How Your List Affects Postage Costs

HOW YOUR LIST AFFECTS POSTAGE COSTS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!

The quality and accuracy of address information in mailing lists is one of the areas least understood and largely overlooked by most businesses using direct mail. To get an advertising message delivered the address must be correct! Many firms that use direct mail neglect this vital aspect. Is there a "printing" mentality of creating "one" and reproducing it "thousands" of times? The "one to one" aspect of valuing each individual's information must be applied to every single record in a list.

Quality data entry and following input guidelines consistently generates accurate street, city, province and postal code information. Consistent data entry also improves the ability to match records and eliminate duplicates. Every duplicate mailed results in a poor company image and costs double in printing, mail processing and postage to reach the same person twice. Direct marketers need to be concerned about how many duplicates are in the list, determine how much it is costing and ask what can be done about it!

What may look like a correct address may not be true when compared against the Canada Post master list of all addresses in Canada. To receive the reduced postage rate for mailings of 5,000 or more, a list will go through a computer process to verify or "validate" that the addresses are deliverable. It must show a 95% rate of accuracy to qualify for the usual postage. A penalty of 5 cents each will be added to the regular postage cost for those records below 95%. What does this mean? On a mailing of 20,000 records, attaining an accuracy rating of 75% is 20% below the required percentage. 20% of 20,000 records is 4,000 invalid records x 5 cents = $200 additional in postage to send out mail that may not get delivered.

If it costs approximately $1.00 per record for printing, mail processing and postage for 4,000 addresses that may end up in the recycle bin anyway, you have now spent $4,200 more on your mailing with no sales results. It is cost effective to look at those records deemed "invalid" and correct or eliminate them before your next mailout.

Records are deemed "invalid" when the street, city, province and postal code information do not reflect a "deliverable" destination and can be caused by any of the factors listed below.

Common Errors Affecting Address Accuracy

• Obsolete postal codes


• Invalid or missing postal codes


• No street direction included in address


• Numbered street name entered incorrectly


• Station qualifiers missing for post office boxes and rural routes


• Non address information in address fields


• Unusual characters and unnecessary punctuation

Obsolete postal codes Many rural delivery services have been restructured by Canada Post and now include the civic address and/or a new postal code. Re-development and growth of older urban areas, amalgamation of towns and growth of urban areas can create restructuring resulting in new postal codes being assigned. Therefore, addresses that were once correct may now be out of date and undeliverable.

Invalid or missing postal codes Data entry of postal codes could be incorrect or not included at all! The postal code can be tricky to input. Here is how a postal code should be input: V6P 2K7. There should be no hyphen between the first 3 and the last 3 characters, simply put one space not two or none and use capitals for the letters.

No street direction included in address You must specify the complete direction of an address. Examples:

34 AVE NE 800 GEORGIA ST W 24 ST E

There may be a 34 AVE NW so if it is input as 34 AVE or 34 AVE N, the postal code will not match. There could be an 800 GEORGIA ST E so without the full address and the right direction the record may be deemed "invalid".

Numbered street name entered incorrectly Treat numbered streets like any other street name and enter them like this: 468 23 ST Do no put "23rd St". That is old fashioned and confuses computer programs. Same goes for 25th, 22nd and 1st. Numbered streets with a letter attached to it like "23A ST" should have the "A" right next to the number.

Spelling errors Street names, city names and provinces must be spelled correctly. Streets like "Georgia" often appear as "Georgai", cities like "Mississauga" or "Tsawwassen" can easily be misspelled. And provinces should be two letters only, with no punctuation. This has created confusion as previously there were province abbreviations like Alta for Alberta which is now AB. Nfld for Newfoundland which is now NL (and this has recently been changed from NF)!

Station qualifiers missing for post office boxes and rural routes A postal station is identified by a "station qualifier". Example: PO Box 436 STN C. The station qualifier "STN C" must be present along with the PO Box 436. There could be 20 postal stations in a city with a PO Box 436, but STN C tells the post office in which outlet the PO Box is located. Be sure and include that part!

There are also retail postal outlets in office buildings, 7-11 Stores, etc. The qualifier is usually an "RPO" designation. Example: PO Box 457 RPO Bentall

Rural addresses must include the "station". RR 4 STN MAIN

Non address information in address fields Non delivery information such as the name of a building like "The Pender Building" is not considered to be "delivery information" and will confuse the Address Validation and Correction program. If you wish to include the building name, place it in the field above the actual street info. Computer processes read addresses from the bottom up starting with the postal code, province, city, street2, street1 information in that order.

Unusual characters and punctuation The post office uses high speed scanners to process machineable mail. A number sign # should not appear in the address.

Rural addresses like "R.R. #5 STN MAIN" should be input as "RR 5 STN MAIN".

