In automotive marketing, timing is everything. Purchasing a new car, making large repairs, or even changing auto insurance are all major decisions that consumers often don’t take lightly. Therefore, it’s imperative for auto marketers to use actionable insights into the consumer’s state of mind when implementing a campaign.  Even the best offer sent at the wrong time will most likely be ignored, which means a waste of time and expenses for the business.

Consumer targeting can take many forms including purchasing lists, employing look alike modeling strategies, or focusing on individuals who have implied interest in purchasing or insuring a vehicle. Regardless of the type of consumer targeting your marketing plan employs, experts agree that a focus is imperative to a successful campaign. A fourth means of consumer targeting that has proven itself valuable in the automotive sector is state of change targeting.

Consumer States of Change

The two main types of consumer states of change are life changes and asset changes. Examples of life changes are marriage, divorce, new job, new child, or moving to a new city. Examples of asset changes would be purchase of a new car, boat, or house. Consumers follow a path of fairly predictable life stage events, and since asset changes often follow closely after life changes the two are closely related.

Marketers who can leverage data analytics to identify consumers in a state of change significantly increase the likelihood of attaining a new customer by reaching out at the opportune moment. Once analytic tools identify signals that imply change of state in life or assets, this data is enriched by appending it with consumer profile databases to provide a comprehensive view of the prospect, and the best way to move forward with marketing to them. For example:

Life Change – First Time Parent

Your data mining service picked up on several social and digital signals of individuals local to your car dealership implying that they’re soon to be parents. Baby shower registries, google searches for parenting advice, and an influx of purchasing pickles and ice cream (okay maybe the last one is a stretch). Registries, searches, and cravings- all signs point to a bouncing new bundle of joy!

This information is integrated with marketing data sets provided by a data solutions company which shows you that of the selected consumers which are exhibiting behaviors indicative of a new child, and that they also all own sleek 2-door sports cars. Great for joy riding, but where will the car seat go? This is an opportune moment to begin marketing your safest, family oriented vehicle.

By  assessing the comprehensive customer profile enriched with marketing data, you can make an educated decision on what marketing strategy, for example a targeted online advertisement or a direct mail postcard, will make the biggest impact on your prospect.

Asset Change – New Auto Purchase

This one is a bit more of a no-brainer, but it’s still an excellent example of tapping into asset changes for targeted marketing by auto insurance companies. The first step is the change of data insight. By monitoring auto data files, insurance companies can know exactly when a car is bought or sold.

The information of the new owner from the VIN database can then be enriched by other data sources. Once a comprehensive consumer profile is created with IP and digital intelligence information, telephone information, and address information this profile can be inserted into the insurance company’s marketing platform that will be the best match for the target.

Leveraging Big Data can improve most consumer targeting strategies, but it is especially imperative for stage of life targeting. Marketers who use real-time data are able to make contact with consumers near the moment they enter the market, giving them the competitive edge they need to make the sale.

To build a comprehensive view of your prospects with leading data on automotive consumers, learn more about AutoID.