Build a Solid Marketing Strategy with Advertising and Promotion Ideas to Grow Your Moving Business

September 01, 2021

Before you should even start executing a marketing or advertising campaign, you should build a solid “roadmap” aka a marketing strategy to guide your execution and everything you do. This roadmap will help keep everyone aligned, to:

  1. Effectively execute advertising campaigns
  2. Target your ideal customer
  3. Deliver solid business-building results 

Here are the Elements that Go into a “Roadmap” or Marketing Strategy
GOAL(S)

A results-driven marketing strategy has goals that are realistic in driving positive progress for your company’s marketing and sales targets. We recommend using the S.M.A.R.T. model. Your goals should be...

 
MARKETING ANALYSIS

Know what market you are playing in. What are your competitors doing? What can you do better than them? What are your unique selling points? What are things the market needs that you can use to improve your services and draw more customers? Become a master of the market you play in so you can always be a step ahead of your competition. 


TARGET AUDIENCE 

Understanding your customers is extremely important when crafting an effective marketing strategy. We recommend you develop buyer personas so it is clear who you want to target. Here is an outline when developing your buyer personas. You can have multiple buyer personas based on your goals too (primary audience, secondary audience, etc.)


BUYER OBJECTIVES

PLATFORMS

LOCATION

DEVICES

DEMOGRAPHICS

PURCHASE BEHAVIORS

JOB DETAILS  

INTERESTS 


CHANNELS 

This can be a tough decision since there are just so many choices to choose from. Fortunately for you, there are a lot of data-informed decisions you can make to guide which channels you should use to reach your ideal customer. 

Use your market analysis and target audience research as your compass. For example, if you know your ideal target audience is 45 years+, Instagram probably isn’t the best channel for your messaging since the majority of Instagram users are under the age of 34. 

Some channels that are non-negotiable that every moving company should have are:

1. Website 

2. Email Marketing / Newsletter 

3. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

4. Video Marketing 

5. Social Media 


BUDGET 

Marketing and advertising budgets are usually one of the first ones to go if companies need to cut back on spending. However, we would argue these budgets are critical to increase your ROI and elevate your bottom line. Some people forget that your ad campaign is just a small portion of your customer’s experience with your company, but they are also the FIRST impression these customers will have with your services. Ensure you are testing and analyzing ALL touchpoints prospects may have with your company to ensure they are also performing well too. 

Remember, you don’t have to break the bank with your advertising budgets. Start experimenting with small budgets on the channels you decided to focus on for your advertising messages. Test each of these mico-campaigns after about a month, and then fluctuate your spending based on which channels perform the best and which are underperforming. 

It is also important to analyze EVERY phase of your sales pipeline. Your ads will likely be the driver of getting your ideal customer into the TOP of your funnel, so you also need to make sure the rest of your funnel is well oiled and prepared for retargeting, sending users to effective landing pages or online forms for conversions, and your sales representative is approachable and well trained. Reputation is also everything so your customer service should also be held to high standards. Referrals are so important in the moving industry, so make sure your customers walk away from their move with an admirable experience to tell their family and friends. 

Ultimately be sure to write your strategy down, share it with your team, and consistently check back in. It is also a living document so you should be updating it as market changes happen or as you learn more and more about your target audience(s). There is a reason why it is called your roadmap, it should guide you and your team on every decision you make whether that is adding a new channel to your marketing mix, updating your website, adjusting your budget, etc. 

After you have a clear roadmap, you can dive into the fun stuff! In our article 19 Ways to Get the Highest Revenue Leads to Grow Your Moving Business, we begin to outline how to advertise and promote your moving company. Here are some additional ideas for you to consider: 

 

13 WAYS TO ADVERTISE YOUR MOVING COMPANY

Thumbtack, Yelp, Etc. 

Advocate marketing is one of the most powerful drivers of quality conversions in the B2C space (business to customer). Try not to juggle too many of these types of channels, but if one has great reviews, stay engaged - thank customers for their reviews, stay on top of not-so-great reviews and respond to see if there is anything you can do to help. If one of these platforms gets popular enough and has a solid 4.5+ review average, feature the logo of whatever channel you end up getting the best results from on your other channels like your website or social media.


Don’t Forget Bing PPC 

Google is not the only search engine your target audience may be using to find a moving company. Be sure to pay attention and run some pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Bing too. Focus most of your energy on Google since that is the dominant search engine, but you can capture leads from Bing too.  


MovingCompanyReviews.com 

This website is a platform where consumers can submit a review on their mover. New consumers that are looking for movers can visit this site to take a look at companies and their reviews. Consumers seeking movers then have the option to fill out a free quote form. After the form is filled out, MovingCompanyReviews.com sends this consumer’s information directly to the mover. Take advantage of this additional lead aggregating opportunity and join. 


Groupon 

Groupon offers its users coupons to local businesses. So if you want to use Groupon as a Groupon Merchant,  you must be willing to offer a coupon. The coupon can be time-sensitive and you are not locked into a long-term commitment if this option doesn’t end up working well for you. 


