Link Enlarge

Really Bad Data and How to Combat It

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 :)”

And please contact us at any time with your data hygiene questions. We’re here to support you!

Share This
postage rates
Link Enlarge

Prepare Your 2021 Postage Budget Now

Here’s what we know so far about the impending 2021 postage increases:

The U.S. Postal Service is expected to file its proposed postage rate increases at the Postal Regulatory Commission before October 13, which is the release date for the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data.

The current CPI price cap is 1.458 percent, and applies to each class of mail. Individual rate cells may be higher or lower.

postage rates

According to Steve Kearney, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, the USPS has unused price cap capacity they could potentially add to the 1.458 percent cap in certain classes:

  • First Class Mail: 0.385 percent increase
  • USPS Marketing Mail (includes Nonprofit Mail): 0.049 percent increase
  • Periodicals: 0.000 percent increase
  • Package Services: 0.008 percent increase
  • Special Services: 0.007 percent increase

The 2021 rate increases may go into effect on January 31, 2021 which is the last Sunday of the month. However, the rate increases could go into effect a week earlier, on January 24, as there are five Sundays in that month. We will monitor this timing.

The PRC may also order new surcharges for the USPS in 2021; the amount and timing are uncertain.

As you prepare your 2021 mailing plan, you can download 2020 Postage Rate Chart from our colleagues at PMG and consider using a 5 percent increase for First Class and a 2 percent increase for Marketing (Third Class and Nonprofit) mail as a baseline for your budget.

We will continue to keep you informed of the USPS rate review process and will update our Postage Rate Chart once the new rates are approved.

In the meantime, if you have any questions as you prepare your 2021 postage budgets, please contact us. We know it’s complicated, and we’re eager to help!

Share This
Link Enlarge

Expert Panel Hosted by DMAW Reports on Mail Deliverability Trends & Tips for Fall Fundraising

Our colleague Debbie Sylvester of MailSmart Logistics was one of five expert panelists reporting on mail tracking data and sharing insights during this week’s DMAW “USPS Status: What is Fact and What is Fiction” webinar.

The key findings conveyed by all the panelists:

  • Mail tracking data across hundreds of mailers and hundreds of millions of mail pieces indicates that average delivery times have not changed.
  • Pandemic-related delays over the past several months have now abated and are improving. First-Class Letter Mail and Marketing Mail delivery are performing consistently, with delivery slowed by just a half-day or one day at most, when comparing monthly and annual trends, including election years.
  • Flats, such as catalogs, magazines, and larger envelopes are experiencing delays with inconsistent delivery times.
  • Inbound reply mail is experiencing some slowing.

The panelists shared valuable tips for nonprofits planning their fall mailings during this busy election and fundraising season:

  • Track your own mail! Your own mailing data is more helpful than relying on media coverage, anecdotal evidence, or even USPS data.
  • Tracking your outbound mail is the top priority, but if you can, also track your inbound mail. Tracking can help you with revenue forecasting and cross-marketing efforts.
  • Debbie Sylvester noted that 90+% of commingled mail goes directly to the Destination SCF (Sectional Center Facility), skipping four USPS steps: the local post office where your mail shop is located, the Origin SCF, the Origin NDC (Network Distribution Center) and the Destination NDC, which expedites delivery, is more predictable, and saves money.
  • Debbie also explained that Drop Shipping your mail to Destination SCFs and NDCs is another potential solution depending on the geographic density and volume of your mailings. Your postal logistics partner can analyze each mailing and recommend the best approach. In some cases, the best solution may be a hybrid plan, including both commingling and drop shipping.
  • Moderator Mike DeFlavia, Vice President of Production, at Lautman Maska Neill & Company remarked that it’s not necessary for fundraisers to know all these technical details. Your agency, production, and postal logistic partners can provide expert guidance on what’s best for your individual mailings and your overall program.
  • Business Reply Mail is sometimes delayed when it gets to its destination due to accounting unit processing delays at your local post office. Contact your local Post Office to inquire.
  • We will see large volumes of political mail in the weeks and months ahead, especially in swing states. So plan ahead and work with your partners on your campaign schedules and mailing strategy.

Steve Kearney, Executive Director of the Alliance of Nonprofit Mailers, who spent over 35 years at the USPS in leadership positions, cut through the media clutter with accurate information about postal operations and funding.

