Posted by Brian Berg Google+
Life Changing Events that create marketing opportunities for direct mail
* Graduating from high school and leaving the nest
What a wonderful experience to be graduating from high school and entering the workforce, or furthering your education. This is a time in a young persons life that’s very anticipated. It’s a very large first step into adulthood and responsibility. With so much to look forward to, so much is needed.
The challenge here is that the direct mail marketer is really marketing to the parents of this child, and not really the child him/herself. There are several very good sources of mailing list data that identify homes where high school students reside. The mailing lists are segmented by graduation year. Some mailing lists are also coded with students considering college and even the interest in what type of college they desire to attend. This life event is perfect for continuing education, military recruitment, class rings, and automotive offers. Bear in mind the spending ability to the student and parent when mailing to this life event audience.
* Buying a new house or just plain moving
Buying a house is a terrific audience for all types of offers from remodeling to new furniture to supplemental disability insurance. New cars usually find their way into a new garage if there’s money left after moving in. Renters also pick out new furniture, new paint colors, and internet connectivity. There are the New Homeowners mailing list and New Movers mailing designed to identify both these life event prospects. The mailing lists have little in the way of selects but identify the recency of the move in the way of Weekly and Monthly New Homeowners, or Weekly and Monthly New Movers.
* Selling your home
Getting ready to move is an excellent direct mail audience for movers who make a living relocating people. It’s also good for small home repair services that will do whatever needs to be done to the house before the new owner takes over. From home inspectors, to Home Depot, selling your home is a life event filled with focus on getting the home sold for the highest dollar and relocating to your new residence. The type of mailing list available for this life event is called Pre-Mover mailing list. These homeowners who have listed their home for sale and, hopefully will land a buyer for their new home in the not too distant future.
* Starting a business
New business owners are in need of many things, but for the most part, they aren’t splurging on vacations away from home for weeks on end. They are focused on investing most of their savings and time into their new venture. The time it takes to start a new business right is usually…..all you’ve got to give. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. Starting a new business demands money, and usually more money than the new business owner has. So financial aid in the form of loans is a popular direct mail offer.
Also popular are anything related to starting a new business such as telephone and computer systems, office furniture and office space for sale or rent, merchant services and accounting software, employment assistance and business seminars, as well as advertising and direct mail services. The type of mailing list data available are found at the county court house of those individuals who’s recently applied for a business license. They are the bold and the brave and the ones who usually will be making immediate buying decisions on an assortment of business related products and services.
* Getting married
Those brides to be or newly weds are great mailing lists that signify a very big and important life event. The types of offers range from products and services that serve the marriage ceremony and reception itself, to starting a new life with their partner, to relocating, consolidating, and updating their new life with new furniture. No marriage is complete without a honeymoon. Typically, in most new households, the buyer is the woman. She drops her name everywhere she can, leaving a trail of evidence that she’s getting married. She subscribes to Bridal magazines, visit websites that capture her name and mailing address and wedding date.
This mailing list of brides continues to grow making it a valuable direct mail marketing tool for the direct mail marketer. The husband on the other hand continues life as usual…..as best he can, clinging to the remaining fabric of his bachelor blanket of comfort and security. He leaves little evidence and therefore, not added to the database of “soon to be married”. As you can imaging, most all of the direct mail to this life event is geared to the woman and versioned for the bride to be.
* Getting divorced
Divorce changes lives in many ways for many people. For some, the divorce offers pain and suffering along with a sense of relief. It shatters homes with child present, and creates chaos where consistence wasn’t lived. Through this experience, most people find strength within the renewal process as they close one door and open a new one. The types of offers appropriate for this direct mail audience vary from legal help to relocation to vacation travel to spa treatments to psychology assistance.
* Having a child
There’s few life experiences that are more joyous that adding a new family member to your home. New babies need space, attention, clothing, food, physician care, transportation, a place to sleep, supervision, and the list goes on and on. This life event causes quite a bit of change to the spending habits of the home. Not only are there all new products to purchase, but these new products will require space and other household items will be stowed.
Storage rental space is a great way to allow those remaining bachelor items to properly age before getting rid of them completely. The types of mailing lists available for this segment of the life events are both the Pre-natal mailing list and the Post-natal mailing list. The Pre-natal mailing list consists of people’s names and addresses that are about to have a child. The Post-natal mailing list contains people’s names and addresses that have just had a child.
* Retiring
For those people lucky enough to retire, life changes quickly. 40 plus hours a week are open now open to something other than work. For most, retirement means a fixed income requiring a budget. With so much new time on your hands and limited money to spend, direct mail marketers mailing to this audience focus on necessity and leisure. Though it’s difficult to identify the exact day in which one retires from the work force, generally speaking, 65 seems to be the accepted age for most. The most common type of mailing list data is the compiled consumer mailing list selectable by both month and year of birth such that you can identify those who’s Medicare will soon kick-in.
The compiled consumer mailing list is also selectable by a host of other selects that make creating a criteria set to fit the direct mail marketers audience easy. Typically ones wealth determines who the retired will life their remaining golden years. The more their networth, the more they will travel. The small their pension, the greater likelihood they will find a part-time job to occupy their time.
* Getting sick
We all suffer from illness, some more than others. Depending on the illness, life changes over time. All things being equal, the direct mail marketers who focus on this segment typically represent drug therapy, ailment related products, and physical therapy. Though it is difficult to identify when one begins to suffer most from his/her ailment, the life of an ailment suffer usually suffers greater as he/she gets older. From ailments to over-the-counter drugs to prescription drugs, there are many types of mailing lists available.
Most all are captured from self-reported survey type data and typically represent only a sample of the total population. Direct mail is a very popular tool to reach this audience for several reasons, but mainly that the privacy laws make it very difficult to identify these people. If they report their illness to the mailing list compilers, they will receive many relevant offers that provide help and assistance to their life.
* Odds and ends
If your prospect isn’t in the midst of one of the above changes, they know someone who is facing a Life Changing Event. When mailing to your existing mailing list of customers, consider asking for referrals of people who are possibly experiencing a change in life. Newly weds and new babies get lots of gifts, as does graduates, and new homeowners. Your existing customer mailing list may have already purchased from you and is not in need, but if they’re satisfied with your product or service, they may consider purchasing your product or service for another as a gift.