How New Mover Marketing Generates Loyal Customers
With so many options, retail marketing has taken on an entirely consumer-centric approach to sales and has created a battleground for businesses, particularly when it comes to courting and retaining loyal customers.
With so many brands and products to choose from, a campaign to develop a loyal customer base is the primary objective of many businesses.
This is particularly true for grocers, where a single loyal customer shopping for a family of four can equate to thousands of dollars per year in consistent revenue, year after year. Throughout this blog, we’ll discuss the age of consumerism, how new mover marketing acquires loyal customers, and why it’s a tool one should be careful not to overlook.
The Age of Consumerism
When we say “The Age of Consumerism,” we’re referring to the current trend in retail sales that caters to the consumer before the business. The competition is fierce – particularly in our digital world – and consumers are expecting choices (lots of them), all coming from the same retailer.
It makes sense – this is more or less that natural progression that gave rise to grocery stores in the first place, largely doing away with consumers visiting the dairy, the butcher, the bakery, etc.
The key takeaway is that consumers are expecting options – not just in terms of products, but also in terms of accessibility, technology and delivery – and there are plenty of grocers delivering, particularly when we look to retail ecosystems, like Amazon’s purchase of Whole Foods.
New Mover Campaigns to Better Target Consumers
A great example of a campaign designed to acquire and retain new loyal customers is our new mover product – SmartMove. It relies on three core elements – targeted outreach, personalization, physical and digital integration.
There’s little more reassuring than going into a stressful event – a first day at a new school, a new job, moving into a new neighborhood – and being greeted by someone instantly and warmly. One of the best ways to develop loyal customers is to simply introduce yourself to new consumers just entering your market.
Let’s look to our SmartMove campaigns.
In our SmartMove campaign, the first step in creating loyal customers focuses on digital methods like geofencing for precision targeting of new movers, then we use variable-data to create advanced personalization campaigns, creating an immediate connection with potential customers.
The next step in creating loyal customers is courting and retention. Reaching out to new movers is good, but reaching out to new movers with attractive offers is even better. Better still? Reaching out in both physical and digital mediums, seamlessly integrating multiple channels to optimize their shopping experience.
Benefits of SmartMove
So now that we’ve gone over the strategy of SmartMove, let’s look to its benefits.
The first benefit is a jump on the competition. In order to effectively compete for business where consumers have nearly unlimited options all offering a similar variety of choices, one of the few concrete advantages a grocer can have in customer acquisition is getting to those potential customers first. Using geofencing and proactive outreach, SmartMove makes this possible.
The second benefit is the level of connectivity SmartMove affords to grocers looking to court new movers. With advanced personalization techniques, coupled with attractive offerings via digital and direct mail outreach, SmartMove allows you to build the connections you need to gain new, loyal customers.
Want to explore the Strata’s systems for creating and retaining loyal customers? Contact us to see how SmartMove can make a difference for your business today.
Understanding How it Impacts Everything from Customer Acquisition to Back-office Operations
Industries are shifting, whether that’s a demand for goods and services, the way we deliver those goods and services, or new emergences in the way we do business. This is true for every business, including grocers.
Let’s take a look at some of the drivers shifting industry standards and how we can leverage one specific driver to create better opportunities for grocers.
Three Drivers of Retail
1. Shifts in Consumer Expectation
There’s perhaps nothing that changes more constantly than consumer expectation, and in the era of home delivery and subscription meal prep services, consumer demands are varied, and quite frankly, challenging.
Consumers expect the ability to buy anything, anytime, and from anywhere. Finding ways to cater to these new expectations is a major driver of business for grocers.
2. Stiff Competition and the Emergence of Ecosystems
An even more pronounced trend is the sheer level of competition that’s out there. Grocery chains are collapsing under the pressure of large-scale competition and the emergence of ecosystems. A great example is Amazon purchasing Whole Foods and using the Amazon infrastructure to fold Whole Foods operations into its business model.
3. Technology
The last driver for grocer-specific retail is technology. As technology advances, it opens doors to help grocers better compete for the attention of consumers. With the introduction of AI, advance analytics, and IoT, grocers have more capability than ever to analyze and connect with consumers.