  • The Postal Service can handle mail volumes during election season, including vote-by-mail correspondence, which is a tiny percentage of overall mail volume.
  • The pandemic has impacted postal employee availability in Covid-19 hot spots; certain areas are experiencing service delays due to absenteeism.
  • Steve Kearney noted that given the volume of daily mail processed through the USPS, anecdotal evidence of delays, often covered in the media, is not reflective of the overall service levels which are well within established delivery standards.
  • The new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is committed to maintaining service levels, prioritizing election mail, and is delaying any proposed changes until after the election.

Mike DeFlavia wrapped up the discussion by stating that direct mail continues to be a critical channel for nonprofits, and nonprofits should move forward with their plans for the fall and year-end. 33% of charitable giving is done in the last three months of the year, according to the 2019 Charitable Giving Report from The Blackbaud Institute. And for many nonprofits, direct mail continues to be the largest source of donation revenue.

If you have any questions about the USPS, mail tracking and deliverability trends, and your fall mailing program, please contact us. We’re happy to help and share our insights.

Share This
Link Enlarge

USPS: Fact and Fiction, Register for the Webinar

What is fact and what is fiction when it comes to reports about the USPS?

The USPS has been featured by the media quite a bit in recent weeks. As a mailer, it’s hard to know what is factual and what’s, well, not.

Debbie Sylvester, Vice President of Sales for MailSmart Logistics will serve as a panelist on a free webinar hosted by the DMAW:

USPS STATUS: WHAT IS FACT AND WHAT IS FICTION

Wednesday, August 26th

1:15-2:15 PM  EDT

Seats on this webinar are extremely limited. If you want to cut through fact vs. fiction be sure to reserve your seat.

Have additional questions – we can help. Just drop us a line and we’ll be in touch.

Share This
Link Enlarge

We’re Determined to Make Things Better

As we’ve observed the heart-wrenching events unfolding in our country these last few weeks, we wanted to take time to reflect on how we can have the greatest impact on being a force for good in our community and beyond. As a member of the PMG Family, we’re proud to share how we’re helping to make things better.

For the past 23 years, PMG has made it an ongoing practice to support local organizations in the Baltimore-Washington area through our “Spirit of Good” initiative, including financial contributions, volunteering, and in some cases board leadership.

We’ve supported Nick’s Place, a recovery home for young men battling addiction and alcoholism, Light House, a homeless prevention support center, Casey Cares Foundation, which provides uplifting programming for critically ill children and their families, and Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic, among other local nonprofits.

We are now adding the Black Futures Micro-Grant Program to our “Spirit of Good” efforts, which supports black-owned small businesses in Baltimore and Baltimore County. PMG is a small business, and we understand the positive ripple effect that a successful company can have by building strong relationships with employees and their families, customers, suppliers, and the surrounding community. We hope our donation to the Black Futures Micro-Grant Program can, in a small way, help support the black community during these most difficult times.

We also want to share a message of hope and healing with a gentle but firm request to eliminate hate and embrace love in ourselves and in our own families. Each of us at MMI Direct and the PMG Family holds these words in our hearts, and we promise to continue working at making things better for all of us.

Share This
Link Enlarge

We’ve Added a New Data Pro to the MMI Direct Team

A sunny Florida welcome to Carolyn Hoehn who recently joined MMI Direct. She will be converting lists and completing other data analysis work for our clients from Largo, Florida where she lives.

We’ve known Carolyn for quite some time as she previously did contract work with one of our clients. When we found out she was a free agent, we immediately reached out to the self-proclaimed ‘Data Geek’ to see if she’d like to join our team – with a title like that we were sure she’d fit right in here!

In addition to geeking-out on data analysis, she loves to participate in trivia contests, paint and sips, and enjoys reading. Her favorite book is The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. She has family in Germany which she’s visited numerous times. She loves to travel, venturing to some of her favorite places like Prague, Paris and the Netherlands to name a few.

Carolyn is a former dog groomer who loves her 13-year-old Akita/Chow mix pup named Simba. In addition to keeping her furry friend looking his best, she has bragging rights to a pretty impressive accomplishment: as a member of a bowling league, she once scored a 291 game. Near perfect! For any future company bowling outings, Carolyn will surely be a first-pick as teams are created.

Welcome Carolyn – we’re so happy to have you as a member of our data geek team!

Share This
Link Enlarge

Mail Service Continues – USPS Operational Plan

Mail Delivery Continues During Covid-19 Crisis

MMI Direct, the entire PMG family of companies, our partnering printers and lettershops, and the USPS remain committed to delivering mail to the American public during the Covid-19 crisis.

The USPS recently shared their operational plans during the Covid-19 outbreak.

