A Moving Proposition
In a recent study on new movers, marketing services provider Epsilon notes that excluding the actual costs of the relocation itself—the vans, the boxes, presumably the muscle rub that’s needed after carrying said boxes—people who move house spend an average of nearly $1,200 on home furnishings and related products in the 15 months immediately following the move. What’s more, 28% of that total is spent in the first three months.
So if you sell furniture, kitchenware, gardening supplies, appliances, and the like, you probably want to make sure you’re communicating early and often with those movers.
Why, then, isn’t anyone communicating with me?
Assuming that the mortgage gods are finally satisfied with my sacrificial offerings, I should be moving at the end of this month. And because we’re relocating from overseas, we’ll be spending much more than $1,200 on things like beds and TVs and air-conditioners and all sorts of other things that are impractical to bring over from the UK.
Which is why during the past few months I’ve signed up to receive e-mails and catalogs from a host of home-goods merchants. Not one of them asked, either upon my subscribing or in any follow-up contacts, if I would be moving in the near future.
Ikea did ask, as part of its preference center questionnaire, which rooms I expected to be decorating over the next six months, “so we can send you the news and offers you really want.” Sadly, I haven’t received much from Ikea since.
Shelter magazines, on the other hand, often have tip-in or bind-in cards that readers can mail back to request brochures and catalogs, and these usually include a question or two about whether you’re planning to move, expand your home, or redecorate specific rooms in the next six months. The only drawback here is, if you are planning to move, you might not want to give out your future address just yet, even if you’re pretty certain you know where you’ll be moving to. Having had the power of kinehora drilled into me from the cradle, I won’t even fill out the postal change-of-address card until I’m safely ensconced in my new home.
Which is why e-mail is an ideal way to reach new and imminent movers. Their postal addresses and phone numbers may be changing, but probably not their e-mail addresses. If I were, say, Home Depot or Ikea or Crate & Barrel, I’d definitely test asking e-mail subscribers, as part of the welcome series or when encouraging them to update their contact preferences, if they’re planning a move. Then I’d send those who were a series of e-newsletters with advice on moving sprinkled with promotional offers. Goodness knows I’d much rather be receiving e-mails offering decorating advice and moving checklists than the “Grills on Sale” and “20% Off” missives that have been cluttering my inbox. It’s all about relevancy, remember.
July 14th, 2010 at 6:35 pm
Oh, yeah, once that paperwork is signed sealed and delivered, you’ll get bombarded!
July 15th, 2010 at 8:37 am
Tim is right - you’ll get hit many, many times over the next 6 months by multiple competitors vying for your “mover spending budget”
We’ve found that it’s better to mail to Movers like you “Before” you move, as you’ll be making many of your purchasing decisions prior to your move. Many of the immediate services you’ll need, like TV, Internet, phone, etc…. you’ll find yourself signing up for prior to moving in, as you don’t want to be without these services for 2-3 weeks after you move in (if you scheduled your installation date after you move in, that’s what it’ll be).
You’re overseas, but if you lived in the states, the Home Depots and Lowes of the world also know that US Homeowners (prior to moving) also need to prepare their current home for max resale value, so a certain amount of dollars are spent on home repairs, paint, landscaping, etc, to make their house look great on the market.
For a variety of products and serives, reaching a post Mover is already to late in the game.
You may want to look at PreMover Marketing….a niche that we have pioneered 4 years ago based on our clients requests.
Doug Guyer - IDR Doug@idronline.com
July 15th, 2010 at 11:58 pm
Very good points you raise. New Mover data is nirvana in so many verticals, and I’d never considered how email could be leveraged as you described (even though I’ve moved 4 times since I got my first Yahoo email address). I have noticed that most retailers fall short in many of the possible venues and opportunities that email provides; this is yet another. Good luck with your move!
October 4th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
It’s funny that people, particuarly people in the business, expect to be targeted by marketers without any consideration of the marketer’s targeting strategies - a point you have completely failed to consider in your post.
You may very well by bombarded by marketers - or perhaps you are a poor target for a number of reasons. After all, many marketers have moved beyond simple “new mover” data - the same data anyone can buy from untold providers and instead they are modeling new movers using credit data and other data to assess value and to differentiate liklihood purchase even among a highly responsive group like new-movers.
So my point it, the problem may not be the marketers…it may be you.