MOST COMMON MISTAKE IN DIRECT MAIL DATA HANDLING

Case Study Thursday! Mailing Vendors should have a checklist of how to handle business or consumer data. If your provider does not have this, it’s time to find another mailer.

Recently, we received these two cards regarding a forthcoming tradeshow in Atlantic City. We received the emails as well, but when your business receives hundreds of emails a day, email notifications can easily get lost in the mix. This makes the mailing of any oversized postcard or regular-sized postcard for a tradeshow a smart idea.

Here, you will see two identical cards that we received, likely because we are members of the Westchester-Putnam Chapter of the OESP (Oil & Energy Service Professionals Association) and were automatically signed up to receive both electronic and direct mail notifications.

It should be noted that both cards arrived on the same day, were addressed to the same person, and were 100% identical with the destination address, which included a ZIP+4 match and likely DP3 (delivery point) verification. And, both were sent via First-Class Mail. There may be good reasons why some identical or similar mailings ought to be sent twice over a reasonable period, but in this instance, we’re pretty certain this was just a direct mail oversight. Therefore, we suggest that you double-check that your mailing service provider checks for duplicates. Don’t assume. At Cornerstone, we engage four (4) levels of duplicate review for both exact match and near-match name-addresses. At a minimum, you, as the client, should seek to avoid exact matches as shown here.

If you are doing such mailings yourself and don’t have time to check for duplicates with 100% certainty, then consider using First-Class postcards instead — they are less expensive and achieve the same effect. On these mailers (5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ Registration & Notification cards), there’s a lot of information, but we like to steer recipients’ behavior to use QR Codes for registration and/or go to a dedicated landing page on the tradeshow or organizational website page.

I also wonder if sending these cards at First-Class rates was really necessary. For small national mailings (5,000ct to 2,500ct cards or less), there might be a lack of address/ZIP Code concentration, but in our experience, a verified mailing at Marketing Mail (a.k.a. “bulk mail”) rates should be fine with sufficient time, as long as your mailing is NCOA/Move Update checked and CASS Certified/DP3 name/address verified. In other words, if you are using your own labels and are not sure (or are simply “late in getting this out!”), Then yes, you might wish to use First-Class Mail.

You might wonder, “How did your name/address get onto the list twice?” Well, the answer usually comes from the merging of several lists together, and we just happened to be on multiple lists. At Cornerstone, we can’t remember the last time we did a mailing whereby two (2) 100% identical cards were sent like this. For your organization, hopefully, you have a better sense now about the minimum standard for what you should expect.

Cornerstone Services, Inc. (www.crst.net) is a national provider of printing, data, design, and direct mail services. If you are looking for a one-stop shop provider to get such work done on time, under budget, and uneventfully, then we can help. Just reach us at info@crst.net or (845) 255-5722. You’re not alone — help is available. Call the professionals.

Image Credits: CRST Project Management / Graphic Design services (www.crst.net)