Affordability is becoming an increasingly important consideration in how homeowners approach major purchases. Replacing an aging HVAC system, installing energy-efficient windows or repairing a roof involves a substantial financial commitment.

Even when a project would improve quality of life or protect a home's value, when budgets are under pressure, more households may delay the decision and prioritize other expenses.

How should home services marketers effectively engage prospective customers when purchase timing is less predictable?

For many, the first instinct may be to broadly discount services. But, let’s pause there. That strategy might work, but there’s something else to consider first.

Affordability pressures affect households differently. And, the reasons for pursuing home improvements projects vary. By taking a more nuanced approach to audience selection, home services companies can take a broader array of information into account and focus their marketing where its more likely to generate meaningful results.

Affordability Doesn’t Affect Every Household Equally

Economic conditions influence home improvement decisions across the market, but not every household in the same way. Consider three different customer scenarios.

The homeowner postponing an upgrade.

A household may want to replace its windows, upgrade its HVAC system or undertake a larger renovation but decides to wait because of competing financial priorities. A campaign highlighting premium features is probably not going to prompt immediate action.

More effective messaging might emphasize energy efficiency, financing options, or the potential costs of delaying necessary maintenance.

The homeowner facing a necessary replacement.

When an essential system fails, the decision facing a homeowner becomes less of a choice. Affordability still matters, but the homeowner will also likely put greater focus on speed, available options, and the total cost.

For these customers, campaigns messages might highlight transparent pricing and straightforward explanations of product choices.

The homeowner who remains ready to invest.

Some households will still be in a position to continue making planned improvements despite broader economic pressures. Their motivations and priorities can vary more widely.

Reaching these prospects requires a deeper look at their interests and potential purchase intent to ascertain if messages around increasing energy efficiency, improving their comfort, or enhancing the value of their home will resonate the best.

These scenarios illustrate why acting on broad assumptions may not yield the desired results. Demographics provide helpful context, but they don’t explain a potential customer’s intentions or whether they are ready to make a purchase. Combining consumer insights and data-driven evidence of interest paints a more useful picture of potential demand.

How to Refine Home Services Audiences

The current environment around affordability is an opportunity for home services marketers to revisit how they prioritize and engage prospective customers. Here’s our recommended approach.

1. Reassess audience segments. Now is a good time to look for meaningful differences among households in a market—but not necessarily by labeling them financially secure or not. Instead, identify new characteristics that can help with more refined campaign personalization. This can include as interest-based signals in home improvement, those more likely to need routine maintenance, or segments with higher propensity for energy-efficient purchases.
   
   
2. Add intent signals. Intent data offers another layer of context by identifying the consumers that are demonstrating relevant interests or researching related products and services. Prioritizing these customers prospects can help businesses focus more squarely on the people actively considering home improvement projects.
   
   
3. Match up the messaging. What questions is each audience segment likely to have? These can provide a framework for campaign messages that catch attention. And, this doesn’t always mean completely separate campaigns for each audience. Sometimes, a few key variations in creative or landing page content can provide enough resonance to improve results.
   
   
4. Evaluate geographic targeting. Each service area contains neighborhoods that may have very different household profiles or levels of interest. Campaigns that target a broad geographic area doesn’t account for these important distinctions. Consumer and household data can offer a more granular view of the market demographics across one geographic location.
   
   
5. Test and refine. Audience strategy should always be treated as an ongoing process. Don’t just evaluate results by cost-per-lead. Test different audiences, messages, and channels. Track engagement, appointments, and revenue to better understand the performance of your campaigns. Then, strategically choose which audiences to prioritize, while refining the approach or pulling back the spend with underperforming segments.

Using Consumer Intelligence to Address Affordability Issues

The conversation around affordability can sometimes make it tempting to apply broad assumptions for how consumers might act. But in reality, each household faces a unique situation. A more precise approach to marketing can consider these differences and determine the most effective path for winning new customers in spite of the current challenges.

Marketers don't need to perfectly predict every household's next move to improve campaign performance. They just need a more intentional way to identify relevant prospects and learn which audiences generate the bet outcomes.

In a time when consumers are weighing how they spend money more carefully, a thoughtful approach will help make better use of their marketing budgets while staying connected to the customers most likely to need their services. To learn more about how to more effectively approach audience segmentation in the current environment, contact the data scientists at B2E to learn more!