Several years ago the Postal Service asked the mailing community to help them be more efficient by removing “bad data” from our lists. They said that up to 10% of mail was undeliverable as addressed or UAA. This made sense for everyone- and most of the Direct Marketing industry embraced the practice. We cleaned up lists (a requirement after 90 days without NCOA) and went forward with our partnership.

In January the USPS introduced EDDM to the world with a lot of splash and fanfare. On the surface this looked like a good program to introduce small businesses to mail and advertising in a small local area. Unfortunately it is turning into a David and Goliath battle. The post office has been accused of selling into mailers ghost accounts and pushing EDDM to the very people it isn’t supposed to reach. The USPS is the last bastion of feudal lordism left in America and they will pretty much do as they please.

But we are MARKETERS!! So sell against it! Once mailers really understand what is at stake (only their money) the tables can be turned. Show your customers the difference in the money in postage and printing that can be saved only marketing to their potential clients. There is a big cost differential to print a standard postcard and a flat postcard.

EDDM website counts include all delivery points- they include vacant properties, addresses on the do not mail file, and there is no way to do suppressions of current customers. You are paying postage on all of the pieces. Not to mention adding back in UAA mail, which will be gladly recycled for you by the carrier (which you paid postage on). There is no selection between SFDU and MFDU. No route level demographics. No names available to make your mail piece be more personal. No guarantee one piece gets into every mail box.

Once mailers see the benefits of using a list- they will continue using one.
Smart Customers. Smart marketing!

Chris Slauter
Vice President of Sales
Compact Information Systems

We’re hearing a whole lot of buzz, chatter and concern about the new USPS “Every Door Direct Mail” (EDDM) program launched in December 2011. Essentially, the program uses an old and outdated method of mailing (simplified addressing) to deliver mail to every address on a carrier route. EDDM was ostensibly designed to try and lure small-medium sized businesses (currently not direct mailing) into the mailstream with the promise of a simple and cheaper approach to putting a mailing together – the USPS idea being that eliminating so many of the obstacles to mailing (for instance acquiring an address list) will convince new mailers to dive into the direct mail pool.

Many small-medium businesses are happily jumping on the EDDM bandwagon in the quest to save a postage buck or two – seemingly without a thorough understanding of the effectiveness of this approach to direct mail. In addition, while appearing to provide a valuable tool to these companies, the initial effect of the program has been devastating for some other companies – notably Mail Service Providers (MSPs). Amidst growing complaints and reports that some list companies are seeing a 30% reduction in saturation list sales, some in the industry are questioning the USPS’ EDDM promotional techniques to existing mailers and the seeming strategy of attempting to eliminate the MSP from the business equation altogether!

Cutting through all the conflict, chaos, and concern here are some basic points to ponder and share with customers considering this approach:

EDDM Disregards “Do Not Mail” requests:
People care about waste and the environment – some concerned households are making more of an effort than ever to reduce the amount of mail they receive. Any responsible mailer respectfully honors the Direct Marketing Association’s guidelines for managing “do not mail” requests and removes these records from a potential mailing list altogether. EDDM currently has no method in place for removing these addresses. Continuing to mail to consumers who have extended great effort to be removed from mailings is not only somewhat rude, but makes for complaints and threats from some very irate customers… negative for brand image to say the least.

Not a “one size fits all” solution:
EDDM may be fine for a minority of mailers with no need for personalization or any wish to intelligently target their customer base. However for most mailers the disadvantages of this approach include not only an inability to use a name or otherwise personalize a mailpiece, but also an inability to do any demographic selections or further audience targeting at all. Even dwelling types (such as apartments or trailers) may not be excluded.

Mailpiece design & mail quantities are limited: EDDM mailpieces are limited to flats or parcels only – period. Letter size mail is not acceptable. In addition, mail quantities are limited and no more than 5,000 pieces per day may be submitted.

EDDM is the direct opposite of targeted mailing: It is not possible to personalize a mailpiece through the EDDM program. Years of experience and effort have taught marketers that it is vital to target our message personally and clearly to those customers most likely to find value in our products/services. Reverting to blanket generic “postal customer” approach to mailing flies in the face of everything we have learned about the known value and proven results of defining our target market and making our marketing messages as personal and relevant as possible.

EDDM still requires a basic understanding of postal requirements: Businesses go to a MSP because they want to avoid the hassle of preparing direct mail. Not only do EDDM users have to deliver everything to the appropriate post office(s), they still have to print “Postal Customer” on a mailpiece, bundle the mailpieces, download the route information, fill out postal paperwork and deal with postal employees… in short everything that our Mail Service Providers are here for!

Every Door Direct Mail… A little more than meets the eye? Perhaps. At the very least it benefits anyone involved to carefully consider the limited cost cutting advantages of this throwback approach to direct mail before utilizing it – and to remember the hard won lessons we’ve learned in terms of a focused, targeted and strategic approach gaining the best response levels overall.

Mary McCarty
List Services Director
Compact Information Systems

Ever felt like the data you are buying from some vendors performs like a vehicle made of lead at a drag race? Sometimes we do too, that is why we go the extra mile to ensure our Resident, Consumer and Auto direct marketing lists are the cleanest they possibly can be before you get to see them.

