Article Originally Appeared on Toolbox.com, by Karthik Kashyap
When people move to a new place, marketers can leverage data and mover marketing strategies to succeed in their overall customer acquisition and retention strategies. But how well are B2C companies leveraging mover marketing strategies? A joint study by Porch Group Media and Ascend2 shines a light on it.
Mover marketing (alternatively called new mover marketing) is used to denote marketing initiatives targeting people who are moving. The spending habits of this segment of people usually change drastically during this time, which presents opportunities for brands to acquire and retain these customers. By using data, mover marketing strategies can go beyond simple email campaigns. They can contribute significantly to a comprehensive customer acquisition and retention strategy.
But are B2C companies leveraging mover marketing strategies to their fullest extent? Porch Group Media recently partnered with Ascend2 and conducted a survey to answer this question. A major finding was that just about 28% of companies have a measurable new mover marketing strategy.
The following are the study findings in detail.
Customer Experience, Acquisition, and Retention Are on Top of Marketers’ Minds
Most of the B2C marketers surveyed said that customer experience, acquisition, and retention would be on top of their minds over the year ahead as areas of improvement in their strategy. About 53% of respondents said customer experience was a top focus area, while 50% cited customer acquisition as a top priority. About 50% also said customer retention was a top focus area. About 84% of B2C marketers had a customer acquisition and retention strategy in place or were in the process of implementing it.
It was also seen that customer acquisition and retention improved for both people having mover marketing programs and those who did not. However, the former witnessed a more significant increase in customer acquisition and retention than the latter. For example, 8% of non-adopters said their customer acquisition increased significantly, and 9% said their customer retention increased significantly. On the other hand, 41% of adopters said their customer acquisition improved significantly, and 35% said their customer retention improved significantly.
Mover Marketing Adopters Say It Is Changing for the Better
The landscape of how marketers target new movers is changing rapidly. That said, 95% of the marketers who adopted mover marketing said it is changing for the better. They also reported that the mover marketing strategies’ effectiveness in achieving strategic goals increased.
When looking at the success of the overall marketing strategy in achieving the goals, mover marketing users were more than 2x more likely to report best-in-class success from their strategies. That is, 57% of mover marketing users compared to 27% of non-users rated their strategies highly successful in achieving their goals.
On the other hand, marketers not having these programs have a much lower perception of these programs’ impact on overall marketing performance. Only 25% of marketers who did not have mover marketing strategies felt it would significantly impact (8+ out of 10) their overall marketing performance than 54% of those who did.
Given that marketers adopting mover marketing programs feel that the impact is 8+ on the overall performance, which areas of their strategy did the programs influence the most? The top three areas were the same as their top three focus areas in the year ahead — customer acquisition (43%), retention (41%), and experience (39%).
Which of the areas did mover marketing programs impact the most?
Source: The 2022 Marketer’s Perspective on Mover Marketing
A Little More Than One-quarter of B2C Companies Have a Mover Marketing Strategy
The study found that just about 28% of marketers had a measurable strategy to target new movers. About 26% said they were rolling out a strategy, while 18% had plans to roll out a mover marketing strategy over the next 12 months. Interestingly, about 20% of the respondents had no plans to implement a mover marketing strategy.
Why are a few companies not having a mover marketing strategy? About 32% of respondents said that mover marketing was not a widespread practice in their industry. About 26% lacked the knowledge to execute these programs, and 18% lacked the data to identify movers. About 18% also cited a lack of resources to execute as a reason, and 12% said it did not align with their brand.
Adopters Use Various Tactics as Part of Their Strategy
Mover marketing adopters use several tactics as part of their program. The top tactics were emails and personalized offers, with 43% using them. About 42% of respondents used personalization, and 41% used loyalty programs. However, only about 28% of respondents used segmentation and targeting. Also, only 17% used omnichannel marketing, considering that the strategy allows marketers to reach potential customers with personalized and consistent messaging across the entire move cycle based on a complete customer view.
Tactics mover marketing strategy adopters use
Source: The 2022 Marketer’s Perspective on Mover Marketing
Adopters using paid social, SEO, and customer journey mapping as part of their program emerged as mover marketing power users.
Adopters Allocating More Budget Found Better Success
Regardless of whether a mover marketing strategy was in place, just about 47% of marketers allocated more than 10% of their marketing budget to target movers. About 41% allocated 6-10% of their budget to target movers. However, almost 62% of marketers with very successful marketing strategies reported dedicating more than 10% of their marketing budgets. About 33% who reported “best-in-class” success from their marketing strategies allocated over 20% of their budgets compared to just 10% of others reporting less success.
Mover Marketing Adopters Face Certain Challenges
While mover marketing strategies can positively impact customer experience, acquisition, and retention, adopters face challenges. About 47% of mover marketing adopters found that making data actionable was a challenge. Being able to unify insights across devices and channels and take action on a customer profile is key to overcoming this challenge. Measuring ROI (43%) and integrating the mover marketing strategies with existing programs (41%) were a few other challenges.
Data Utilization Transforms What B2C Companies Can Achieve
Gaining rich insights about a mover is vital for businesses to achieve success. Further, access to unified customer data helps them improve reach and identify target segments to deliver a more personalized customer experience across all channels and stages of the buyer journey. Moreover, access to unified data can provide a considerable edge over competitors.
That said, the study found that only 45% of adopters had access to in-market shopping indicators, and only 49% had consumer segment data. Further, only 26% had access to pre-move indicators, a critical component to reaching the prospects before the competitors.
Implement Mover Marketing Strategies for a Greater Marketing Success
It is evident from the study that marketers implementing mover marketing strategies witnessed greater success in customer experience, acquisition, and retention. And these are the same areas marketers intend to improve in the year ahead. While most of the non-adopters belong to the retail, personal or professional services, and telecom or utility industries, these industries offer ample opportunities to target new movers, according to the study.
Hence, marketers should consider implementing a mover marketing strategy and tactics throughout various platforms and channels, such as social media, emails, and digital advertising, already available to them. This will have a powerful impact on the overall performance of their marketing strategies.
The 2022 Marketer’s Perspective on Mover Marketing
Download the free 2022 Marketer’s Perspective on Mover Marketing Report and explore how brands are using mover marketing to boost customer acquisition and retention.
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