The MoverAlerts Lag

A question we get asked from time to time at MoverAlerts HQ is; “I’ve signed up, so why isn’t my phone ringing?” We get it, a client has paid for a service, and want immediate results. However, as we all know, nothing about the property market is quick! So, we have to throw out there that old adage; “good things come to those who wait!” 

“Why do I have to sign up for six months?” 

We’re often questioned about the six-month minimum sign-up. We’re not trying to lock our clients into a contract. The reason is to give the campaign a chance to gain momentum. One month after signing up, some clients will ring us to ask why enquiries are not materialising. We reassure them that they will come. Without our six-month minimum limit, you may leave us before you see what great results we can generate for you. We understand the pushback but it’s what we call the MoverAlerts lag. 

The MoverAlerts lag explained 

When you sign up, direct mail is sent to homemovers at various stages of the homemoving process depending on your chosen trigger points. Although homemovers may not be ready to engage with you upon receiving the direct mail, it introduces them to your business and familiarises them with your brand. (It also captures those who do enquire early.) The postcard serves as a tangible reminder that they can refer back to. Without a set move date, homemovers may delay enquiring until all the legal processes are complete. Many of our clients find that homemovers will get in touch later down the line, once they feel more confident that the move will go ahead. 

Stop the stop-starting process! 

Before implementing a six-month minimum campaign, clients would cancel after a month as they weren’t getting enough enquiries. Then they’d suddenly get an influx of customers enquiring after they left us. They then realised that actually the MoverAlerts campaign had worked – it just wasn’t immediate. Cue the company phoning up and reinstating their campaign with us. Fantastic for MoverAlerts but not so great for the mover or storer firm. This is because they’ll have a gap of enquiries from when they stopped our service and then restarted. That’s not what we want for our clients! We’re all about consistent enquiry generation to keep your pipeline full year-round. 

Case study example 

We work with one of the largest UK moving and storage companies and analysed some of their enquiry data. They target homemovers at the SSTC trigger point.  

To prove the lag exists, we have analysed the results of the 19,361 addresses that we supplied to them in June 2023 only. The below graph outlines the number of enquiries that the client received from these June addresses and in which month. By the end of June, they had received 310 enquiries from MoverAlerts June-only addresses. As time went on, they were still receiving enquiries from these. In July, they had 189 enquiries, and even in October, 4 months after their direct mail was sent, the June addresses still generated 172 enquiries.  

Notice how the number of enquiries jumped from 310 at the end of June, to a total of 1096 at the end of October. This demonstrates that many customers who received a postcard in June, held off enquiring until later. (Incidentally if just one-third of those 1096 enquiries convert at £2K per move, this equates to £731K of revenue from June addresses alone.) 

Trust in trigger points 

We offer our clients various trigger points that they can target homemovers. This is outlined below: 

The timing of your postcard delivery impacts when customers enquire. Those close to moving are more likely to enquire sooner. If targeting SSTC stage, customers may wait until they know their move date before reaching out, as shown in our example above. 

Patience pays off 

If you’re new to MoverAlerts or you’re considering taking up our service, we urge you to give the campaign a chance. Many of our customers have found there is a lag between starting with us and enquiry generation. We introduced a six-month minimum contract to squash the stop/start campaigning for your benefit. By having a consistent six months of marketing from us, you’ll begin generating consistent enquiries. Then after six months, we hope you’ll be impressed with how much business we’ve brought to you and continue your campaign with us. 

If you’d like to find out more about removal or self-storage lead addresses, we’d love to hear from you. Give MoverAlerts a call.