Anchor Computer

Offset Postage Increase with Address Hygiene

It’s official – the USPS® postage increase has gone into effect on January 22, 2012. This is the second postage increase approved by the Postal Regulatory Commission in less than a year. Most direct mailers will see an average increase of about 2.1% or between $0.004 and $0.001 per mail piece.

Despite the increased cost of mailing, marketers see the value in keeping direct mail as part of their 2012 marketing program. In fact, a study performed in 2011 reported that 50% of consumers still prefer receiving direct mail to any other channel. Finding a solution to decrease mailing costs versus reallocating marketing budgets has been a challenge.

Request a FREE DATABASE EVALUATION REPORT to see how Anchor’s SuperCleansing Platinum Bundle can help offset the postage increase and SAVE YOUR DIRECT MAIL BUDGET.

Optimize the delivery of your mailing list using a combination of Anchor’s postal processing services, all bundled together into one “budget saving” solution.  

Anchor’s SuperCleansing Platinum Bundle includes:

NCOALink^® – Process your mailing lists against the 48-month NCOA^Link® dataset of approximately 160 million change-of-address records filed with the USPS^®. Update mailing lists, including individuals, families and businesses that have moved.

DPV^® (Delivery Point Validation, confirms an address exists and is a USPS^® delivery point) – DPV^® allows you to eliminate costs by not mailing to non-existent addresses.

LACS^Link®  (Locatable Address Conversion System, 911 Address Conversion Tool) - Converts rural style addresses to city style addresses, improving deliverability.

CASS^TM (Coding Accuracy Support System) – Improves the Address Standardization, ZIP^® Correction, ZIP+4^® Appending, Carrier-Route Coding, Delivery Point Coding, Error Message Code, CASS^TM Report and NDI Report.

DSF^2®  (Identifies Deliverable Addresses and Specific Address Attributes) – Allows you to identify business versus residential delivery points, as well as, vacant and seasonal addresses.

AAE (Anchor Address Enhancements) – Improve addresses that cannot be ZIP + 4^® coded, resulting in improved deliverability. By using an individual name and special matching logic on the address to locate a similar address in large reference file databases, we can determine which address elements need to be changed to make the record ZIP+4^® codable. Verify an actual address exists down to an apartment or suite number. AAE also adds missing secondary address information.

Deceased/Prison Suppress  – Eliminate deceased individuals and individuals with prison addresses from mailings, prior to a promotion.

Merge Purge – Identify duplicate records in your database, based upon your marketing criteria.  Our program goes beyond name and address comparison and incorporates additional data matching elements for increased accuracy, across several different files. Any data in your file such as: Social Security Number, Gender or Telephone Number may be used for your duplicate identification process. Matches can be based on unique individual or household levels.

 Pricing of these products and services is neither established, controlled, nor approved by the United States Postal Service®.  The following trademarks are owned by the United States Postal Service®:  USPS, United States Postal Service, ZIP, ZIP Code, ZIP + 4, LACS^Link, NCOA^Link, DPV, DSF² and CASS.

It is estimated that most marketing databases contain about 5-20% duplicate records.

Whether you’re marketing via email or postal, duplicate records can increase your marketing costs and resources. Merge/Purge is the process that identifies duplicate records in your database that are returned from a matching process.  However, a merge/purge process can only be as effective as it’s matching logic.

Add Accuracy to Your Duplicate Identification With Customized Matching Options

Anchor’s Merge/Purge program goes beyond name and address comparison and incorporates additional data matching elements for increased accuracy, across several different files. Any data on your file such as: Social Security Number, Gender or Telephone Number may be used for your duplicate identification process. Matches can be based on unique individual or household levels. Click here to view sample matching options.

WHY CHOOSE ANCHOR’S  MERGE/PURGE PROGRAM:

• INCREASED ACCURACY
• CUSTOMIZED DUPLICATE IDENTIFICATION
• MATCH ON HOUSEHOLD, INDIVIDUAL OR COMPANY LEVEL
• ACCURATE, IN-DEPTH MATCHING LOGIC WITH COMPLETE, EASY TO READ REPORTS
• RECEIVE BETTER MATCH RATES BY SELECTING ANY DATA ELEMENTS
• FLAG DUPLICATES AND RECEIVE SAMPLE OUTPUT FOR REVIEW
• FAST TURNAROUND
• ADDRESS HYGIENE
• CAN BE INCLUDED IN MERGE/PURGE

Reduce duplication in your marketing database, increase campaign accuracy and SAVE!

Decades ago, mailers recognized the importance of unduplicating contact lists.  Mailings increased as more prospect lists became available, and the unduplication processes received a primitive name – i.e., “Merge/Purge”.  I don’t now who deserves credit for the unique name, nor its origin, but it accurately describes the process of merging many names together in a sort of sequence followed by the purging of duplicates.

Merge/Purge is essential to accurate data consolidation.  With high demands being placed on many direct marketing professionals, such as increased postage and printing costs, tight deadlines and more, accurately eliminating duplicate records is imperative to your bottom line.

Merge Purge and Deduplication Services

Here are some key benefits:

• Reduce marketing campaign costs
• Increase ROI
• Identify and analyze multi-buyers
• Customize the duplicate identification process
• Easy to read analysis reports
• Develop smarter marketing based on reported data
• Receive better matches by selecting any data elements
• Resolve issues with access to dedicated support

Whether simple or complex, a Merge/Purge is only as effective as it’s matching logic. Customizing Merge/Purge criteria to meet your requirements will yield the best results for your campaign, database, promotion, and more.

Anchor’s flexible matching logic will match duplicates on both consumer and/or business records using matching criteria you select from a menu of options. Matches can be by unique individual, household or company.

According to a Data Matching Survey produced by Hotwire, 89% of respondents estimated they have 5-20% duplicates in their database.

Whether you’re marketing via email or postal, not being able to identify and consolidate duplicate records can increase marketing costs and resources.

Merge/Purge is the process that identifies duplicate records that are returned from a matching process. A matching strategy can be based on one field, multiple fields, and/or a subset of each field.

If you are spending twice as much in promotional campaigns by mailing to the same customer (or prospect) or simply recording transaction history under two separate records, identifying and consolidating duplicate records can instantly add more to your bottom line.

Anchor’s merge/purge programs capture even the most complicated record matches thereby enabling you to eliminate duplicate mailings.

Here are some key benefits:

• Reduce marketing campaign costs
• Increase ROI
• Identify and analyze multi-buyers
• Customize the duplicate identification process to meet your requirements
• Easy to read analysis reports
• Develop smarter marketing campaigns based on reported data
• Receive better matches by selecting any data elements
• Resolve all issues with access to dedicated customer support

Anchor will identify duplicate records based upon your marketing criteria, allowing us to accurately consolidate all details under a single record.

IMAGE CRUSHER, our proprietary matching logic uses a multiple image methodology that allows for complete flexibility in identifying duplicates. The reliability and flexibility of our system allows adjustments to suit each client’s unique requirements and accurately handles both consumer and business information.

Give your marketing program a LIFT & start saving on duplicate records!