Mail-driven marketing campaigns remain one of the top ways to effectively reach a targeted audience. However, the increasing costs of postage, printing, and production can be frustrating, especially in light of the number of mailings that never make it to the intended recipient. As the housing market continues to improve and families are increasingly in search of new homes, the number of address changes also increases, making it harder to find recipients. Fortunately, reliable National Change of Address (NCOA) USPS software programs have been developed to help companies combat such issues.
NCOALink
NCOALink is a database created and maintained by USPS containing over 160 million records of change of address submissions filed by individuals, families, and businesses in the last 18 months. It also indicates whether someone has moved to an international address or did not file a forwarding address. It prevents duplicates from occurring by matching new submissions to those already in the database. NCOALink is the number one source that helps people and companies mail accurately to those who have moved. In fact, USPS requires companies to use NCOALink in order to obtain bulk mail rates because more accurate mailing means less processing required.
NCOA USPS Software
Easy-to-use software programs that interface with NCOALink have been developed to make the process simple. Special licenses are needed to use NCOALink, but the software programs prevent you the hassle of having to obtain such licenses. Furthermore, the programs do the work for you by regularly pulling updated change-of-address information from USPS (NCOALink) and correcting your company mailing lists. You do not have to tediously review the NCOALink database yourself to determine changes. These software products have revolutionized the marketing industry by reducing the number of mailings that need to be redistributed, thus saving significant amounts of money in postage and production.
Some software products also interface with ANKLink, an additional database maintained by USPS with 48 months of change of address information. This provides 30 additional months of beneficial knowledge. By identifying moves between 19-48 months, you can decide whether to drop these from your mailing lists or to automatically process these address changes.
Compliance Issues
Avoid unnecessary headache by making sure that any NCOA USPS software you consider purchasing is fully compliant with all USPS standards and regulations. This is not difficult to determine: software products and websites will openly advertise whether they are NCOA certified and compliant with USPS standards.
If you want to use NCOA USPS software to prevent failed deliveries and save money, see what Anchor Computer Software has to offer at Sitename.
