Data Services

List Acquisition

The foundation of effective direct mailing is the list you use. This might be:

  • Your current list/database
  • A bought list that we/you may supply
  • A mix of both after removing duplicate records

We help our clients by advising on the type of data which is best suited to their mailing campaign. Your current consumer data list can be profiled to match similar data depending on given criteria such as postcode, income level and sports/pastimes. Business data can also be selected on criteria such as turnover, number of employees and type of industry.

We will use data supplied by you or purchase data on your behalf from fully accredited suppliers which, like us, are normally DMA members. We are registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 and confidentiality of data is our highest priority. We encourage the use of seeds to check the integrity and mailing dates of every mailing.

We explain the different types of licence and the constraints placed upon the client concerning its use.

  • Business/Consumer
  • Single time/12 month/multiple use

Data Cleaning

Sending more than one item to a customer is not only a waste of money, but it reduces the impact of your mailing, irritates the recipient and is a waste of resources. No company has a perfect list!  We take the data and using sophisticated software we identify and remove duplicates. This reduces the cost of duplicate mailings.  We provide the following data services:

Address cleaning against PAF (Postcode Address File).

Royal Mail supplies a database of all the addresses in the UK which from time to time is updated due to postcode changes. The PAF process can be adjusted according to whether you want records to be checked against the postcode only or the full address. This enhances the quality of the data and increases the likelihood of delivery and increases the level of discount. The fully postcode matched ‘% quantity’ is one of the criteria to be eligible for some Royal Mail services, particularly OCR and CBC mailings.

Removal of duplicate records.

Our in-house software will remove duplicate records either from within one file or by comparing two files and removing duplicates from one of the files. When planning a de-duplication the parameters need to be determined. These will include whether you want to send one record to each address, (household or business) or one record to each named person.

Suppression Files.

Suppression files are files which contain records (people) who do not want to be sent unsolicited direct mail. The following suppression files can be run against your list so that any person who appears in one of the following lists can be removed from your database/list:

  • MPS (Mailing Preference Service)
  • Bereavement Register
  • National Change of Address
  • Gone Away Register

Sustainable Mail

Royal Mail Sustainable Mail allows an extra 4.7% discount below Mailsort prices provided certain criteria are met. At least 95% of items must be fully and accurately postcoded in accordance with Royal Mail’s PAF. We can help you plan for Sustainable Mail.

Merging Data Files

We are able to merge different file layouts and sizes prior to any mailing to maximise postage discounts.

Salutations and Properising

We enhance data quality by adding salutations and properising names where appropriate. Properising is the process of putting the first letter of a proper noun or name in upper case and the rest of the word in lower case. This process is usually included within the set-up charge.

NRG APPROVED DATA PARTNER

We are pleased to recommend our Data Partner, Databroker who offer free impartial advice on sourcing B2B data and consumer data.  Databroker are DMA members, like NRG, and therefore abide by the DMA Code of Practice.