The New Mover Advantage: A Golden Opportunity For Your Business

We live in a highly mobile society, with individuals moving an average of 11 times throughout their lives, according to the US Census. The report also indicates that people with higher incomes tend to relocate more frequently than those with lower incomes. Additionally, new homeowners spend five times more on home improvements in their first year compared to long-term homeowners.

Increase Direct Mail Response Rates By 40%, Find Out More!

This presents a big opportunity for small businesses to reach new movers in their area. A new mover-customer marketing program does not need to take up a large portion of your marketing budget; it should account for 10% to 15% of your total marketing budget.

The New Movers Advantage: A Golden Opportunity for Small Businesses

We work with several small businesses around the country helping them reach new customers and have developed an effective formula. The success of your business depends, to a great extent, on your ability to reach new customers and motivate them to call or visit your business.

An ideal and successful media mix for small business marketing today would look something like this:

• 25% to 35% of your marketing budget invested in Internet marketing including your website, SEO, and pay-per-click ads.
• 65% to 75% of your marketing budget invested in direct mail.

I know some of the so-called “marketing experts” are telling you to put all your eggs in the Internet marketing/social media basket. They say the Internet is the wave of the future. It has changed the way people shop. They are partially right.

Here are the simple facts on Internet marketing:

•  Can it work? Sure, if you use direct marketing principles and stay on top of it. Google changes its search algorithms two or three times per year. What worked last year may not work this year.
• Do you understand Internet marketing? Most of our clients, business owners, and managers do not understand all the Internet terminology, conversion rates, optimization, and bounce rates, etc. All of these terms do not amount to a hill of beans unless they can bring in more customers.
• There is a ton of competition and a ton of distractions on the Internet, which means if you don’t understand it, you are going to spend a lot of money and have a hard time making it work for your business. A recent study showed that 75% of businesses felt they were wasting money on search engine optimization and pay-per-click ads. Why? Because they don’t understand it, and the people selling the optimization and click ads don’t understand it either. The basic marketing rule I follow is if it can’t be explained easily and it can’t be tracked, I avoid it.
• Do you need to market your business on the Internet? Absolutely! Most people these days will search the Internet before they buy, so you need to have a presence. A website is a good first step. Make sure your website is loaded with articles and information that your prospective customers will be searching for. Most importantly, your website should give the reader a feel for your business.

The best, most trackable, easy-to-understand, and most often used advertising media available to you to market your small business is direct mail. Direct mail works for reaching new movers, and new customers, and marketing to your existing customers. Why? Direct mail puts something in their hands with no distractions and no extra vias. Correctly designed and used, direct mail will bring in more customers than anything else you can do to promote your business.

Here are some facts about direct mail:

• Direct mail puts your message and an offer directly into the hands of potential new customers.
• Direct mail is easy to use. There are no ambiguous, meaningless terms to understand.
• The United States Post Office does not change its “algorithms.” They just deliver the mail, period.
• Direct mail for small businesses is very trackable.
• The way you “optimize” direct mail is to define your prospect and use that information to select your mailing list.
• Every home in the United States has ONE mailbox and gets their mail delivered regularly and often by the United States Postal Office.

Can direct mail fail? Of course. One or more of three things causes the failure of a direct mail program. All of these things are in your control and are easily fixed.

Your marketing budget for small businesses should be broken out and invested by allocating 75% of your budget to attracting new customers and 25% of your budget to retaining existing customers.

New mover direct mail programs, new customer mailers, customer referral programs, and your website will be your best bets for getting new customers to your business. If you would like more information about how you can target the new move-ins in your area, call Wilson Printing USA.