According to the U.S. Postal Service, 14% of Americans move every year.  That’s about 43 million people!  If you do not have a system in place to update your databases and mailing lists from returned mail, you will waste a substantial amount of money on postage.  Even worse, some of your intended audience may not get your message.

Here’s what happens when you send first-class mail to a person or company who has moved:

• 1 – 12 months after the move: mail is forwarded at no charge to the sender.
• 13 – 18 months after the move: mail is returned to the sender with a yellow sticker attached showing the new address.
• More than 18 months after the move: mail is returned to the sender with a reason for non-delivery. The new address is not shown.

During that 13 – 18 month time window, the sender has a great opportunity to use the returned mail piece to update the source database or mailing list.  After 18 months the mail will be returned, but the sender will have to spend time researching the new address online or by phone.

Say you have a mailing list of 1000 customers or prospects, and you mail a letter and four-page brochure to them four times a year at $1.05 postage.  Over a three-year period, if you do not keep your mailing list up to date with new addresses from returned mail, you will waste almost $900 in postage.  And by the end of the three-year campaign, your message will have been routinely missed by at least 25% of your audience.  The postage waste pales beside the larger problem of missed opportunities for new sales or repeat business.

Here are four ways to make sure you reach your target audience and don’t waste postage:

• Pay attention to those yellow stickers! Make someone in your organization responsible for collecting all returned mail and updating the appropriate lists.
• Include a source code with the address on every piece of outgoing mail. This is especially important in a large organization where it can be difficult to trace returned mail back to the source.  A source code will make it easier to identify the returned mail and route it back to the group that sent it.
• Use an endorsement if you need to collect new addresses during the 12 month period after a move occurs. The U.S. Postal Service offers a variety of postal endorsements to suit different needs.  Deciding which endorsement to use can be a little daunting, so feel free to contact DataWorks mailing services if you need some direction.
• To update your addresses before you mail, run your mailing list periodically against the NCOA (National Change of Address) database. The NCOA database has 48 months of move information.  DataWorks and other mailing service vendors can do an NCOA update of your mailing list before a mailing or at any other time.  If a mailing service vendor runs your list against NCOA as part of a mailing, make sure that you get the updated addresses back so that you can merge them into your database.

Tags: Address Correction, Address Hygiene, Lehigh Valley, Mailing List Management, Returned Mail