Database List Services
If you are creating a new mailing list, you will want to use standard software. Either a spreadsheet like Excel or a database program like Access or Filemaker. There are also many other software packages designed for specific businessess that will work well.
Make sure that you input the data into separate fields, as we will need to sort on those fields to obtain the lowest possible postage costs. As a minimum, a field layout including First Name, Last Name, Company, Address 1, Address 2, City, State, Zip, and Country (if applicable) will work. There may be other fields depending on your needs.
We can accept almost any standard output files including Excel and database formats like CSV, ASCII text (tab delimited), DIF and SYLK.
When we process a mailing, there are two standard operations we perform, CASS and NCOA.
CASS is the process of comparing your addresses to a database of all the valid addresses in the U.S. The CASS software will certify that your addresses are valid or, in many cases, correct the address in cases of typos or number transpositions.
NCOA is the process of comparing your addresses to a database of address changes that the Postal Service maintains. If any of your records include old addresses, the software will update the records to the new addresses. If you like, we can send you a report of the changed addresses so you can update your list.
There are many other operations we can perform on your list or lists:
Combining or merging lists – putting multiple lists in different formats into one list for mailing.
Deduping – we can remove duplicates from within one list or between multiple lists. We can dedupe by individual, by company, by individua and company, by family (by deduping on last name) or by residence (by deduping on address) We can also dedupe based on other criteria, depending on your needs.
Gender recognition – say you have a list of first and last names but you want to send a mail merge letter. We have software that will regognize the gender of the first name and append Mr. or Ms. as appropriate.
Field Splitting – we can split name fields into first and last names, and split an address field into its street, city, state an zip components.
These are the most common operations. Ask if you need something else.