Posted on Wed, Aug 18, 2010
By Amy O’Connor, List Planner
As direct marketers, we put our blood, sweat, and tears into every package we produce. As great as our work can be, it’s useless if we can’t actually get our package to our donors and prospects. Possibly the most important step we can take to make sure our lists are accurate is by using NCOA and PCOA processes. Here are a few of the most commonly-asked questions.
Q - What is Proprietary Change of Address?
A – Proprietary Change of Address is a type of change of address processing that collects data from commercial sources (banks, credit cards, magazine subscriptions, etc.) that have new change of addresses which were not reported to the post office in the traditional method: NCOA. The PCOA data can be used in direct mail campaigns to target the ideal address of an individual. PCOA might also be known as MaxCOA – each vendor that offers it typically uses their own naming convention.
Q – Who provides it?
A – Most merge purge and database service bureaus offer this service, however the name of this process vary between service bureaus.
Q – How do you use it?
A – PCOA is used to find the most recent change of address, that the Post Office and NCOA do not have listed, and therefore send all mail to hypothetically the ‘best’ address.
For example:
NCOA has John Smith at 123 Apple Street, NY, NY
PCOA has John Smith at 234 Banana Street, NY, NY through as the new address he gave to his subscription magazines.
If PCOA was used, John Smith would be mailed at his Banana Street address.
Q – When is Proprietary Change of Address a good idea?
A – Based on recent testing, we have found that PCOA is best used to find new addresses of lapsed contributors. These donors already have an established relationship with your organization, but have not recently responded to direct mail efforts. There is a cost associated with using this type of processing, and we have found it most effective to uncover donors who would have given but had been mailed at the wrong address. We have not found it to be an effective tool on rental names, as these donors have active information from the address the rental list provided.
I hope this served as a nice introduction to the change of address system. Do you have any more questions?
Posted on Tue, Jul 06, 2010
By Bill Goldstein, Vice President, Client Services
Yoda would have made a fantastic marketer. Being a diehard fan of the Star Wars films (yes, even the prequels); I cannot tell you how often his little nuggets of wisdom apply to our roles as direct response marketing strategists.
As we look forward to developing smart and innovative tests to grow our clients’ membership sizes, retain members, reduce expense, and improve revenues, consider some of these great quotes and how we can take them to heart in our testing strategies.
“Size matters not ... Look at me. Judge me by size, do you?” Too often, the tests which have the largest impact on our programs revenue and performance are the ones with the smallest changes to our packages and segmentation strategies. How many times has something as simple as 1st vs. 3rd class postage, a return address envelope vs. business reply envelope, or removing an insert dramatically improved results? It is important for us to be innovators. It is just as important to use best practices.
“Mind what you have learned. Save you it can.” Have you reviewed your client’s past testing results? Have the winning tests been rolled out yet? A strong testing agenda builds on what has been done so you are not repeating the same tests over and over again. If you have tested BRE vs. RAE multiple times, what is the consensus? You can save a client considerable expense by not repeating tests that are clearly one-sided.
“Always two there are, no more, no less: a master and an apprentice.” We spend considerable time and expense developing new messages, creative and testing strategies to improve programs. But all that work is for naught if the control and test are not correctly set up. Make sure you have isolated only one variable that you are comparing, such as segments; there is a stratification of the data; and a large enough sample size to read results.
“Always in motion is the future.” A smart marketer never accepts the status quo. As direct marketing strategists, it is our job to always test the conventional wisdom for our client’s programs.
"Reckless he is. Matters are worse." While it is criminal to rollout 2 million pieces of acquisition mail without a single test – we also do not want to throw a bunch of tests into a large campaign to say we did testing. Test smart and test with a purpose! If possible develop a testing agenda during the budget process and lay out your strategies for the next 12 months.
May the force be with you.
Let us know what testing strategies you use? What’s made the biggest impact?
Posted on Tue, Jun 22, 2010
By Suzanne Kirkendall, Production Manager
Regardless of the state of the economy, direct marketers and their clients are always looking to save a buck. The production process is the most costly part of the direct mail process, and as a result offers the most opportunities to save money!
1. Try downsizing. Take a look at your current packages and consult your production team about alternate sizes for components – newsletters, calendars, brochures or other inserts, for example. Sometimes even a minor change in size may provide cost savings if it means running more efficiently on press equipment – a better fit on the press means less paper and less waste.
2. Change paper stock to help offset rising paper prices. Consider reducing paper weights – Instead of the usual 60# paper stock, try 55# paper for your letters, or for a two page letter or insert use 50#. For some inserts, you can even try a lower paper grade. Small changes can lower cost without lowering quality.
3. Use existing dies. Is a custom die cut necessary for a window envelope or address labels, or can you design around an existing die that you’ve used before, or a printer already has in inventory? You can save hundreds this way in die cut charges.
4. Gang run your printing. You can significantly lower your print costs if you can gang run whenever possible. For example, you may be printing for a large prospect mailing and you plan to use same or different versions of some components in subsequent appeals. Gang printing these components can save on costly set up charges and lower costs on your overall budget.
Are you printing OEs and BREs for an ongoing acknowledgement or renewal program, but can’t print for 6 months or a year? Often you can work out a lower negotiated price with a printer if you can commit to an annual volume.
5. Piggyback. For print jobs that might be cost prohibitive to smaller organization, piggyback with another of your production vendor’s clients print run and share the savings. Because of our large annual print volumes at AH&A we can offer savings to all of our clients.
6. Commingle. Maximize your postage discounts! One of the best ways to reduce you postage costs is through commingling. If you are not currently commingling your mail, it is simply the process of combining several mail streams from multiple mailers into one mailstream, which can result in big postage savings. If you’re not sure about your savings potential, a postage cost savings comparison can be provided by your mailshop.
7. UAAC or PCOA. Don’t waste money on undeliverable mail. NCOA (National Change of Address) is based on information submitted to the Post Office. But did you know that up to 40% of moves are not reported? The address you may have on file that has been processed through NCOA, may be valid, but the addressee my not reside at that location due to death, divorce, etc. Running your file against UAA (undeliverable-as-addressed) national databases such as UAAC or PCOA, you can suppress those UAA mailing records saving printing, mailing and postage for undeliverable mail! Charges apply only to matches found, and the savings far outweighs the cost per suppression.
As great as these suggestions are, there are still even more ways to save money on production costs! What are YOUR favorite cost cutting tips?