Technology, more than any of the other three drivers above, can stand out as a primary factor in operational effectiveness with the ability to reduce overall cost in the value chain.
This is particularly true in the realms of customer acquisition, customer engagement, commercial effectiveness, and warehouse/back-office operations.
Customer Acquisition and Engagement
When it comes to technology’s role in customer acquisition and engagement, the benefits are obvious. Better analytics leads to better targeted messaging across multiple delivery vehicles, such as digital ads.
Technology is also crucial to creating highly targeted and hyper-personalized offerings, enabling grocers to connect with consumers on a more specific level, resulting in better customer acquisition, engagement, and loyalty.
Another area of advertising where technology plays a crucial role is in enhancing digital direct marketing properties, like the addition of promotional QR codes attached to emails or digital coupons.
Commercial Effectiveness
Technology can also help grocers maximize their commercial effectiveness by using advanced analytics to make better choices. These choices can include everything from the products grocers carry to the way they’re priced.
It can also help in making decisions related to promotional initiatives, helping to take the guesswork out of what promotional offers to run.
Operational Efficiency
One of the most appealing aspects of heavy technological integration within grocer systems is the potential for higher efficiency in day-to-day operations. Technology opens the door to automating warehouse functions, as well as in-store and back-office operations.
Why it Matters
If there’s nothing else to take away from this article, let it be this: technology allows you to compete for business in a market driven by choice, increasing existing customer loyalty, and driving customers to physical stores instead of online ordering sites.
These three benefits make it imperative that grocers embrace technological solutions for many of their day-to-day operations and needs. In an era so heavily dependent on technology for communication and promotion, without it, grocers will fall behind.
Interested in learning more about the role of technology in the value chain for grocers? We have the tools that can help ensure your tech is where it needs to be.
Whether that means operational efficiency with an MRM system or acquiring new customers with our SmartMove, new mover program, contact us to see what Strata can do for you.
470,000: the approximate number of words in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Your direct mail copy challenge: Find the magic combination that will command the reader’s attention (i.e., dodge the recycle bin) and compel action.
Yes, direct mail writing can be intimidating. But the following steps can help you write direct mail copy that will get noticed – and get your prospects motivated.
- Grab Attention with Your Headline
Many leading copywriters believe in the rule of 80/20 – that writing the headline should take 80% of your effort, and the copy below should take 20%. Why? The headline has to work really, really hard to hook readers. If it falls flat, no one will read past it.- Focus the headline around a leading benefit.
- Build intrigue – tease with just enough information so that it’s impossible to ignore what follows.
- Expand (a little) on the Most Important Benefits
Your body content needs to strike a balance between being informative and being concise. Again, stay benefits-focused, and give readers information that will convince them they need to act on your offer.- Tell readers how the product or service will improve their lives.
- Present information in a logical order.
- Be Brief and Readable
Your words are not the star of the piece. Rather, the recipient should be kept front and center. Copy should focus on their needs, and never compromise readability.- Limit the amount of copy in your mailer.
- Save longer, more detailed explanations for product/service websites, landing pages or brochures.
- Break up blocks of copy with subheads.
- Write for a Persona
Writing for a persona can help you key in on the needs and motivations of your target audience.- Address their specific concerns.
- Craft copy that connects on an emotional level.
- Craft an Irresistible Call to Action
Finally, you need to ask for the reader’s business with your call to action (CTA).- Give the reader direct, specific instruction on how to take the next step.
- Use active verbs.
- Imply urgency – the offer will expire; they can’t afford to delay; time is running out; be one of the first, etc.
- Test to Find Out What Works Best
A simple A/B test – where a control group receives a version with one varying element – can help you uncover the most effective copywriting approaches for your audience.- A/B test elements such as headlines, CTAs and envelope teasers.
- Track results, and refine future mailings accordingly.
Going Multichannel?
Ensure you align your direct mail copy with other pieces of the campaign – emails, landing pages, digital ads, broadcast media. The message needs to be cohesive, or you’ll confuse your audience.
Strata Company, a Plymouth Meeting, PA-based marketing services and technology solutions company, has been a leader in direct mail marketing for 25 years. Our multichannel marketing programs combine award-winning creative with superior data practices to attract the right prospects and keep them engaged. Contact us to speak with one of our direct marketing experts.