COMP 52 SITE 13 RR 5 is more easily scanned and matched than COMP. 52, SITE 13, RR #5. This format also saves keystrokes on data entry!

Commas and unnecessary inclusion of the period (.) should be avoided as scanners are looking for letters and numbers only.

Preferred input style for apartments: 345 MAIN ST APT 301 Acceptable style: 301 ? 345 MAIN ST

When an address relates to a "4th floor" rather than a suite input it as: 400 ? 341 MAIN ST or else place the "4th floor" in the street1 field and "345 MAIN ST" in the street2 field.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW

1. Create quality data entry guidelines and maintain consistency of data entry.

2. Keep your list current and have it run through the Address Correction and Validation program at least once a year no matter what size your list is. This procedure will "correct" or "reformat" most addresses and generate a report showing your percentage of Address Accuracy. The updated list will include a new field coded in such a way to show which records were "corrected" and are "invalid". You may then take action to update your database.

3. Eliminate duplicates with your updated, refreshed and reformatted addresses to save yourself lots of money on your next mailing.

This report was written by Sasha Peters who has 16 years experience in the direct mail industry. She is the author of Smooth MAILING, a comprehensive guidebook for using Addressed Admail in Canada. Visit www.bulkmailcanada.com for more bulk mail information and free tips on how to mail in large volume.

Tel: 604-729-1300 Email: info@bulkmailcanada.com

---

Mortgage Marketing to Realtors ? Creating a Memorable Positioning Statement

Mortgage marketing to Realtors involves having a crystal clear position... Read More

Free Publicity for Restaurants

One of the best ways to get a restaurant free... Read More

Commercial Collections By Telephone

The telephone enables a credit manager to make many contacts... Read More

Step by Step Guide to an SMS Campaign

SMS is good for:? Short lead times and immediacy ?... Read More

Marketing Your Franchise Online

Do you want to successfully market your business franchise online?... Read More

The Death of Product Packaging as We Know It.

It used to be you that if you had a... Read More

Provacative Research Works

If you want to double your business, then you need... Read More

Why Do You Need to be in the SERPS?

Why does your business need to be in the Search... Read More

Benefits of Developing & Maintaining a Database

A database is more than a simple list of names... Read More

A Seven Letter Word That Helped a 3 Month Marketing Newbie to Online Success

Who would have thought that a three month newbie and... Read More

What Does Your Logo Color Say About Your Business?

And not only your logo, but also your website, your... Read More

Marking Your Territory

We all know the familiar adage "if it walks like... Read More

Every Days a Holiday!

You probably know that February 2nd is Groundhog Day. But... Read More

Networking Events ? Lose the Fear and Gain the Benefits

"Kevin, are you saying I need to go to Networking... Read More

Celebrity Product Placement: A Primer

With more and more companies wanting to integrate their products... Read More

Client or Customer? There Really Is A Difference

Some people use the words "client" and "customer" interchangeably or... Read More

Keeping Marketing Simple / Ten Simple Steps

1. Business CardsIt is very important to market yourself via... Read More

Walking Talking Advertisements

So you've made a sale. Great!Now what? You're not just... Read More

Neuromarketing: Smart Marketing Or Jedi Mind Control Trick?

In the international bestseller "Blink," Malcolm Gladwell explains why our... Read More

How to Write Irresistible Promotional Pieces that Attract More and Better Clients

Whether you're creating a sales letter, a brochure, a newsletter,... Read More

The Most Important Marketing Principles of All Time

As you have probably experienced there is a lot of... Read More

Lessons Learned at the Harvard Business School

"If God wanted to create a perfect punishment for a... Read More

Direct Mail Formats: How to Choose the Right One for Your Next Mailing

Which pulls the best response, a postcard, a self-mailer or... Read More

The Advantages of Full Color Brochure Printing

A brochure can be a great promotional tool, whether it... Read More

Principles of Marketing 101

Marketing results should be measured in only one way ?... Read More

Multicultural Marketing ? Taking Care of Business At Hand

Multicultural marketing mirrors the changed face of America and is... Read More

Ten Crucial Questions

Ten Crucial Questions for Your Business Future I'm... Read More

Maximizing Your Yellow Page Investment

Yellow Page users are the hottest of all prospects ?... Read More

An Example of Understanding Consumer Thinking

A church in my community provided me with one of... Read More

Marketing Strategy - Spell Out Your Unique Value

I attended a "Sales Focus" seminar a few years back... Read More

2 Great, Free Techniques to Get Customers to Come to You, Not the Other Way Around

Here is a powerful tip on how to substantially increase... Read More

Direct Mail Personalization

A colleague who does work for a nonprofit organization contacted... Read More

Marketing Lessons From Apples iPod

Apple Computer just announced that their earnings from the last... Read More