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Secrets of New Mover Marketing + Property Insights
Marketing to new movers offers a unique window of opportunity to establish brand loyalty and capture a fresh customer base in a critical stage of their decision-making process. It enables brands to build long-term relationships with these individuals and households, resulting in lasting customer relationships and increased revenue.
In this webinar, Michelle Taves, GM of Porch Group Marketing, and Larisa Bedgood, Head of Marketing, will uncover the secrets to harnessing new mover marketing and exclusive property insights to acquire new customers.
This transcript has been adapted from the podcast Secrets of New Mover Marketing + Property Insights.
One of the themes of this past year is there are fewer people moving.
The outlook for 2024 for home buying may see some improvements but we just don’t really know how many people will be moving so the marketing efforts you do have in place for this segment are more important than ever.
With a smaller pool of people moving, you really want to make sure that you have the best programs in place and are doing what you can to target them effectively.
We thought it would be great to start off with some of the stats we have seen out there from economists:
- The 30-year mortgage was averaging at 7.9% as of October 26, 2023. A home buyer buying a median-priced home of roughly $400,000 today has to earn 50% more than they would have if they wanted to buy a median-priced home at the start of the pandemic. (Redfin)
- In 2024, the bank expects home prices to grow only by 1.3%, “as supply remains tight and high interest rates weigh on affordability.” (Goldman Sachs)
- An unintended consequence of so many who refinanced to historically low rates is [that] many have golden handcuffs, keeping them in their homes with no expectations to move. (Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist, LPL Financial)
We’ve had a lot of conversations across the industry on mover marketing.
I think that, typically, you can plan on about six million movers a year. I believe in 2023, we’re probably going to end up somewhere between 4 and 5 million households, compared to the six million we have seen in the past. Obviously, the economy and interest rates are creating a really great motivation for why somebody might want to move.
So, what we’re still seeing though is a lot of people migrating from certain states. For example, we’re seeing a lot of people migrate from more expensive states to some of the other less expensive states.
The thing that really stuck out to me is for everyone to understand that even though there’s a smaller audience right now, that audience is almost more valuable because if somebody is moving in these difficult times, then there is a strong reason for them having to move. They’re moving for a particular reason, whether it’s retirement, whether it’s a job change, or whatever that reason might be, they’re not moving just to make a couple of bucks on their home. Because that’s been taken out of the equation. At least a little bit.
And so those consumers are still highly interested in certain types of services that movers need. So businesses should definitely continue to target those people.
New Movers Spending and Purchase Habits
We’ve done a couple of great Harris Poll studies where we surveyed movers on their spending habits. They really are such a highly lucrative audience. One of the things that I always say is that they have a “permission to spend” state of mind. They’re willing to try new brands.
What’s also always interesting to me is the fact that 72%, which is almost 3 and 4 movers, are making these move-related purchases and decisions prior to even moving.
Not to say that after the move is not just as lucrative. It’s truly a purchasing process from beginning to end, from the pre-move to the post-move.
Movers are open to changing brand loyalties. They will often choose some of the first brands that reach out to them. So if you’re looking for a really select audience to acquire, movers is it.
The $11K movers spend on average for items and services is probably low when you consider all the things you need to buy during a move. You need moving services, you need to be able to get to your new place, you’re going to need new utilities, and the majority of movers also purchase some kind of new furniture items.
Also, many movers also do some sort of home improvements, whether it’s painting, whether it’s changing things, decorating, or whatever that looks like.
There are just certain things that are absolute necessities for movers.
How Brands are Leveraging New Mover Marketing Today
We also ran a study talking to marketers about their mover marketing programs, and one of the things that really stood out to me was how many people are doing both digital and direct mail marketing.
In the past, you thought of mover marketing as only being direct mail, and that is such a great channel to engage all consumer groups, and movers are no exception.
But marketers are really augmenting those efforts now with digital channels just as often as they are using direct mail. So think, social, email, and even CTV are areas where marketers are finding a lot of success.
We see a definite uptick for our clients when they do direct mail plus social or direct mail plus display.
Home Improvement Project Scores
As a Porch company, we have access to property attributes through home inspections. Today, there are many different types of companies that can tell you all kinds of information about the exterior of a home such as what type of siding it has or maybe what type of roofing.
But there’s really not a data source that can tell you about the inside of the home unless the consumer is self-providing it through some type of insurance approval or mortgage loan.
Other than that, the only other kind of interior information is from a home inspection that a home inspector would do prior to the move.
And so, since we have access to the largest pool of home inspection reports in the industry, we’ve created a process where we can gain insights based on that property data.
Here are a few examples of some of the models that we’re creating including a window repair replacement model and a roof replacement model. We’re also looking at HVAC and piping models. The possibilities are really endless – we could do appliances, water heaters, really everything that sits inside that home.
We’re also creating scores that can go across every property in the United States. There are about 82 million single family properties in the United States. We’re able to take all of that rich data and then create inferences and models and scores on the whole 82 million other properties that are in the United States.
With those insights, brands can then create marketing messages that is interesting to that property owner. The use cases are just endless for that.
Target Movers Across the Move Journey
Possible Movers
These are people who are researching homes. So maybe they’re on Zillow and they’re looking for a new home. Or if they’re out there looking for schools in a new area.
There’s all kinds of machine learning technology that we can use to capture that research behavior, but that’s what a possible pre-mover is.
This is really interesting for companies that have a longer buy cycle, and really want to get in front of the consumer as early as possible.
Likely Movers
These are people who either have their house up for sale or they’ve had a home inspection done. They’ve really done something that indicated that they are definitely going to be moving or hoping to be moving if they sell that home in the next something like 2 to 5 weeks.
Verified Premovers
These are people that we know the home inspection has 100% been completed. We know that the house is now sold and that they’re going to be moving somewhere. Because of the home inspection data we have, we also have a good idea of where they’re moving to.
Post Movers
These are people that have moved within the past 12 months.We find that there are many companies that target post movers within the first 90 days. But there’s actually a much longer buying cycle for that post mover than just the first 90 days. However, that starts to go down at around 9-12 months.
Movers & Shakers: PGM’s Thought Leadership Podcast
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