In the world of direct mail, the quality of your mailing list is the single most important factor for success. An outdated or inaccurate list means wasted postage, missed opportunities, and a lower return on investment. The USPS estimates that up to 25% of mailing list addresses become inaccurate each year due to people moving, data entry errors, and other factors. That's where professional list cleaning comes in.
At Mail Movers, we provide comprehensive mailing list cleaning and verification services to ensure your data is accurate, deliverable, and optimized for the best possible postage rates. Our advanced data hygiene processes remove undeliverable addresses, update records for movers, and eliminate costly duplicates, saving you money and maximizing the impact of your campaigns.
Our Core Data Hygiene Services
We utilize a suite of powerful, USPS-certified tools to scrub your mailing list and ensure it meets the highest standards of quality.
NCOALink® - National Change of Address
When people move, they file a Change of Address form with the USPS. Our NCOALink® service cross-references your mailing list against the massive 48-month USPS database of over 160 million permanent change-of-address records. This allows us to automatically update the addresses of individuals, families, and businesses that have moved, ensuring your mail piece reaches them at their new location. This is a critical step for maintaining customer relationships and is required for most USPS Marketing Mail discounts.
CASS™ Certification - Coding Accuracy Support System
CASS™ Certification is a USPS process that standardizes your mailing addresses. It corrects street names, city spellings, and ZIP codes, and most importantly, adds the ZIP+4 code and delivery point barcode information. A CASS-certified list is essential for qualifying for automation postage rates, which are significantly lower than retail rates. Our software ensures every address in your list is standardized to perfect USPS format.
DPV® - Delivery Point Validation
While CASS confirms that an address exists within a valid ZIP code range, DPV® goes a step further. It verifies that the specific street number and apartment or suite number are valid and deliverable points for the USPS. This process identifies invalid addresses that CASS might miss, such as a non-existent house number on a real street. Removing these undeliverable addresses before you mail saves you printing and postage costs on pieces that would never have arrived.
LACSLink® - Locatable Address Conversion System
In many rural areas, addresses are converted from rural-style routes (e.g., "RR 2 Box 151") to city-style street addresses (e.g., "123 Main Street") to support 911 emergency services. LACSLink® is a USPS system that automatically updates these addresses to the new, current format, ensuring continued mail deliverability during and after the conversion.
Deduplication - Removing Duplicate Records
Sending multiple mail pieces to the same person at the same address is a common and costly mistake. Our deduplication process intelligently identifies and removes these duplicate records from your list. We can find duplicates based on individual names, family names at the same address, or any custom criteria you define. This simple step can instantly reduce your mailing quantity, saving you significant money on both printing and postage.
Frequently Asked Questions About List Cleaning
How much does mailing list cleaning cost?
The cost is very affordable and typically depends on the number of records in your list. On average, our full suite of list cleaning services ranges from $50 to $150 for most standard-sized lists. The postage savings you gain from a clean list almost always outweigh the cost of the service, often on the very first mailing.
What file formats do you accept for my mailing list?
We can work with almost any common file format. The most popular are Excel (.xls, .xlsx) and Comma Separated Value (.csv) files. If you have your list in a different format, just let us know, and we can almost certainly accommodate it.
How often should I clean my mailing list?
For the best results, you should process your list through NCOALink® and other hygiene services before every mailing. Because address data changes so frequently, cleaning your list each time ensures you are always using the most up-to-date information and maximizing your postage discounts.
Is list cleaning required by the USPS?
Yes, if you want to mail at discounted First-Class or USPS Marketing Mail™ rates. The USPS requires that all mailing lists be updated through a Move Update process (like NCOALink®) within 95 days of the mailing date to qualify for these discounts.
Will I get a report showing the changes made to my list?
Absolutely. After we process your list, we will provide you with a detailed report showing the number of addresses updated, any undeliverable records that were flagged for removal, and the final, mail-ready list. This gives you valuable insight into the quality of your data.
Stop Wasting Money on Bad Data
A clean mailing list is the foundation of a successful direct mail campaign. Let the experts at Mail Movers ensure your data is accurate, deliverable, and ready to generate results. Our services will lower your costs, increase your deliverability, and improve your overall campaign ROI.
Contact us today for a free quote and a no-obligation analysis of your mailing list!
