Every company has a desire to build a loyal customer base.  You communicate with them often, you treat them with utmost respect and you over-deliver on your value proposition’s promise.  This, however, is typically expensive, time-consuming and only happens over an extended period of time.

One alternative to this approach is being there when your customer needs you most.  (Then communicate often, treat them with utmost respect and over-deliver on your value proposition’s promise.)

In the marketing world…we call this a “trigger.”  And one “trigger” group that can easily become loyal customers are New Movers.  Let me explain…

Putting Your Brand on a Blank Canvas

Let’s take a closer look at a New Mover and analyze their current situation.  This is a group of potential customers who have just moved to a new area, whose life is probably in immediate chaos, they need products and services and thank goodness for you, they have not yet developed loyalties to businesses.

New Movers are essentially a blank canvas. They have moved away from what is old, familiar and established and now must forge new loyalties. They are in a position where they not only want to establish new buying connections, but circumstances dictate that they must do it quickly and easily.  They are yours for the taking, but only if you know how and have an effective new mover marketing system to win them over.

A Society on the Move

Americans are people on the move and in a period of transition, they represent a massive marketing opportunity. The motivation for moving can include major life transitions such as marriage, change of job, births, retirement, and divorce.  (Even more “Triggers”…more on that later.)  This period of transition can prove to be very challenging.  A person new to an area may feel lonely and uncertain, having severed social and community connections ranging from friends, neighbors, physicians, to even mechanics and hairdressers.  All of these things must now be replaced in their new location.

When people move to a new area, they experience five stages of transition:

• Stage 1 – Separation: Saying goodbye to the old and familiar.
• Stage 2 – Transformation: This represents the physical aspect of the move.
• Stage 3 – Early Integration: They experience this during the first six months in their new location.
• Stage 4 – Integration: The subsequent period of adjustment.
• Stage 5 – Maintenance: The period where those who have relocated finally settle in.

As you can see, moving to a new area is a major life disruption.  And it’s the perfect time to help.

The Time to Strike

The time for a business to seize the opportunity to gain a new customer is during the “Transformation,” “Early Integration”, and “Later Integration” phases.  These phases represents a time of “hyper-spending” – a time when new movers will purchase everything from new furniture to pizza delivery. Once a person has relocated to a new area, they will spend an average of $7,100 on goods and services that can be directly attributed to their move. Additionally, 80% of residents new to an area will try products and services from local businesses in the first 6-9 months.

Radical Generosity

Businesses are quick to seize on the opportunity of these new movers, but the problem is they are using the same conventional promotional offers they are using with everyone else. Big mistake!

This is the opportunity to get a little more radical.

Offer them something more than the typical every day offer. To win new movers as a permanent customer, you should be offering these customers not only sufficient incentive to try your business, but also a gesture so sincere that they are taken aback by the generosity. Now is the time to truly give to a market that needs you most.

The “token freebie”, such as a gift-with-purchase offer is simply not enough. If you’ve got a restaurant, offer them a free dinner. If you’ve got an oil change business, offer them a free oil change. These types of offers, are two to five times more likely to convert than traditional offers.

It may be tempting to feel like that’s just too much to give away, but consider that if a family orders $25 worth of pizza most weekends, in four years, they will have generated up to $4,500 revenue for your business and a gross profit of approximately $3,500 (Disclaimer Alert…we’re not pizza experts!)  A customer’s loyalty to an auto repair shop represents approximately $2,000 based on average turnover. A free dinner or oil change seems like kind of a bargain in comparison to what is to be gained. (Again, another guess but you get the point.)

The question you should be asking is not can I afford to do a giveaway, but rather, can I afford not to do a giveaway?

From Blank Canvas to Loyal Customer

Opportunity Knocks’ new mover mailing system, integrates all the essential elements of a successful new mover marketing campaign.  Three cards are mailed to address the three critical phases, personalized postcards are mailed to initiate a personal touch and it’s completed automated so you can focus on what you do best.  You can even search a new mover database for free to find out how many people recently moved to your area.  You’ll see the little bit that you have given away will come back to you many times over – an opportunity knocking that you cannot afford to miss!