Michael Plummer, owner of Tampa, Fla.–based marketing firm Our Town America, advises clients on how to market their stores effectively to new residents in town—and why “mover” marketing works.
1. Seventeen to 20 percent of the population moves every year and those people are looking for a whole new set of things: a new grocer, a new auto mechanic.… They’re in that searching mode.
2. Mail a discount card or gift certificate to new residents—in an envelope that will catch their attention.
3. Where to find contact info? The data is out there; it’s been out there for years. Utility hookups, phone hookups…everything you do transmits a move.
4. Marketing to recent transplants has a phenomenal response rate, from 10 to 30 percent on any given campaign.
5. The initiatives get strong responses because every single month you have a brand-new audience to reach out to. And people are looking—they’re saying, “I’m new in town, and man, I have to get my watch fixed.”