Tips from Canadian Post: What Your Business Can Do
By Canada Post, Guidelines to keep your mailing list up-to-date

Taking green initiatives has become a respected – and expected – business practice. Not only does it cut unnecessary costs, it improves productivity through more efficient management resources as well. From list maintenance and effective targeting, to the production and design of your direct mail, there are several best practices that your company can implement to reduce its impact on the environment and improve its ROI.

Guidelines to keep your mailing list up-to-date
Regularly updating your database can benefit both the environment and your company’s bottom line. A more accurate list can mean less returned or undeliverable mail, less wasted paper, and higher response rates.

Here are some ways that can help keep your lists clean:

• Make data hygiene a priority. This involves monitoring your internal database regularly for incorrect or missing fields, encouraging your customers to update their contact information and creating an in-house “do not contact” file.

• Consider incorporating a mailing returns management solution by implementing back end resources to process the information.

• Maintain an in-house “do not market” list, which lets customers opt out of receiving specific types of marketing material.

• Verify and update your customer information at every contact point (online, e-statements, customer service representatives, sales representatives, etc). Make it easy for customers to update their address.

• Keep your mailing list accurate by subscribing to Canada Post’s National Change of Address (NCOA) service and using it frequently. It’s Canada Post’s address database for Canadians who have moved. The NCOA software incorporates information about movers who have consented to be part of it and automatically removes deceased recipients from your list.

• Use Return Postage Guarantee with customers who you haven’t heard from in a while, which can help you can update your database.

• Before renting an external list for prospecting, make sure you ask the list broker how recently it was updated.

• Use the Canadian Marketing Association “Do Not Contact” service prior to acquisition mailings in order to remove consumers who have requested not to receive direct mail. You will save time and costs associated with trying to communicate with them.

• Use the Address Accuracy Program to validate the accuracy of your mailing list each time you execute a campaign. Also, to improve deliverability, use Address Validation and Correction Software to help repair your lists and put them into standard formats. Accurate addressing eliminates extra handling and redelivery costs, and improves the efficiency of your service.