Make Each Piece of Your Direct Mail Count

Let's start with the bottom line first: Your customers and prospects can't respond to your direct mail piece if they don't receive it. Sounds simple right? The good news is that it is, as long as you take the proper steps to ensure your addresses are correct, complete, and updated.

Most of us get tripped up on the 'updated' part. Since every piece of mail that doesn't reach your intended audience is wasted money (on postage, on printing and mail prep), commit to updating your mail list at least 3 times a year if not more.

What does this mean? Pay attention to the obvious: accurately entering new addresses by including all elements of the address: street number, proper spelling of the street name and city, secondary addresses such as suite numbers, and the most important is the zip code.

When you are trying to get a presorted postage rate, 'quality addresses' are rewarded with the deepest automation postage discounts.

The most common data entry errors that prevent my clients from getting the presorted rates are: wrong or missing abbreviations in the address, street name misspellings, missing the N,S,E or W in the street address, and transposed or missing numbers in the primary address number.

The biggest money waster if you've always kept your list 'clean'? They're the things you couldn't possibly know about: address changes. Forwarded mail is delayed, which may cause customers to miss the timeliness of your mailing. Making sure you have the most current addresses before you mail is simple, and the answer is NCOA. Make sure your mail house applies NCOA to your list, as it taps into a USPS database containing change of address notices submitted within the last 48 months. NCOA matches your mailing list against this file before your mail pieces are sent. When a match is identified, records with new addresses are updated and those listed as moves without a forwarding address are deleted. The result? A list with the highest chance of accuracy, timely delivery and minimal wasted postage.

I've found the most sophisticated mail houses include NCOA at no additional charge. But you MUST ask the question.