Why Bulk Address Validation Is Vital for Direct Mail Success (And How to Do It)

By Lee Garvey

Bad addresses waste money. Each one is a hole in your budget, as you’ve spent money printing and mailing a piece of direct mail that will never be seen. Multiply that by hundreds or even thousands, and that’s some serious waste – which is why bulk address validation is critical before you launch a direct mail campaign.

But it’s not just about checking if an address exists – missing apartment numbers alone can doom thousands of pieces to the waste bin. Let’s explore how proper address validation can save your campaigns and your budget. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the critical layers of address validation and their impact on direct mail success.

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An Overview of Bulk Address Validation Layers

Address validation is more complex than simply confirming an address exists. Carly Brown, customer support manager at Click2Mail, says address verification has multiple layers. “The first is making sure an address exists, and the second is that the person you think lives there actually lives there,” she says.

But there’s even more to it than that – you also need:

• Basic existence verification of addresses
• Confirmation of mail receptacle presence
• Standard vs. nonstandard address classification
• Resident verification when required
• USPS delivery point validation
• Address format standardization
• Geographic coding verification
• Address element confirmation

All of these elements represent a failure point that can prevent your mail from being seen by your intended target.

Common Bulk Address List Issues

Direct mail marketers face many common issues with their address lists – most having to do with missing information and problems with data quality.

Missing Information

Incomplete addresses represent one of the most common and costly issues in direct mail campaigns. Missing apartment numbers, suite designations, or building identifiers can render an otherwise valid address undeliverable, wasting both time and resources.

Apartment numbers are “huge,” says Lee Garvey, founder and CEO of Click2Mail: “If you’ve got a list of apartment dwellers and don’t have numbers, you can mail out 10,000 pieces of mail that won’t get delivered – and if you send it out bulk mail at standard marketing mail rate, you won’t know because undeliverable mailpieces just get thrown away.”

Data Quality Problems

Address lists can suffer from various quality issues, including export errors, upload errors when sharing with a mail service provider like Click2Mail, outdated information, and incorrect formatting. These problems often stem from poor database management or issues with third-party data providers.

Additionally, data quality can be compromised during list merges, transfers between systems, or manual entry. Without proper validation protocols, these errors compound over time – a single misplaced comma or incorrect field mapping can corrupt entire sections of your mailing list.

Regular quality checks are essential to catch these issues before they impact your campaign’s success.

Best Practices for Address Management

The key to successful bulk mailings lies in proactive address list management. Carly emphasizes the importance of addressing validation warnings: “If your list has more than 10% nonstandard addresses, we’ll warn you, because maybe you exported the list wrong and have a bunch of missing apartment numbers.”

Then there’s standard versus non-standard addresses, another element that many marketers don’t consider. A standard address is an address that contains all required elements (delivery point, city, state, ZIP Code) which also matches the USPS’s master database of all U.S. addresses.

“When we accept an address list from a user, the first thing we do is we check to see if addresses are standard or not,” Lee says.

This is important because it gives users the ability to correct the nonstandard addresses, delete them entirely, or take a chance and mail them anyway. The chance you give a nonstandard address comes at a cost: that piece won’t qualify for any postage discounts. If the piece comes back to you as undeliverable, ensure you update your mailing list so you don’t repeat a costly failed experiment.

Take the following steps on a consistent basis:

• Regularly clean and update address databases
• Export data using standardized protocols
• Monitor validation warning thresholds
• Document list sources and update dates
• Implement quality control checkpoints
• Maintain separate lists for problem addresses
• Schedule periodic data audits
• Track deliverability metrics

Bulk Address Validation Implementation Guide

Effective address validation requires a systematic approach that identifies and resolves issues before they impact your mailing campaign.

Validation Process

Every address list should go through a thorough validation sequence that includes:

• Initial data format check
• Standard address verification
• Secondary address confirmation
• Resident verification when needed
• Error categorization
• Correction prioritization
• Final validation check
• Results documentation

Decision Points

After validation, businesses must decide:

• Whether to proceed with problematic addresses
• How to handle nonstandard addresses
• When to seek additional information
• Which addresses require manual review
• Timeline for list updates
• Resource allocation for corrections
• Follow-up procedures
• Quality improvement steps

Improve Your Mailing List Accuracy with Click2Mail

Don’t let bad addresses waste your marketing budget. Click2Mail automatically standardizes delivery addresses against USPS databases using CASS certified software, catching errors from misspelled streets to missing apartment numbers. Not only does using CASS certified software check delivery point accuracy and identify missing information, it also helps mailers quality for discounted postage rates.

Download standardized results directly from your account to make needed corrections. Not a Click2Mail user? Contact us to learn how address validation can improve deliverability and cut costs on every campaign.

Contact us today to learn how our address validation services can improve your direct mail deliverability and save you money on every campaign.