So what’s all the fuss about the New Move Update with the United States Post Office?  Well, BB Direct offers a simple explaination to help clear matters up.

Since November 23rd, 2008, the Postal Service have revised the Move Update standards in an effort to reduce the mail that ends up forwarded or returns when the mailing address provided had previously been changed.  The gist of the staying compliant is that you now must be sure to update your mailing address within 95 days of your mailing.  This includes all Standard Mail (letters, flats, parcels and Not Flat-Machinables), as well as automated-rate and presort-rate First-Class Mail.

The autorized methods for Updating your mail to stay compliant are:

~  NCOA Link processing
~  FASTforward MLOCR processing (letter mail only)
~  OneCode ACS (Address Change Service) in conjunction with an intelligent Mail barcode and a mailer ID.
~  Address Change Service used with an ACS participant code and an appropriate on-piece ancillary service endorsement.
~  Use of an appropriate on-piece ancillary service endorsement without ACS.

BB Direct offers the NCOA Link processing to correct changed records and keep your mailing list compliant.  For more information on our data hygiene services, visit us here.

The 18 month NCOA Link processing provides National Change of Address processing for the last 18 months.  This process will not correct those people who have relocated from 18 to 48 months ago.  This processing was designed to satisfy the most common file updating.  The processing is perfect for files that have already been NCOA’d within the last 18 months, or if the database you’re going to mail has been purchase within the last year and you are planning to mail again.

USPS New Move Compliance
To satisfy the United States Post Office requirements when mailing Standard Rate, you will need to be sure that all files used are new move compliant.  The requirement is that your mailing list has been NCOA’d within 95 days of mailing.

B-Clean Lite data hygiene
The B-Clean Lite process is offered by BB Direct and provides a combination of both the 18 month NCOA and ANK Link Processing.  The ANK Link Processing flags those records where a move had occurred but did so between 18 and 48 months ago.  It also provides the date of the move but does not correct the address itself.  The B-Clean Lite product from BB Direct is perfect for all files in that it is a cost effective way to correct those recent moves and flag those older moves at a low cost.  You can then decide what to do with the older flagged addresses, i.e., delete them, add “Or current resident” to the address, or gather these records together and process with the 48 Month NCOA Link processing. BB Direct also offers an unlimited access FTP site folder for the B-Clean Lite folder.  This folder is password protected and available 24/7 to make NCOA correction available any hour of the day.  The system is cost effective and simple to use.

If you would like to learn more about BB Direct’s data hygiene product line click here, or visit our website or other fine mailing list products.

Direct mail marketing businesses rely on accurate sales leads to grow their business.  Without accurate mailing list data, many businesses miss out on lost opportunity.  Overtime, the best mailing list can become stale.  People relocate and mailing list records change.  That is why it’s so vitally important to keep your mailing list updated and current, track these changes, and avoid missed opportunity.

Mailing list data hygiene processes all you to keep your internal customer mailing list clean and healthy.  Like visiting your doctor for a regular check-up instead of just when problems occur, keeping your mailing list clean avoid potential problems from ever occurring.

This also holds true with regard to telemarketing record data.  As people relocate, their telephone number changes along with their mailing address.  If you have mailing list that’s clean and up-to-date, appending accurate phone information to this mailing list will allow you to stay in contact with the people you intend to stay in contact with.  Likewise, when an individual relocates and changes phone number, their old phone number goes back into the pool of available phone numbers and is reassigned to a completely different person.  To the unsuspecting direct mail marketer, when perform a direct mail campaign with a follow-up telemarketing campaign, they may see a higher and higher degree of inaccurate phone accuracy rate over time.

So the importance of keeping both your mailing list and telemarketing list updated and current cannot be stressed enough.  Not only will you cut cost by not spending on printing and postage to direct mail to non-existent people, but the loss of potential business opportunity increases over time because those people who’ve relocated will simply never receive your offer and thus, never respond.

Customers new to the direct mailing industry may not understand common issues that occur in mailing list compilation and the direct mail delivery process. Following are some common questions and explanations.

It is important to note that mailing list accuracy is only one aspect of deliverability. Production processes and creative execution also impact mailing list deliverability rates.

What deliverability rate should I expect with my direct mail campaign? What is an acceptable direct mail deliverability rate?

The industry average typically quoted is 90%. Reasons for delivery errors are primarily due to the issues addressed below.

Why are there deceased individuals on my mailing list?

The main source for the Deceased Suppression file is the Social Security Administration (SSA). Vendors receive quarterly updates of the file and suppress deceased names as part of each compilation process. If an individual did not collect social security benefits through the SSA, they are not included on this deceased file. Most mailing list vendors consider individuals with no activity for 48 months “deceased” and remove them from their mailing list.

Why are single households receiving multiple mail pieces?