Licenses & Insurance 

Showcase your license and insurance to prove to homeowners you are the real deal! You could tout you are a great moving company until the cows come home, but proof that you went that extra mile will help you push that agenda forward and attract more customers that are more likely to trust you and your team. 


Apply for Better Business Bureau Accreditation

The BBB logo is iconic for the best of the best. An A+ is a cherry on top. If you think your company is eligible for this prestigious recognition, put your application in. It’ll be another reason why homeowners will feel confident placing their cherished belongings into your hands. Please note there are accreditation dues with BBB, it is all based on the number of employees your company has, so check those details out before pursuing this accreditation. 


Join Other Moving-Specific Organizations

The American Trucking Association (ATA) offers a ProMover Moving and Storage certification nationwide. It adds just another layer of reputability since it is a certification program that gives consumers an easy way to separate reputable and professional movers from scam artists. 

Also, research and see if your state or local municipality has an organization-specific to movers. This will help you not only connect with customers but network with other movers that may not be your competitors. Joining these organizations may open up doors you don’t even know about yet.  


Join Your Local Chamber of Commerce

Since the word “Moving” is in our company name (Moving Leads) we get calls all the time with people interested in finding a mover and they confuse our company for a moving company. The same could happen for you, except fortunate for you those calls could convert into profitable moves! Plus this is just another feather you can put in your cap showing you are a reputable business that is dedicated to staying involved in your local community. 


Unique Selling Points 

You have a lot to offer and you know it, but does your prospective customer? Make sure you are really highlighting the services you offer that are unique to your brand and the experience you give your customers. If you are competing with other local companies check their websites and other digital platforms frequently to make sure you are one step ahead of them. Get creative! It never hurts to experiment with new ideas and always be prepared to pivot if an idea isn’t working. 


Engage with Your Customers Online 

We’ve already mentioned this earlier, but it is so incredibly important that you respond to reviews (good or bad), and that you like, comment, and share on social media. Providing this kind of attentiveness shows your old and new customers that you truly care and you put your customers first. Consumers are looking for services personalized to them and their needs, so if you engage with them on this very personal level you will likely be rewarded. 


Community and Charitable Engagement 

Consumers want to work with a company that not only has a personality, but that gives back to their community. The giving season is November, December, and January, so you should at the very least plan ways you can support your community during those months. 

Your trucks alone are very valuable for organizations that may not have the largest infrastructure to support a fleet of trucks. Move for Hunger is a great organization to consider partnering with.

“Move For Hunger is a national non-profit organization that has created a sustainable way to reduce food waste and fight hunger. We have mobilized the leaders of moving, relocation, and multi-family industries to provide their customers, clients, and residents with the opportunity to donate their food when they move. Members of Move For Hunger also organize community food drives, participate in awareness campaigns, and create employee engagement programs.”  


Blogging 

This is a FREE platform that will help your organic SEO and is another way to keep your customers and potential customers up to date on what your moving company is accomplishing and what you have to offer. 

You OWN this space, so take advantage of the freedom this gives you. Your blog should be answering the pressing questions your potential customers have, so continue to do research on keywords and phrases consumers are typing into Google using Google’s Keyword Planner.


Offers and Coupons

If you do not want to sign up as a merchant on Groupon, you can still promote the offers and coupons available to your customers. We recommend you create a unique landing page and URL where you direct consumers to where they can get the details on your offer/coupon. Your landing page should include a form they can fill out to provide their contact information. 

Why? A unique URL allows you to track the effectiveness of your coupon’s promotion. If there is a lot of traffic going to this unique URL you know it is working. If you are just getting the traffic but no form submissions, then you may assume your offer isn’t enticing enough, the form isn’t prevalently featured, or the form may be too long and people give up on filling it out. 

The nice part of landing pages and digital marketing is you can test multiple versions. We recommend A/B tests where you change one variable at a time on the second landing page you build (B version) and see which version does best. You can keep doing this type of testing until you find the most effective option. Like any data collection and comparison, best practices ensure you allow enough time for the test to play out. We recommend tracking results for at least a month before making a decision on which one was most effective. 

An A/B test tool we use is Google Optimize. For the unique URL, you can ask your web developer to produce these unique pages, or you can use one of the multiple landing page providers that are out there. One of our favorite landing page providers is Instapage. 


Find a Marketing Partner 

MovingLeads.com has been working with movers since 2003 to help them promote their services to homeowners that have just listed their home on the market. We understand the ins and outs of the industry and what does and what does not work for movers. 

We offer direct mail services and digital marketing services. According to the Direct Marketing Association, Direct Mail has the highest response rate, other than telephone marketing, with more than double the response of any type of digital, social, or online marketing strategy.

Direct mail household response rate is at 1-3% (compared to .2% mobile, .1% email, .1% social media, and .02% internet display). These stats mixed with our quality moving leads should make the decision to launch a direct mail campaign a no-brainer. Want to learn more? 

Schedule a FREE no-obligation consultation with our Business Development Associate Mark today!

Categories: Setting Up & Managing Postcard Campaigns, Direct Mail Marketing, Marketing Tech & Resources, Online Marketing and Website