OK, I know: green initiatives are everywhere you turn these days, and rightly so. Postal direct mail campaigns should be no exception. With 2½-3% of a business or consumer database going “bad” each month, three data hygiene steps should be undertaken before each mail campaign to minimize wasted resources:
Address Standardization and Correction: identifies records with undeliverable addresses, and flags them for removal from the final mail file … there’s no point in putting a piece into the mail stream if it has no chance of being delivered! Additionally, the ‘standardization’ part helps to get the data into a format to optimize ‘match rates’ within and among databases.
Merge-Purge/Dupe Eliminate: decide on the dupe eliminate criteria (Keep one per individual? One per household? One per address? One per company?), and then perform a merge-purge dupe eliminate to ensure each person receives one piece in any given mailing, and one piece only. Few things make an organization look sillier or more wasteful than sending 6 of the same mailing to the same person on the same day.
National Change of Address (NCOA): run the file against a national change of address database to get the new addresses of consumers contained in your file who have moved … then, reach out to them at their new location. Talk about good customer relationship management! “We value you so much as a Client, even if you move, we will stay in touch with you!” Remember: retaining customers is less expensive than finding new ones.
Implementing this three step process ensures that your budget is invested most efficiently by avoiding wasted raw materials, labor and postage. The Direct Marketing Association has set a five-year goal to encourage list hygiene practices, and expects the measure to result in a 25% reduction in the volume of undeliverable mail by 2013.
Get your data clean and do something nice for your brand, your bottom line AND the planet!
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