To avoid this, dedupe the mailing list on the address level not the household level. In vendor compilation procedures, a “duplicate” is defined as an individual containing the same name at the same address. Different surnames at the same address are NOT considered duplicates.  As an example, two individuals with different last names living at the same address are considered two separate households.

Why are there inaccurate addresses and/or names that do not match addresses on my mailing list?

Part of the vendor mailing list compilation process utilizes the United States Postal Service (USPS). Every month the USPS provides vendors with a Locatable Address Coding System (LACS) file. Most mailing list inaccuracies are the result of a local postmaster providing incomplete or inaccurate mailing list information. When vendors match against the LACS file there must be an EXACT name and address match. If postmasters submit a variation, this will lead to a non-match and a non-conversion of that address.

How are Change of Addresses (COA) filed?

When a person completes an NCOA (National Change of Address) request with the post office, they may file either as an “individual” or as a “household”. If a “household” move is marked, any same surnames in the household will be moved to the new address.

Why is age mailing list data sometimes listed as “estimated”?

A high percentage of vendor files are coded with exact age obtained from date of birth data. When “date of birth” does not exist, vendors apply various data points to “estimate” age. In most cases, the “estimated age” will fall within five years of the exact age. “Estimated” age data is not inaccurate. It is a reliable and accepted industry practice.

Why are there inaccuracies in income data?

In general, most “estimated household income” mailing list data is very accurate. Vendors use various methods to estimate or infer income; real estate, martial status, age, presence of children, sale price of home, summarized credit statistics, census demos, etc. When available, actual income data at the individual and household level may be used to validate “estimated income”. Errors are generally isolated and using estimated income when building your mailing list criteria mostly accurate.

Is the mailing list you are about to rent updated?  Good question.  Many believe that at each update, a marketable database is compiled from scratch with new names added and any inaccuracies eliminating.  There is a common belief that should you mail to an acquired list, there will be no undeliverable mailing addresses and 100% of your list will be delivered to the people who the homes in which they are addressed.  Every compiler of data, no matter how “freshly” updated the list, will have errors.

The facts
Let’s set the record straight.  No database, no matter how frequently updated is 100% accurate.  On average, a consumer mailing list will be between 5% and 7% undeliverable at any given time.  Improvements can be made to your mailing to increase deliverability, but in general terms, no list is perfect.

Mailing address correction vs. target inaccuracy
Let’s look more closely at the types of challenges that all compilers have with regard to building a “perfect” list.  There are two potential issues with compiling a database; NCOA and monumental life events.  Let’s tackle the first.  On average, 20% of the population relocates each year.  In general, younger renters are a more transient population than senior homeowners.  Of those younger renters who do relocate, few will fill out a National Change of Address card than the senior homeowner movers.  Though it’s a free service, completing an NCOA card is sometimes the last thing on the minds of the younger mobile generation.
The other potential issue is that of monumental life event.  Examples of these types of events are graduating from high school and college, marriage and divorce, the birth of a child, the purchase or sale of a home, getting hired or fired from a job, the death of a family member, or retirement.  With each of these examples, there are changes in financial priority and conditions that affect various select elements of a consumer mailing list.  Getting hired or fired from a job may drastically affect income, marriage or divorce changes your marital status, the purchase of a home usually affects a one’s ability to purchase but also one’s ability to save, and a growing family completely changes the family make-up of household.  The death of a beloved family member will bring about many changes to include income, family composition, and the beginnings of a number of changes may likely follow such as the sale of real estate, and relocation of the remaining family members.  These life events change how the individual or household will appear on a consumer database but the change may take time before the compiler identifies the change, and adds the change to the database.  As an example, the sale of a home is recorded at the county court house but this recording doesn’t take place immediately.  It may take 30 to 60 days for a compiler to identify and record this change on their marketable consumer database.  Many times the death of a loved one remains on a database for years.  This is because the remaining spouse neglects to add the name the deceased to the DMA Deceased File.  So long as this name and address remain on the mortgage, deed, credit card, magazine subscription, etc, their name will continue to be added to the consumer database.
Though most national consumer compilers pass their database against the NCOA every 60 to 90 days, and add whatever life event changes they can identify, minor errors in accuracy will exist.

Inhouse Customer Mailing Lists
If the compilers of national databases have a difficult time collecting and maintaining database accuracy, surely you’ll have challenges in keeping your own customer list up-to-date.  Below are a number of processes that can be performed to your clients “in-house” mailing list to improve deliverability.

NCOALink
National Change of Address Database – Choose from 18 or 48 months worth of data.  This process improves your mailing list database by correcting any mailing list records where the address change has occurred.

