• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, May 3, 2022

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.