Marketing isolation

I have just relocated to a new suburb, not yet privileged enough to receive any form of junk mail (until out of the isolation, rose the ever-faithful Dominosvouchers which seem to follow me everywhere I go). I then thought to myself – I am a prime marketing target. I’ve just built a home and need to buy countless forms of furniture and homewares to fill it, and I have no spare time to go and do my own product research, yet no-one is marketing to me!

New suburbs or land estates are a gold mine for marketing. Sure, they are logistically difficult in that homes are dotted in no particular order and most commercially available direct mail companies won’t go there until there’s enough permanent residents to make it worth their while. But, with a bit of innovative thinking and some leg work, the benefits can be immense.

I would love to receive a furniture or whitegoods catalogue, and right now, any local company that would deliver some new furniture for free (as a special promotion) would get my vote without even considering another.

I would also love for someone to come and do an on-site consultation in terms of which heating/cooling system we should have installed based on the location, shape and size of our home.

I probably would subscribe to Better Homes and Gardens, Home Beautiful or even Handyman magazine while in the romantic mindset
of DIY.

I would kill for a takeaway menu to a local restaurant or pizza place, for some much needed outsourced sustenance on those long nights painting, digging, gardening and everything else on our long to-do list.

And yet another piece of marketing I would act on instantly would be collateral from a local dog kennel offering their services (taking the piece of mind angle) while I was moving and had no fences or a gate.

Yet despite all these needs and the many occasions I would have made a purchase based on some targeted marketing, I haven’t received any!

One company who did do a bit of strategic thinking was a local turf farm, who cleverly developed a stick-on package of brochures and other goodies and left them on our front door – the first thing we saw when we received our keys. The stick-on package was brilliant – it didn’t get blown away by the wind and also stayed protected from sand and bugs and everything else that could have damaged its appearance. They are the first and only company I called for a quote for our 170sqm of turf we need to lay.

If you’re in the industry of home furnishing, whitegoods, renovation, hardware, or garden – get in touch with all the local developers and find a way to get some promotional material in new resident’s mailboxes or better yet, stuck on their front door. I can guarantee you instant sales or if nothing else, you will cement yourself (excuse the pun) as the only company to consider when that home owner is ready to make a purchase.

If I can leave you with some final words of wisdom – sometimes marketing is as simple as finding the right time to send a targeted message.