As a small business owner, one of your most critical assets is your mailing list. You need your mailings to have the best data integrity and delivery possible for every campaign so response rates remain on the rise. However, as your customer lists grow, so do your challenges in ensuring that the quality of information continues. The integrity of your data is not only your best defense against the significant costs of undelivered mail pieces, but also it is the greatest factor in determining whether your lists will prove themselves to be a commodity.
Without a doubt, one of the greatest challenges is maintaining the integrity of data in your mailing lists. The most effective strategy a small business owner can employ is to take steps to reduce the number of undeliverable mail pieces and ensure each piece makes it to the right mailbox on schedule. Now more than ever, you must have a list cleansing process that maintains the integrity of your list with each and every mailing. There are several key components you must consider to improve deliverability and thus save you postage and printing costs, while increasing response rates and the bottom-line:
1. Get it right the first time. When it comes to data integrity, there is no better way to save future time and effort than by checking and verifying data when it first enters your database. Data management service providers offer the ability to check your lists against numerous marketing data sources to ensure both new and existing files are up-to-date and as accurate as possible.
2. Identify name and address duplicates. Duplicates can be the largest waste of your resources. The good news is that sophisticated service providers can save you money by reducing, if not eliminating, duplicates in your lists. Some strategies include:
- Use enhanced software or service providers to detect duplicates where the first digit of last name is not the same.
- Identify special situation duplicates, such as the female ‘married/maiden name’ duplicates.
- If mailing pieces at the individual level, test the impact of mailing at the household level (one piece per last name per address) or even at the address level (one piece per address regardless of last name).
3. Use special suppression files and customer data integration (CDI) to identify more duplicates. Among special suppress files that can be used to identify undesirable mailings are deceased suppress files, prison suppress files, and old address suppress files. CDI is a data management process where prospects and customers are linked by a persistent ID that ties records together even if they don’t have the same address.
4. Employ supplemental processes to correct records with missing or invalid secondary numbers. Using proprietary processes from some service providers to append missing secondary information, i.e. apartment number, is well worth the investment. Tests have determined that, on average, 25% to 40% of the records destined for a high-rise building without an apartment number or with an invalid apartment number can be repaired, improving delivery and thus response.
5. Incorporate demographics that can be overlaid onto your lists. Demographic information can be utilized to help determine which records you should potentially not mail because of the larger than normal likelihood this person will not respond.
As you continue to invest significant time and money in planning and producing your marketing campaigns, be sure to consider and incorporate these list processing techniques and strategies. A little bit of list cleansing will not only result in on-time and cost-effective mailings, but also increase the inherent value of your lists. Constant and consistent vigilance in employing the best data integrity strategies will ensure your lists become a key opportunity rather than a frustrating commodity.
Mike Yapuncich ([email protected] ) is the vice president of solutions support for Experian
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