Times are tough. As an SME, every pound of your marketing budget counts. There’s no chance you’re parting with it on a wing and a prayer, so all investments must be carefully considered.
What if we could help you stretch your budget? Our simple and cost-effective marketing solution is proven to work for large national retailers – and it can work for you too!
The secret is who you target. Consider this: who is going to be the most receptive audience to your marketing and give you the biggest return on investment?
Drumroll… It’s the homemover.
For years, TwentyCi has helped national retailers reach one of the most lucrative customer groups out there. We drive revenue to the retailer by supplying homemover data and connecting these large retailers with the homemover audience through our marketing campaigns. We track over 99% of UK property moves, so we know who’s put their home on the market, who’s sold, who’s moved, and everything in between!
- 3% – Very Unsuccessful
The UK residential property market plays by slightly different rules, but the homemover targeting mechanisms and benefits are the same. Why should you target the homemover? It’s simple; this is an audience that enters a period of intense spending. Think about it. The homemover may move into a space that is completely or partly unfurnished. They may have bought an aged property in desperate need of a spruce-up. The mover may be a first-time buyer who has little to no furniture or furnishings. They may be upsizing and have new rooms to fill. The buyer could have even held off replacing that rusty fridge or upgrading their bed until they moved; it’s that fresh space, fresh furniture mentality.
Whatever the mover’s personal situation, it’s a fact that they’re spending money. The homemover is out there buying paint, furniture, décor and calling up electricians, plumbers, kitchen designers… the list is endless! This audience is a retailer gold mine! This high-intent customer is actively spending, actively searching, and actively making decisions about retail goods and services. When you target them, they’ll respond!
Moreover, you have those movers who are relocating to a completely new area. They’ll be searching for businesses closer to home – whether that’s a plumber for their annual boiler service or a local vet. Homemovers aren’t just upgrading their properties with new furniture; they’re also switching the businesses they rely on to ones that are nearby.
The business is there for the taking! According to Forbes, 69% of respondents prefer to split their shopping between big and small businesses. The survey provides further good news for the SME retailer - the reasons people want to shop with small businesses is because they want money spent within their community (57%) and they find the service and quality better (43%).
We know that you don’t have the seemingly endless budget of a larger retailer, but you can certainly copy their strategy! The way SMEs can thrive in today’s economy is to be innovative, be clever and be experimental with your budget. We can offer the perfect solution to do just that!
Does targeting homemovers work for independent retailers?
Having achieved great success with large retailers, we wanted to emulate this for SME retailers like you. And so, BuyerAlerts was born. The platform makes homemover data simple, accessible and affordable, without the need for a big marketing department. We already work with thousands of SMEs in removals, storage, conveyancing and estate agency, and we knew SME retailers could benefit just as much from our homemover data and marketing acumen. Large national retailers have proven that targeting homemovers works. For SMEs, this strategy is even more powerful because your business is hyper-local. BuyerAlerts connects you directly with homemovers right in your area. Your key customer!
Here’s how it works:
Our analysts have identified the best time for each industry to target home movers, based on when they spend the most in that category.
Take broadband suppliers, for example. Movers typically start shopping around before they move to make sure installation is ready for day one or two of their new home. For those working from home, it’s essential. Even for those who don’t, being cut off from the internet for days or weeks is hardly appealing! That’s why broadband providers must reach people before they move. Leave it too late, and the opportunity to win this business is gone.
By contrast, big-ticket items like kitchens and bathrooms are more considered purchases. Whilst you may want to target them pre-move for inspiration, they’re unlikely to commit until post-move, which means the marketing window for those industries comes further along the moving journey.
Once we know your sector, we’ll match you to the right stage of the homemoving cycle and allocate the perfect audience, so your business is front of mind at exactly the right moment.
You control your spending by setting a cap on the number of homemover leads you receive. We’ll then provide you with the address leads to download and start marketing to. Alternatively, you can set up the direct mail campaign within the platform itself. BuyerAlerts has a built-in tool that allows you to upload any marketing postcards you already have. Don’t have any marketing collateral? Don’t worry, you can easily design a postcard on the platform itself.
The tool allows you to choose a postcode area and a radius around that postcode that you want to target. For an SME, this is extremely beneficial as your customer base is likely to be in your local area. Thanks to our DOMUS database, which holds over 350 property attributes, we can also include relevant property features for you to further drill down to your target customer. As standard, the platform already has filters for the number of bedrooms and property value, but we can add any other property attributes that are relevant to your industry.
Why target homemovers?
This audience is ready to buy. If you don’t get in front of them, they will go elsewhere. We track 1.2 million home moves each year, and there’s a slice of the whopping 24.1 billion that homemovers spend per year on retail goods and services up for grabs. It’s a no-brainer; the homemover spends three times more than someone not moving home. You need to follow the money!
You can use your size to your advantage when competing with larger retailers. As an SME, you can deliver more personalised marketing and build stronger connections with customers. You also have the agility to adapt quickly, something that big retailers often struggle with. As the Forbes survey indicated, many customers actively want to support local businesses. In return, SMEs can offer a personal experience that larger brands, tied up in complex decision-making red tape, simply can’t match. While big companies move slowly, your flexibility means you can test new marketing strategies and respond faster.
A suggested action plan for SMEs
- Identify homemovers in your area via BuyerAlerts
- Send welcome offers or introduction content via direct mail
- Continue to target with direct mail at multiple points of the homemovers journey to stay top of mind
- Track the response rate
- Adjust campaigns for best ROI
Find out more about BuyerAlerts below.