 marketing professionals working for enterprise organizations in the B2C channel in February 2022.
Article originally appeared on MediaPost.
The 2022 Marketer’s Perspective on Mover Marketing
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