Inefficiencies in mailing data waste time and money. And of course poor data also risks irritating potential customers.  This means that a good starting point for any mail campaign is a root and branch clean up.

Specialist mailing software and programs look at the content and appearance of your data. Therefore, based on findings they clean your data into an efficient format. This:

•    Removes duplicate entries to avoid mailing the same person twice.
•    If address information has been repeated within an entry row, removes in-line duplicates
•    Corrects letter casing to proper case.
•    Eliminates bad characters and typing errors.
•    Generates salutations and valedictions, including correct gender prefixes.
•    Suppresses gone aways, the deceased and people registered on the Mailing Preference Service file (MPS).
•    Identifies and removes obscenities (most commonly seen in databases with direct input from a website).
•    Cross references address fields with Royal Mail PAF (Postcode Address File).
•    Formats address fields to country specific layouts.

A full data clean up also reduces postage waste as well as increasing the professional appearance of communications. Clean mailing data also meets data protection requirements and Royal Mail product compliance.

If there are records in your database that you don’t want to use for specific mailings then data suppression services will remove them.

There are many ways of suppressing mailing data. The most popular options are:

•    File Suppression.  Excludes records from a new mailing list based on an existing file. For instance a ‘Not to Mail’ or ‘Returned Data’ file.
•    Category Suppression.  Excludes records based on a category type, such as job title. For instance removes contacts with Director level job titles from mailings.
•    National File Suppression.  Removes registered deceased. Removes registered gone aways. Adds new addresses for registered house movers.

National file cross referencing is highly recommended to avoid wasting mail. Running this simple process reduces the chance of writing to anyone that is deceased. Moreover it also complies with data protection as well as Royal Mail requirements for discounted advertising mail products.

Did you know that every year in the UK 500,000 people die? A further 11% of the population move home. National file cross referencing lowers the impact of these natural database changes.

Mailing data constantly changes with costly implications for businesses.  Each week, hundreds of thousands of people move house in the UK, plus over 1,500 businesses move premises.  After just one month any mailing database can feasibly contain dead ends. Why waste resources mailing to people who won’t receive the communication?

Mailing to the wrong people or some one that is deceased causes unnecessary upset. In addition, mailing without permission to anyone on the Mailing Preference Service (MPS) is not data compliant and risks a fine.

This can be easily avoided by proper data governance. An obligation for companies, Sharp Cat deals with this in its entirety, ensuring that data is fully compliant as well as mailed in a responsible, cost-effective fashion.

How Does This Work?

A data processor runs your mailing data through comprehensive database comparisons to ensure it is both current and compliant. They remove deceased contacts, update contacts with new home addresses and remove multiple entries for the same person. They also check your data against MPS.  This process brings many benefits:

•    Reduces wasted mail sent to the wrong address; cuts print, mail and postage costs.
•    Reconnects you with customers who’ve moved; pre-existing customers are more likely to buy from you again than new contacts.
•    Protects your company from a poor reputation caused by inaccurate mailing.
•    Keeps you compliant with data regulatory requirements.
•    Helps qualify you for the machinable mail discounts available from all the major carriers and Royal Mail.

Most businesses have a core database of contacts for their mailing, but inevitably this can be limiting.  Supplementing an existing list with new data extends the reach, to maximise the chance of a boosted response.

Working with experienced and regulated data brokers Sharp Cat provides mailing data lists which are:

•    Competitively priced
•    Up to date
•    Checked against national databases for Mailing Preference Service opt-outs
•    Effectively targeted to each campaign, so that contacts are more likely to respond to the mailing

If you need household or commercial property coverage then Geolist© data mapping provides data for every household and business in the UK. Using data from the National Office of Statistics, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail PAF to use Geolist© simply select the area you want to mail on a map at geolist.co.uk. Or to save time have the area drawn for you and sent with a link to view and edit.

It’s well documented that online crime is soaring.  Cyber-crime costs UK businesses over £20 billion annually, so it’s more important than ever for companies to ensure that data is secure. A compromise in security has consequences for customers and is a breach of data protection.

Sharp Cat data transfer, processing and processes are secure. Registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office since 2003, client data is stored on key-pad entry servers with approved back-up, destruction, risk management and disaster recovery protocol.

Did you know that your mailing data is at risk when being transmitted? – Email is not as secure as many businesses believe.  That’s why Sharp Cat provides an encrypted file transfer system. Operated with total security, safe file transfer protects data files from unauthorised interception.