What is Mail Address Hygiene and Why Does it Matter?

While you might usually equate hygiene with a person, the term has application across many industries, including a way to ensure that the right mail gets to the right place. This has become increasing important as the cost of using the United States Postal Service is making using the mail system for marketing and advertising a larger expense. Therefore, you want to make sure your mail gets in front of your target audience.

What is a Dirty Address?

A dirty address is a bad address and it must be scrubbed from your direct mail list as it means wasted printing, paper, labor, and postage fees that cut into your bottom line. Also, it could also mean the cost of a relationship because if the mail doesn’t reach your existing customer because you are sending correspondence to an old address, that customer will think you are no longer interested in them due to a lack of communication.

Stats on Changing Addresses

In a 2009 white paper, Melissa Data noted some of the most important statistics you need to know about changing addresses and the cost of not using a mail hygiene strategy:

• 43 million Americans move each year. 
• More than 17 percent of Americans change their residence annually and nearly 20 percent of all businesses change locations. 
• Industry experts estimate that address databases become dirty at a rate of 15 percent each year because of personal and business moves.

The white paper used an example of the true costs of having a dirty mail database:

In 2009, a First-Class™ mail piece cost $0.33 at the 5-digit presort rate category. If you mailed 25,000 pieces and 7,000 are undeliverable as addressed, then you just flushed $2,310 in postage down the toilet. The cost is even greater if you factor in the cost to create and print each of those 7,000 undeliverable pieces. Say, it cost $1.10 to design and print each one. That is an additional cost of $5,500 in marketing costs, which means you have wasted approximately $7,810.

Scrub a Dub Dub Time
Now that you know why it is important to have clean address databases, it’s time to learn the best strategies for mail hygiene:

• Address hygiene software can analyze customer-supplied mailing lists and change-of-address processing through NCOALink, which is the National Change of Address system, to improve address accuracy and mail deliverability. This provides current and accurate delivery point-coded addresses for all types of moves to increase your ability to get the right mail into the right hands.
•  Data consolidation and standardization includes validation and correction of street, city, and state data; standardization of street prefix, suffix, and secondary address data components; enhanced and corrected ZIP+4^® Codes; the addition of United States Postal Service^® Carrier Route Codes, United States Postal Service^® Line-of-Travel, and Delivery Point Bar Code data; and identification of  undeliverable and non-forwardable addresses.
• Suppression processes help to decrease the cost of inefficient customer prospecting by removing those addresses that may be listed on the Do Not Mail or Deceased Suppression lists. 

Practical and Resource-Saving Solutions
Reducing undeliverable mail can be easy thanks to partnering with companies like Advanced Mailing Services. Find out how we can help you take care of address validation and change-of-address processing, which will save both resources and your customer relationships.