Share This
Link Enlarge

Coronavirus: Your Data Processing and Direct Marketing

With coronavirus so much in the news, we want to assure you that MMI Direct and the PMG Family is taking every possible step to ensure continued and uninterrupted support for your critical direct marketing and fundraising programs:

  • We are fully capable of operating in a 100% remote way; both local and remote staff are accustomed to working remotely on a regular basis – remote infrastructure, workflows, and culture are already in place
  • At present, almost 50% of our employees reside outside the Washington, DC metro area and most of those are dispersed in states ranging from Florida to Tennessee to New Hampshire…read more…
Share This
address element correction
Link Enlarge

The Amazing Benefits of the USPS Address Change Service

Save money. Save time. Clean your address data. Reduce waste. Get your mail delivered faster.

Address Change Service

We’re very excited about the many benefits of the Address Change Service (ACS) offered by the Postal Service.

Here’s how it works: After your mailing drops, the USPS provides any change-of-address and other non-delivery information to you electronically. This reduces the amount of returned mail and the time and cost of dealing with manual address corrections to your database.

You save money by removing bad address records from your mailing lists. And corrected addresses can be delivered faster in upcoming mailings. A win-win for you and the USPS. ACS is very inexpensive and is available for First Class Mail, Parcels, Periodicals and Marketing Mail.

Address Element Correction

Address Element Correction (AEC) is an additional service which identifies addresses that are missing address elements or contain incorrect address elements that require additional handling. These problems can delay delivery or even make delivery impossible.

AEC corrects addresses through computer-automated processes and can involve evaluation by local delivery offices if needed. Bad addresses are turned into accurate addresses (complete and standardized for full automation) or identified as potentially undeliverable. This service is available for a modest fee.

How a Nonprofit Uses ACS and AEC

Our client has a large volume, national direct mail program with over 20 mailings per year. Every year, they use ACS on four renewal mailings to keep their donor address data as accurate as possible. As mailing results trickle in over a 12-week period, the USPS sends our client a weekly electronic report with change-of-address information and other reasons for non-delivery. These updates are then made to their donor database.

MMI sets up the specific IM barcode on each mailing that provides the instructions to the USPS to perform the ACS process. MMI then assists with the back and forth exchange of data between our client, their data management partner and the USPS, making the process efficient and easy for our client.

We also advise on which mailings are the best candidates for using ACS. For example, for this client, we recommended that ACS is especially effective for mailings further out from their NCOA processing date. This way, more potential address changes are captured during this additional correction process.

This client also uses the Address Element Correction (AEC) service five times per year to fix questionable addresses that have inaccurate or missing elements.

Several thousand records each year are either corrected or removed from our client’s mailings through these automated services – saving money, avoiding time-intensive manual processes, and eliminating waste. And corrected addresses get delivered without delays.

ACS and in some cases AEC services are beneficial to both large and small mailers. Setting up ACS and AEC with the USPS can seem a bit intimidating. And the backend operations of updating your CRM systems may seem challenging too.

MMI Direct can work with you to come up with the best approach for your team, processes and systems. We’re here to help! Contact us today to get started.

Larry Bettinger is Director of Data Processing at MMI Direct. Over the past 30 years Larry has developed a deep expertise in USPS data hygiene products and services. He assists our clients in setting up data hygeine protocols to maximize mail delivery and control expenses. 

Share This
Link Enlarge

Make a Sure Bet at the 2019 Bridge Conference!

The 2019 Bridge to Integrated Marketing and Fundraising Conference is quickly approaching. Join more than 2,500 fundraising and marketing professionals July 10-12 at the Gaylord National Hotel and Conference Center for days filled with networking, workshops, panels, and more.

With the large variety of exhibitors in the Solutions Showcase, you’re sure to find new companies to partner with to help you better run your nonprofit, organization, or firm. Of course our family of companies will be at Booth #326. If you’re looking for print production, data processing, postal logistics or online fundraising support, please stop by – we’d love to chat. And while you’re there be sure to spin the wheels on our slot machine for a chance to win an overnight stay and dinner for 2 at the MGM Grand Resort!

The educational opportunities are impressive this year and feature numerous speakers and panelists in various tracks including:

  • Building Your Marketing Programs
  • Digital Ideas and Techniques
  • Telling Your Story: The Offer, Copy and Images
  • Positioning Your Organization for Fundraising Success
  • The Ideas-to-Ideals Toolkit
  • F2F & Direct Mail Work Together
  • And much more!

We are looking forward to seeing you at the 2019 Bridge Conference. Be sure to stop by Booth #326 to Make a Sure Bet with the PMG Family!  

Share This