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 Why Dirty Data May Cost You $180,000

You could be wasting more than $180,000 a year sending out direct mail that’s not relevant or does not reach the intended recipient – all because of inaccurate data. That’s according to a recent survey by QAS, an Experian company. The report also notes that a good percentage of your mail could be thrown away as a result of poor quality data.

The survey revealed that the average annual cost of returned mail was more than $9,000 per company. Another staggering survey fact – recipients return mail they consider irrelevant about five percent of the time. This means that for every piece of mail returned, a whopping 20 pieces are thrown away. Therefore, the average business could be wasting as much as $180,000 per year on unwanted mail, the survey states. A scary thought, for sure.

The research also identified business professionals receive a high volume of this unwanted mail. Globally, the average business professional receives more than 2,400 mail pieces per year that are correctly addressed to them, but are considered irrelevant to their jobs. In the U.S., the figure is below the global average, but U.S. business professionals still get about 1,500 pieces of unwanted mail per person annually. The research also notes that U.S. professionals get more than 280 mail pieces per person that are intended for previous employees.

The survey also revealed that only a few businesses (44 percent) could cite a figure for the amount of mail sent per year, and a mere 12 percent could estimate the cost of their returned b-to-b mail. Basically, it looks like very few companies monitor the volume of mail sent or returned and have no real insight into how much money is wasted or the potential damage done to their brand reputations.

Who are the worst offenders and shining stars (in terms of sending unwanted mail)? According to the research, promotional gifts (37 percent), retail (35 percent) and publications (34 percent) were listed as the worst offenders. On the other hand, mail from business service organizations (25 percent), financial services companies (21 percent) and corporate event organizers (15 percent) were regarded as more relevant to the recipient businesses.

The research was conducted by independent research firm Dynamic Markets.

Don’t get stuck with inaccurate data. Stop wasting money now.

See how our data quality solutions can work wonders for your business.

 



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