To give you some idea of how intense our data hygiene processes are let’s lift the hood and see what goes on. First and foremost we start with the best data we can acquire; you know the old rule, “Garbage In, Garbage Out.” Once we receive the raw data, it is run through several processes on a monthly basis to sift out the good stuff and discard the bad. These steps include, NCOA, CASS, Name Normalization, Merge/Purge, Deceased Removal and DMA Do-Not-Call/Mail flagging. Below is a glimpse of what each of these processes does.

NCOA – This process ensures we have the most current address available for each recipient on our file. On average 2% of the public moves any given month.

CASS – This process ensures that each recipient’s address is in line with the US Postal Service. The address is then checked for deliverability and assigned a Delivery Point Validation (DPV) code. Those records that do not code as deliverable are removed from the system.

Name Normalization – We then pass each record through a stringent name normalization process to ensure each name is spelled correctly. This process is always being fine-tuned as we discover new spellings of common names like, Allyx for Alex as an example. The variety of names is almost infinite, so our job is never done!

Merge/Purge – This process ensures we do not have duplicate data in our files when we are updating a file. This helps to cut down the cost of doing direct mail by removing duplicates. The trick is identifying duplicates when something minor may have changed from one update to the next. There are many tricks to this process.

Deceased Removal – As you know this process touches a chord with everyone. No one wants to receive direct mail offers to their departed loved ones. We have over 2 million records in-house and purchase 15 million plus records from the DMA to use as a filter against our direct marketing lists, we believe our processes are some of the best in the industry as we use quite a few sources monthly.

DMA Do-Not-Call/Mail – Lastly, we flag records of those individuals that have asked to be suppressed from direct mail campaigns. All phone numbers have been screened against all national and local databases to ensure compliance with federal and local laws. We collect our own Do Not Mail data from our several thousand customers, and we also use national files.

As you can see, we take our data hygiene very seriously. What this allows us to do is provide the best deliverability to our mail customers in the industry, so good in fact that we guarantee it at 94% deliverable, the highest percentage you can get anywhere.

Randy Kienzle
VP Data Processing
Compact Information Systems

Over the last year, Compact has focused on developing a comprehensive set of Consumer, Auto, and Business list prospecting tools, enabling users to quickly and accurately target their next mailing.

Compact continues to focus on innovating in the marketplace and driving features to improve user experience and to facilitate list creation. Simple interfaces for complicated tasks have further empowered our users to build the list they want to target their exact market.

The features and tools that Compact has built into the platforms have had the benefit of Compact and its partners’ extensive experience in the mailing industry. The combined experience that Compact draws from is unrivaled in the industry, and is how we continue to deliver the best to our users.

Speed of access has always been a point of emphasis, and Compact has invested heavily in new tools available to few others in the industry to improve count and report access times. Compact is focused on continuing to improve the performance of our direct marketing list platforms, and over the next few months, the results of that work will become evident.

Compact is dedicated to providing the best to its users, in service, technology, tools, and support. The tools are better, the speed is faster, the future is bright, and the benefits are yours.

Eric Baum
Compact Information Systems

We certainly live in very interesting times! It seems that the entire human race is destined to go through many radical changes, together and…..like…..right now! So much is in flux: our climate, the economy, social stability in many countries, and more. So it’s not really that surprising that the direct marketing industry is also “going through it.” During these times it’s interesting to survey the landscape and pick through what is visible to discern some trends within our industry, and to gauge what is working and what isn’t.

A couple of weeks ago I attended DM Days in NYC, and it was not a happy scene. There were way too few booths, too few people and the only buzz going around was that folks really need to migrate their efforts to AdTech from now on. Seems that fundamentally DM Days needs either a radical makeover or may go the way of the dinosaur. I have a feeling DMA in Boston will be a much better show, I certainly hope so (and I hope to see you there in October).

Another industry icon performing a radical makeover right now is Infogroup, just yesterday they announced the sale of their global market research firm ORC International, a $100 million dollar business unit. Infogroup has been making over its staff, brand and business units in an effort to focus intently on the integrated multichannel marketing needs of its clients. I think they have read the tea leaves correctly and are doing what it takes to survive and thrive through the continuing uncertainty of the current era.

When I ran a commercial printing company for 5 years here in Seattle it was an established fact that printers either had to diversify in order to retain their customers, or be eaten alive by other market players who offered a more complete service. Commercial printers were adding value-added services, from a letter shop to color digital printing, and from fulfillment services to digital asset management, all in an attempt to be all things print related to their customers. Those printers with access to capital could at least attempt to cross that chasm to continued success through diversified solutions. But over a 5 year period so many printers, big and small could not, and the printing industry went from 55,000 print shops down to 27,000 at the last count.

Companies that provide direct marketing solutions and services are now finding themselves in a similar position to what the printers discovered from 2002 onwards, they must evolve, diversify their service offering, and compete to retain their best customers while building a complete turnkey solution to attract new customers. By adding email, social network and mobile marketing services, offering more access to technology, providing integrated data access, analytics and modeling these companies have a shot at surviving our World in Upheaval, and by focusing they can avoid folding – we truly do live in a virtual Darwinian petri dish, survival of the fittest will define our industry going forwards.

Cheers Rich

Rich Lancaster
CEO
Compact Information Systems