No Foot Traffic Could Mean They Moved
Every year about 40 million people move their place of residence and/or business in the United States. But if you if you haven’t updated your list, and are still sending out mail to prospects from an old database you could be wasting thousands of dollars developing personalized pieces, as well as paying shipping costs for items that never get delivered.
The easiest way to make sure you’re not wasting money is to compare your data with the latest NCOA (National Change of Address). The USPS database is updated once per year and it is the source for U.S addresses.
The United States Postal service has a secure dataset of approximately 160 million permanent change-of-address records consisting of the names and addresses of individuals, families and businesses who have filed a COA with the USPS.
Have you verified that the information you have in your database has been entered correctly? If your information is incorrect (see article titled “How do you know if your database is clean?“), you may be shipping to the correct name but the incorrect address was typed in so it gets returned or lost. This is a common occurrence.
It is estimated that there are 120 million homes in the U.S. so it’s obvious some mistakes will be made. But by following a few simple steps, and having your marketing department verifying addresses through either NCOA Link® or EasyPost API, you can be confident you’re doing all you can to avoid extraneous shipping costs.
Of all the shipping data entry mistakes, unverifiable addresses topped the list with 18.30%. Having multiple addresses came in second at 14.70%. The combined mistakes of not having a street, state code or invalid city totaled 27%.
So added together, about 60% of shipping problems reported were due to insufficient or incorrect information.
How do you end up with a client/prospect list with that many errors?
Many times, it is not your fault! According to EasyPost data, 4.7% of the time it is the actual customer entering the incorrect information- usually online, filling out an e-commerce form. This means that if a business mails a half-million packages, 23,500 errors are being made on shipping forms. While your dealership may not be shipping out 500,000 pieces of mail every year, you can still do the math and see how 4.7% of errors just from customers can cost you bundles.
And this doesn’t even count how many mistakes are inadvertently made from the front end salesperson, finance department managers or mechanics in the repair shop who have access to your address data base.
If you want to make sure your booklets, tri-fold mailers, buyback letters, car key promotions and scratch and win postcards are actually getting to the recipients, then it pays to have a professional manage it for you.
It truly is the easiest, and most cost-effective way to ensure your direct mail is reaching your intended audience.
Blue Gorilla Mail can save you a bundle on traditional mail! And not just in shipping costs because they make sure the address verification software is in place for their clients, but also in creating mailing lists for the Year/Make/Model/ and Vin list. Blue Gorilla has automotive data that is specifically targeted for Automobile Owners outside of your sales and service database for buyback, trade-in, sales and service opportunities. Blue Gorilla use a compiled list of data from sources such as insurance companies, warranty companies, and quick service facilities. Click here to find out more ways that Blue Gorilla Mail can take your dealership to the next level while saving you money!
