When you’re trying to improve
campaign response, cleaning your mailing list may not make the top of your “to
do” list, but it deserves a spot.
Mailing duplicate addresses or bad addresses not only tarnishes your
results, but it also increases your costs.
Start by checking your house list
regularly. Whether you choose to clean
it up at the beginning of the year, the end of the year, or before your big,
annual campaign, pick one—or two—key time to inspect the quality and accuracy
of your list. Let your data processor
run your list through the Postal Service’s tools to make sure the addresses are
current and deliverable. Perform an
internal merge/purge to remove duplicate addresses for individuals. Identify and remove addresses of deceased
individuals or out-of-business businesses.
Doing so will give you a more accurate view of your house “universe,”
and it will save you from spending printing and postage dollars on marketing
that will never reach its market.
Then, be sure to merge/purge your
house list with your rental lists for every campaign. Rental lists pulled from similar industries
or with similar criteria are bound to have duplicate names. The more rental lists you incorporate, the
more at risk you are of wasting money.
Work with a data processor to establish your merge/purge criteria and
then wait for the results. You’ll be
able to more accurately determine print counts, and you’ll have a better handle
on your postage costs. You’ll also find
out which rental lists are better maintained, and you’ll see which list fees
you can seek reductions on, based on the number of undeliverable names.
One final thought: identifying the
duplicates and mailing to just one occurrence cuts down on customer
frustration, printing quantities and costs, and postage costs. But the benefits don’t end there. Identifying the multibuyers earns you another
contact opportunity. Wait a few weeks
and remail your campaign to those individuals.
You paid for those names, after all.
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