Ok, so we’ve previously spoken about the importance of data and how crucial it is to collect it and use it effectively. However, arguably more important than the amount of data, is the quality of your data. To be of use, data must be current, accurate and relevant. But this is easier said than done. According to research, every 6 minutes, a business changes its address and in excess of 5.7 million employee and business details change. Faced with constant change, how sure are you that the data remains valuable?
After all the hard work you’ve been through securing budgets, planning campaigns and setting targets, why would you throw money away mailing someone who is never going to receive it? The only way to ascertain the accuracy of the information you have is to give your database a regular health check.
Conducting a data health check is a vital part of eliminating bad data from client mailing lists. It should be the starting point for all direct mail campaigns and it’s an opportunity to add incremental value to your marketing communications by reducing data wastage and ensuring the people you mail actually receive your message.
During the health check it’s important to screen data for a wide range of things by matching it against no fewer than 13 different suppression lists. As part of this process unmailable addresses can be removed or updated using PAF enhancement (updating addresses to match Royal Mail’s address file). Goneaways (no longer at this address) can be removed or updated using the address forwarding file.
A datacheck can also screen for deceased recipients and remove them and, for a more sensitive approach, you can also suppress the names of anyone living at the same address as someone recently deceased. A health check is also an opportunity to remove any obscenities found in your files – it’s amazing what some people will put in data capture forms. Finally, a health check will also removes duplicates. Nobody needs two of the same mailer and you don’t want to spend your money twice.
The benefits of a data cleanse are obvious – improve the chance of your message getting to the right person, save on the production and delivery costs that you’d otherwise waste (thereby improving ROI), reduce wastage of raw materials (a big tick from a CSR point of view) and protect your brand image from the potentially irreparable damage that could come from an insensitively timed or addressed mailing.
For one client we recently removed well over 80, 000 uncontactable records from their original mailing list, saving £16k on postage and making a significant difference to ROI.
A health check will help you highlight areas for improvement in the current state of your data. We offer a health check for free as we believe it’s an opportunity to improve your ROI and understand the potential uplift in revenue that can be achieved from your data assets.
