Targeting home movers: When should removals companies target home movers?

For a removal company, home mover data is a logical place to search for leads. This is one market filled with people who will definitely need your services.

However, the difficulty lies in knowing when to market to them. Like all successful campaigns you need to reach your prospective new customers at the right point, otherwise, they will dismiss your marketing message as irrelevant.

In this guide, we'll remind you why home movers are such a fantastic market, and highlight what point during the home moving process you should aim your marketing.

Why target a home mover audience?

As a removals company, you know that home movers form the biggest section of your target audience. In fact, no other sector will need your services so reliably.

What you may not realise is just how much spending power this market has.

The home mover market is very active. In fact, conservative estimates from YouGov suggest that the average home mover spends around £5,000 on move-related goods and services. Removal services are almost always included in those costs, particularly for homeowners.

With roughly 1 million households moving home every year, that is a lot of potential customers to target. They also have predictable spending habits and a need for your products and services.

What is the home mover journey?

The home mover journey (or home mover wave) can be broken down into five simple stages:

• Want To Move
• Moving Soon
• Moving Now
• Just Moved
• Settling In

At each stage, your home mover audience will need specific services, while also thinking forward about others. And at each stage, some services or products will feel unnecessary. If you find the right time to target them, you can get ahead of your competitors and put your company at the forefront of customers' minds.

If you'd like to learn more about what the home mover wave is, take a look at our recent blog post on the subject.

When should removals companies target home movers?

Knowing you need to target home movers is one thing. Knowing when to target them is another thing entirely.

Reach out too early in the stressful moving process, and your potential customers could dismiss your services as 'a worry for a later day'. Contact them too late in the moving cycle and they may have already signed up with your competitors.

When it comes to targeting home movers, the Moving Soon phase is the best time.

During the Want To Move stage, most home movers will be already overwhelmed with information and decisions. Moving home is a significant life event, and just taking the initial first steps can be daunting. They are unlikely to be thinking about moving day practicalities with so many big-picture pressures on their minds.

On top of this, they are unlikely to even have the concrete information they need to book you. Time scales, dates, and distances will still be up in the air.

Why target home moving marketing campaigns for the Moving Soon stage?

During the Moving Soon phase, home movers will be thinking about logistics. They will be focused on the products and services that they need to get them through the moving home process as painlessly as possible.

Removals are definitely one of those services.

The Moving Soon stage is also the point when most support services for home movers advise looking for a removals company. The Home Owners Alliance recommend that people engage a removals company around 4-6 weeks before their moving date (with a suggestion to look earlier during peak times).

At this point in the home mover cycle, people can share confirmed move date data and their specific needs, rather than vague guesses. They will be more prepared for the move, ready to face realities and get into specifics. They will also feel more confident and ready to commit to fixed dates, costs and even deposits.

How to target people in the Moving Soon stage

Companies such as MoverAlerts can support you with customer data and home mover leads from particular points in the home mover wave.

At this point in the home move process, targeted direct mail marketing reliably produces results. It will drop on their doorstep, demanding attention and reminding potential customers about the importance of your service.

Direct mail is particularly well suited to the Moving Soon phase as well because it gives a physical reminder. Your audience knows they are in the market for your products and services, so they will keep your leaflet around even if they don't ring immediately. And that physical item will serve to remind them again every time they look at it until they've secured a company - hopefully, yours!

If the Moving Soon phase feels a little late in the home mover journey to you and you would like people to book your company as early as possible, you can always encourage a quick response in your marketing.

This doesn't have to mean timing threats or scarcity tactics - focus on the positives of booking far in advance. Add deals or discounts to tempt people and make sure to highlight the benefits of early such as the peace of mind that comes when these important steps are sorted.

Help with your home mover marketing

We're here at MoverAlerts to help make your home mover marketing as effective as possible. We have access to a vast data set that cover over 99% of all residential moves in the UK, across both house sale and rental markets.

As well as supplying you with home mover data to help you find leads and target new customers, we can even manage your direct mail marketing for you. Our detailed customer data lets you pick exactly when you reach out, while we create and deliver highly targeted letters and leaflets for you as part of our fulfilment service.