Why & how to create audience segments for direct mail campaigns

When it comes to the home mover market, direct mail marketing can have incredible results.

In a time of high stress, detailed planning and constant chasing up, having physical items like letters or leaflets appear on your doormat can actually be a relief. It can spur potential customers to action, remind them of an essential service and earn your company brownie points for giving them this important nudge.

The one downfall of direct mail marketing can be its cost. Get your campaign right and the return will be high enough that the cost will seem insignificant. But if you fail, the cost can weigh heavy. This puts a lot of pressure on direct mail campaigns to succeed.

Targeting home movers will increase your chances of success. After all, when you target home movers, you are speaking to people who already need your products or services. It lets you build a direct mail campaign with a much higher return than randomly reaching out to a local audience with no interest in your offering. Yet this targeting isn't always enough.

This is where audience segmentation comes in.

Segmenting your audience lets you target prospects closely. You are no longer limited to just speaking to active customers who need your services - you can talk to them in terms they understand as well. Terms that appeal to them.

Of course, this is fantastic in theory but not every business knows what audience segmentation is, let alone how to do it effectively. And when it's done wrong, it will do nothing more than add to the cost of your campaign.

To save you from any expensive mistakes we've put together a quick introduction to help you get to grips with this technical term.

We'll cover exactly what it means to segment your direct mail audience as well as the specific reasons you should. We'll also explore exactly how to segment your own direct mail audience to get the highest possible return when targeting home movers.

What does it mean to segment your direct mail and what benefits does it bring?

Hidden behind the technical term 'audience segmentation' is a very simple idea. It is splitting the potential audience for your direct mail campaign into smaller groups, based on the similarities they share.

In fact, when you target home movers this is already a type of segmentation. You have singled out people who are moving home as a group and you are marketing directly to them. 

However, this is a single, broad segmentation. There are many other options you can also use (see below) that will help you boost how effective your direct mail services and marketing are.

Segmenting your audience lets you target specific home movers more effectively with your marketing. It lets you make your message more personal. More relevant.

Creating a smart direct mail campaign using audience segmentation lets you:

• Tailor your tone, content and offering to specific people
• Create connections on a personal level with potential customers
• Explain exactly how you will meet their own unique pain points to increase conversions

By using segmentation you can build strong, relevant messages that help your audience feel seen and inspire their trust. For a lot of home mover services, that trust is important as you are convincing people to pick you to carry out important tasks during stressful times.

3 Simple Ways to Segment Your Direct Mail Audience

Multiple segmentation methods exist that can help you target your marketing materials to relevant customers. These include behaviour-based segmentation, demographic segmentation, geographic segmentation, and sales stage segmentation.

However, when you're running direct mail campaigns that target the home mover market specifically, there are three segmentation strategies that make sense. They use the details that are usually supplied with home mover leads and focus on factors relevant to this audience.

Demographic segmentation

This easy way of splitting your audience is a common choice. Demographic segmentation works using options including age, gender, job and income level. While there is a range of specific demographic data audience segments you can use, not all of them will work in home mover marketing.

For example, the exact income level for your customers may not apply to home movers but property size and value have a similar impact.

Age groups and gender are not often available for home mover leads either but they aren't always relevant. You will be targeting people who are in the moving process and this major life event has a similar process and impact at any time. Rather than thinking in terms of different age groups, create appealing offers and marketing for first-time buyers or retirees instead.

Geographic Segmentation

For home mover services, splitting your direct mail marketing campaign by geographic area is probably the most popular choice. Most home movers will be drawn to services in their local area and this is a great way to capitalise on that.

Geographic segmentation can use wide locations or smaller ones. It can range from whole counties and areas like the Midlands, to cities, towns and even specific postcodes.

Many people prefer to use a local business for home mover services, so targeting your geographic segmentation on smaller, local areas is usually more effective. Particularly when you tie it to demographic segmentation too.

Journey Stage Segmentation

This method is particularly important in the home mover market. The home mover journey can be long and unpredictable. It is almost always stressful and overwhelming. This makes it easy to lose sight of the importance of certain services when they're not immediately needed.

Targeting your moving leads at a time when they actually need your service will help keep you ahead of your competitors. It puts you at the forefront of new customers minds when they actually need you.

If you need help deciding which stage of the home mover wave is the best to target, take a look at our blog post on this exact subject for support.

MoverAlerts can help segment your audience and boost your direct mail marketing

Here at MoverAlerts we offer up-to-date home mover leads taken from more than 40 key sources. You can choose to filter this data using factors including geographic location, property value and size to help you segment your audience and build effective direct mail lists.