Michael Plummer, owner of Tampa, Fla.–based marketing firm Our Town America, advises clients on how to market their stores ­effectively to new residents in town—and why “mover” marketing works.

1. Seventeen to 20 percent of the population moves every year and those people are looking for a whole new set of things: a new grocer, a new auto mechanic.… They’re in that searching mode.

2. Mail a discount card or gift certificate to new residents—in an envelope that will catch their attention.

3. Where to find contact info? The data is out there; it’s been out there for years. Utility hookups, phone hookups…everything you do transmits a move.

4. Marketing to recent transplants has a phenomenal response rate, from 10 to 30 percent on any given campaign.

5. The initiatives get strong responses because every single month you have a brand-new audience to reach out to. And people are looking—they’re saying, “I’m new in town, and man, I have to get my watch fixed.”