Move Codes
Returns a code indicating a match was possible, but not close enough to meet the strict USPS® matching guidelines for NCOALink (to offer the new address, the USPS® requires an exact match).  The move code indicates the reason a match could not be made to the NCOALink file.  On average, move codes from NCOALink will code 5.09% of a file as undeliverable.  This means that on average, every internal customer mailing list processed with the NCOA will still have records that are questionability inaccurate in terms of resident relocation because some of the records on the mailing list simply do not match up with the records on the NCOA database.

CASS Processing
This  process verifies whether or not an address is an actual valid address. On average, CASS processed addresses will code 3.96% of a file as bad / non-deliverable addresses.  This process identifies which mailing list addresses accurately compare with the actual address of the supposed mail box location within a range.  It says that, according to the United States Post Office, for the most part the mailing list this deliverable enough to qualify for postal discounts.

LACSLink
Corrects mailing address lists for areas that have undergone permanent address conversion. The LACSLink database consists of address conversions that the USPS® has obtained and verified, primarily a result of E 911 address conversions.  This process identifies those addresses that have undergone a change from simplified addressing to a unique individual address.

DSF2 TM / DPV
Using an EXACT address database from the USPS®, DSF2 verifies whether or not an address is an actual valid address.  This process will take and internal customer mailing list and identify those records that are almost correct but not entirely.  The process flags those addresses so that the direct mail marketer can decide to include those addresses or omit them.

Deceased Processing
Appends a code for people on a mailing list who are deceased. The foundation of this mailing list process is the Social Security database and individually reported deaths (a person, usually a loved one, will write in to have a person removed from a master consumer mailing list because they have passed away).  This process takes your mailing list and flags those deceased individuals.  By processing your mailing list through the deceased database, you avoid wasting your direct mail campaign budget on people who simply will not respond as well as upsetting their survivors who will then never respond to your offer.

Nth Select / List Splits / Keycodes
If you do not wish to direct mail to your entire file, a random sample (Nth Select) can be performed to meet your quantity requirements. Or maybe you have a group of mailing list names that respond better, and you wish to mail to them.  Spliting those records off of your file allows you to reduce your mailing cost while reaching the same responsive people. If you have multiple mailing list files and wish to track the response for each one, keycoding the mailing list will allow you to measure what takes how certain clusters of your mailing list responds.

Postal Qualify (Postal Presort)
Now your mailing list is ready to mail. Almost!  One final step is required. Your list must be POSTAL QUALIFIED to make sure you get the lowest postage possible.  Using a POSTAL QUALIFY program, your mailing list records are sorted to achieve every postal discount available.

Sophisticated Merge/Purge/File Suppression
Consider deduping your mailing list to remove those records located twice or more on your mailing list.  Doing so will eliminate sending your direct mail piece to the same person more than once.

No matter how well the mailing list originated, there will always be a number of inaccuracies with every mailing list. So when a list broker says their list is updated every 30 days, what exactly does that mean?  How do deceased records remain on a file for years?  Is income range accurate?  Why is it that the list isn’t 100% deliverable?

The above questions cause a great many mailers concern.  The simple fact is that no one list is entirely perfect at any given time and there are multiple reasons for inaccuracies.  Let’s start with the most common.  At any given time, a portion of the population in moving to a new location.  Is that number 20% on average in any given year?  This really depends on the market you’re mailing.  All things being equal, the younger 20 year old renters are far more transient than the senior homeowners.  So even when a list is “updated” every 30 days, there will be a number of people who have relocated since the last time we checked but the list will contain their old address.

Another reason is that unless a person fills out a National Change of Address card, it will take some time before we learn that this person has relocated.  Again, some of the population that has moved complete the NCOA card before they relocate, while others wait for a month or two to fill theirs out.  Compilers can also identify movers based on other new mover flags such as the relocation card of a magazine subscription.

If you consider how some lists are compiled, you’ll realize that some people who’ve died years ago continue to pop up on a mailing list.  This occurs because unless their name has been removed from public record, chances are; they will continually be added to the database.  These name and address can be added to the DMA Deceased Database.  Most all legitimate database compilers will pass their database against this deceased file and remove those records each time the list is “updated”.

In addition to the names and addresses being inaccurate, there are also elements of data that suffer from minor inaccuracies.   Consider a number of “inferred” elemental data such as Estimated Income or Estimated Home Value.  Though pretty accurate within a range, these numbers are in fact estimated.  There’s no way to predict the value of a home.

There are also interest categories which try to identify people with an interest in one particular hobby/behavior or another.  Typically, these interests’ categories come from reliable self reported sources.  Though self-reported data is considered accurate, when the person reported their interest could have been long ago.  To control this, it’s always good to ask if it’s possible to restrict the interest select to being captured within the last 24 months.  This keeps the data integrity in tact.  One point I want to make here is that though people relocate, the interest category goes with them.

So the next time you get a request asking, “when was the list updated”, explain that no matter how well the database is, there will always be degree of error.