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Every direct mail marketer aspires to effectively and affordably contact their target demographic at the ideal moment and with the ideal message.

Cleaning up your original data mail file is crucial if you want to be able to contact your clients and business partners at the right address.

Importance of Clean Data

Any business that relies on accurate data to make decisions needs to perform regular data cleaning. Companies can guarantee that the data they rely on is up-to-date, accurate, and relevant by routine data cleansing. Employees will spend less time working with outdated or irrelevant data, which will boost efficiency.

Regular data cleansing can also lessen data inaccuracies and inconsistencies, resulting in better decision-making and better business results. Regular data cleansing can raise the accuracy of mailing lists for direct mail marketing, resulting in higher response rates and a more effective campaign.

An easy way to lower the expense of direct mail advertising, particularly for letters, packages, and direct mailers, is to regularly clean your data. Data clean-up is a must when you want to sure you reach your target audience, whether you send direct mail to clients or business partners. It is impossible to exaggerate the significance of data cleaning.

Businesses can increase the efficiency and efficacy of their direct mail efforts, resulting in higher response rates, more conversions, and better business results by retaining accurate and up-to-date data.

Clean Data Resources

The most popular data cleaning process is using CASS™ and/or NCOA™ databases. Both databases are supported and maintained by the United States Postal Service®.   

CASS™

By standardizing addresses and ensuring their accuracy, CASS™ (Coding Accuracy Support System) is a useful tool that maintains the accuracy of mailing lists. When sending mail in a "presorted" category, CASS™ is required for all mail files.

The benefits of using CASS™ include:

✔ increased delivery rates

✔ lower undeliverable mail expenses

✔ better mail processing efficiency

CASS™ offers significant data quality measures that can assist organizations in identifying issues with their mailing lists, such as the existence of duplicate data or incorrect addresses. Money can be saved by knowing which addresses to add or remove, especially when sending out a large campaign. Marketers can ensure that their mailings are delivered to the correct customers and save money by not sending mail that will never reach them by utilizing CASS™ data cleaning tools.

NCOA™

The NCOA™ (National Change of Address) database, which is kept up to date by the USPS®, contains information on people and households that have moved during the last 18 to 48 months. Not all moves will be recorded since NCOA™ only updates addresses for people who have sent a change of address form.

The accuracy of other data points, such as name or corporate affiliation, which can potentially affect the performance of a direct mail campaign that is not verified by NCOA™. This is an important point to keep in mind. Only addresses within the United States can be updated using NCOA™; addresses for people who have relocated outside of the country cannot be updated. 

You can download this free resource for more information about NCOA™ and CASS™ reason codes when planning your next direct mail marketing campaign.

It is recommended that you run your data sets through the more rigorous PCOA data cleaning process at least once a year to check for structural errors, duplicate entries, mislabeled categories, and syntax errors.  

Proprietary Change of Address, or PCOA, is a data cleaning solution that adds an extra layer of data analysis and handles missing data for direct mail marketing operations. Although NCOA™ and CASS™ are efficient at data transformation, they might not record all moves or changes in addresses, particularly for those who do not notify the USPS® of a change of address.

By using information from credit headers, public records, and other sources to identify and update individual addresses, PCOA contributes to closing this incomplete data gap.

The benefits of using PCOA for direct mail marketing campaigns include:

✔ improved response rates and a more successful campaign

✔ identification of probable fraud or identity theft

✔ improve the effectiveness and speed of mail processing

Companies are able to ensure that their mailing lists are as accurate and current as possible by using PCOA in conjunction with NCOA™ and CASS™, which will increase the ROI for their direct mail marketing efforts.

For direct mail marketers, ARS (Address Resolution Service) is a potent tool that uses cutting-edge algorithms to locate and correct data errors or handle missing data. To find probable matches, ARS compares data from your mailing list, including name and address, to a sizable database of known information. The mailing list is then updated by ARS in accordance with its analysis of each record using advanced data transformation algorithms.

By automating the process of locating and fixing incorrect or incomplete addresses, ARS can save both time and money while increasing the effectiveness of mail processing.

Companies can rest assured that their mailing lists are as accurate and current as possible by using ARS in conjunction with other data hygiene technologies like NCOA™, CASS™, and PCOA. This increases the ROI for their direct mail marketing initiatives. To help you get the most out of your client data, we offer a comprehensive range of database marketing services, including data appending for missing values, data cleaning, segmentation, and programming sophisticated variable mailings. More importantly, we have strengthened our security measures to ensure that your customer information is always secure.

Depending on what you're looking for, we provide a variety of data analytics techniques, such as data cleaning, cluster segmentation, regression analysis, and demographic profiling, all of which are designed to help you get more out of your marketing budget.

Find ways to make your current marketing initiatives better while saving money. For more cost-saving tips, register for our FREE Education Email Series Direct Mail: Cost Reduction Strategies.