New Homeowner Direct Mailings

Would new homeowner direct mailings work for your business?

New Homeowner Direct MailingsNew homeowner direct mailings are often overlooked as a marketing tactic.

The reason is that new homeowners are relatively small in number and therefore don’t command the attention of marketers.

But the fact is new homeowners spend a lot of money during their first few months of ownership.

Take kitchens, for example.  Just watch any real estate reality show and it becomes very clear that new homeowners almost always want to put in their own kitchen.

So if you’re in the kitchen business, doesn’t it make sense to reach out to new homeowners?

New homeowners spend money on home improvement …

New homeowners generally love the homes they buy, but they still want to make changes.  And they have money to spend.

Even before they move in, they are in the market for new furniture, new TVs, new floors, new rugs, new lighting, new security, new accessories, new paint, new additions, new landscaping, new grills, new lawnmowers.

And everything else as well.

It’s not just home improvement stuff either.  They also want to set up new relationships with bankers, lawyers, insurance agents, doctors, dentists, accountants, electricians, plumbers, veterinarians, dance studios, karate schools, health clubs, landscapers, hair dressers, etc.

The point is if you sell to local homeowners, you should be trying to reach them right after they buy their homes.

Planning your new homeowner mailing program

In planning a direct mail program targeting new homeowners, consider several factors:

  • what is your target geography?
  • what mailing format will you use?
  • what will be your message?
  • what will be your call to action?
  • how will you track response?

Let’s explore these further:

What is your target geography?

How far away do your customers live?  Ignore that few that seem travel great distances and focus on the larger majority of your customers.

Clearly, the closer they are, the more likely they will visit you, but how far away are they likely to live?  A mile?  Five miles?  Ten miles?

If you don’t want to use a radius, select your closest zip codes.

What mailing format will you use?

Direct mail offers many options for formats.  Here are a few:

  • Postcard
  • Letter Mailer
  • Self-Mailer
  • Menu Mailers
  • Magnet Mailers

(Note, the New Homeowner program we offer uses a 6×11 full color jumbo postcard.  You can learn more here.

What will be your message?

One approach is to acknowledge that they just moved to the area (Welcome to the Neighborhood) and you want introduce them to your business.

Your message could include public service information – like important phone numbers or locations in the area.  This might keep your message on the refrigeration for an extended period.

Another approach would be to not acknowledge that they are new homeowners, but simply provide the same message you would for any homeowner.  The only difference is that you have identified as new homeowners and you may want to provide an additional incentive.  But they don’t have to know this.

What will be your call to action?

How do you want people to respond to your mailing?  Do you want them to bring in a coupon, or to call to make an appointment, or to request a free brochure or whitepaper?

Every business will be different about this, but it’s an important consideration for any direct mail program.

Keep in mind that people respond to incentives.  If you give your prospects a good reason to respond, many of them will.

How will you track response?

As with all marketing campaigns, you want to be able to track and measure response from your new homeowner direct mail campaign.

If prospects will be bringing in coupons, this is easy because all you need to do is count the coupons.

If prospects will be calling for an appointment or more information, you will need to develop some method for identifying which calls are coming from the new homeowner promotion.  The best way to do this is by assigning different telephone numbers to the promotion.

If prospects will be coming to your website or landing page to download a report or whitepaper,  you’ll need to code the web page or landing page to know how many leads are coming from your new home promotion.

The biggest challenge for marketers

One of the reasons many small business owners never get around to creating a new homeowner direct mail campaign is because the quantities are typically very small – and may not be worth the investment of time or money.

In a particular zip code, you might find no more than a half dozen new homeowners on any given month.  How can you justify spending too much time implementing such a program?  Cost is also a factor because the unit cost for small quantity mailings can be high.

But there are some ways to these problems:

  • Consider looking beyond your own zip code.  You may have stayed within your own zip code for normal mailings because your budget didn’t allow you to go any further.  But new homeowners are a different story.
  • Send repeat mailings to the same people over a few month period.  A single mailing to a new homeowner might do the trick, but not every new homeowner is ready for your product or service when you mail arrives.  Consider mailing to each new homeowner three times over a three month period to maximize your return.
  • Plan a full-year program to take advantage of some quantity pricing.  You won’t save on postage, but your printing could be reduce with larger quantity orders.  Digital printing has made small quantity printing much more affordable, but you still may want to look at some higher quantity options.

Take the next step

To learn more about new homeowner direct mail or to request an estimate, please contact Bob McCarthy at 508-473-8643 or bob@mccarthyandking.com, or fill out the form below.

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Here’s another article that may interest you … New Homeowner Direct Mail – Done for You  Read more

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