I received a direct mail piece from Vanguard Personal Advisor Services this week, addressed to my father. My Dad died forty-seven years ago, in 1974, and never lived at this address. His last name is different than mine. And if he were alive today, he would be 87 years old, and probably not the best prospect for Vanguard’s services.
Data hygiene continues to be a pain point for organizations large and small. How did this happen? It’s not the first time I have received mail addressed to my father. His name must exist on one or more data files on the market, and list owners are not using rigorous data hygiene processes to achieve the highest possible accuracy of their data. And list renters may have weak data hygiene processes that fail to detect bad data during the acquisition merge/purge process. So the name keeps appearing on various direct mail acquisition pieces, time and time again.
Why is data hygiene so important? Clean and accurate direct mail data:
- Improves mail deliverability
- Gets your mail delivered faster
- Reduces your postage rates
- Reduces printing and mailing costs
- Improves your campaign and program performance
- Reduces the chance you will annoy the recipient of your mailing
Your first step to better data hygiene and data accuracy is to understand the process and get involved with your data processing partner. At MMI Direct, we use 8 Levels of Data Hygiene tailored to your unique data set, strategy and goals.
To learn more, get your free MMI Direct “8 Levels of Data Hygiene” Checklist and view our on demand “Data Hygiene: The Basics” training video, led by MMI data processing expert Marvin Dawson.
MMI clients love our data processing trainings! Here’s a real quote from a happy client:
“We had 3 new staff members plus one client on today’s webinar. Rave reviews about the data hygiene section and how much better they all understand the process now :)”
