Tag: direct mail

The Guide to Mover Marketing will also identify those who may be looking for move-related and home improvement products and services.

It has been developed in response to research from Royal Mail Data Services, which surveyed nearly 200 leading UK marketers to discover the key business challenges surrounding the use of customer data for marketing purposes.

The research revealed that 45% of marketers say recruiting new customers is their biggest challenge. The remaining 55% struggle with re-activation, upselling, retention and cross-selling to existing customers.

Further research suggests that 65% of consumers switch suppliers or engage with new brands during the home-move period as they track down the best deals.

Data decay – trends and characteristics

Home-mover marketing presents proven opportunities for brands, particularly in the utilities, telecoms, finance, insurance, banking, DIY, retail and home improvement sectors, to increase their customer retention, acquisition and re-activation rates, the firm claims.

The guide outlines the trends and characteristics of the UK home-mover market. It also offers strategies for data-driven B2C marketers to improve their customer acquisition, retention and engagement strategies by segmenting and targeting home movers with relevant, useful marketing communications.

It also explains how businesses can quantify the value of the home-mover market through analysis of customer purchasing behaviours before, during and after their moves.

Royal Mail Data Services managing director Jim Conning said: “The combination of price-conscious consumers, the breadth of choice to be found online, and fierce competition is making it more challenging and costly for B2C marketers to improve the performance of their marketing while boosting revenues. The key to success lies in a marketer’s ability to deliver ‘right-time’, contextual marketing that anticipates what customers need before they have to ask.”

The guide draws on Royal Mail Data Services’ experience of working with many of the UK’s leading brands to help them reshape their approaches to “right-time”, contextual marketing through the use of home-mover data alongside specialist data analysis and marketing services.

Conning added: “To be successful at ‘right-time’ marketing, marketers need access to timely customer information. This data must be accurate, permission based, and sourced via a first party. But it’s not enough to just provide great-quality data.

“Businesses also need insight into home moves period to help them understand when consumers are most likely to buy a company’s products or services or, indeed, to switch to the competition. And that’s where our specialist knowledge and experience come in. Our guide offers marketers a step-by-step approach to adopting effective marketing strategies and techniques to target home movers.”

The move follows the launch of eBay Advertising’s Home Mover ‘Advanced Targeting’ scheme, which cross references insights from eBay’s 19 million monthly users with Land Registry data to predict movers months before they actually settle into their new abode.

A new study by The Software Bureau reveals that 60 per cent of marketers do not practice reverse marketing; the management of returned direct mail, which costs firms £4.02 per piece of returned mail.

Approximately 90 million pieces of direct mail (2.5 per cent) are returned to sender each year. Forty per cent of these or 36 million are returned due to the recipient’s wish to be removed from the marketing database, equating to a loss of potential revenue of £116 million and £29 million in wasted production costs.

Reverse marketing enables organisations to compile in-house do not mail lists that can be screened against future campaigns reducing the volume of mistargeted mailings, saving money and improving the reputation of the organisation among customers.

The study revealed B2B organisations to be the worst culprits followed by retailers, credit card providers, retailers, pension providers and charities. Conversely, local government was found to be the most responsible.

Martin Rides, managing director of The Software Bureau, said: “The fact that every piece of returned mail costs businesses £4 is incredible – this soon adds up, amounting to thousands per year.

“Reverse marketing is a key component to reducing the volume of mistargeted direct mail. It is shocking that only four in ten organisations manage their returns and, more importantly, learn from them.

“Our new initiative, Lean DM, helps organisations to identify the areas which produce the most wastage in their direct mail activity and minimise it. With the advent of GDPR and increased scrutiny from the media and legislative bodies, it is crucial that organisations focus on data hygiene.”

The study was carried out by ‘mystery shopping’ last month.

Returned mail statistics:

£4.02 = 3.6 billion pieces of DM sent annually (OFCOM) x 2.5 per cent returned (Royal Mail) x 40 per cent of returns due to opt outs (DMA) = 90 million returns x lost ROI (£3.22 Royal Mail) and average cost of a mail pack (£0.80).