ADDRESS HYGIENE: The Sustainability Hero

We all remember the old “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” slogan from years ago with its ubiquitous tri-arrow logo. But did you ever wonder why “REDUCE” was the first of those three options? It’s not just because it makes the tagline alliteratively pleasing, but because REDUCING waste is arguably the most important part of any sustainability endeavor. The same can be said when it comes to any direct mail campaign – the less of it out there, the less there is to recycle on the back end. So why bother producing anything that we know will just wind up in the trash? This is why Address Hygiene is the most critical part of your sustainability efforts!

Understanding UAA

Did you know that undeliverable mail cost the USPS around $1.3 BILLION in 2023? UAA (Undeliverable As Addressed) mail is at the heart of “Unclean” addresses, and while there are many causes, these addresses typically fall into one of two buckets: Change of Address (COA) or Undeliverable (NIXIE). COA’s are typically people who have moved or are accepting mail at a different address than you have on your mailfile. NIXIEs are addresses that are mostly identified by postal employees when they attempt delivery. Whatever the classification, most Marketing Mail that falls into this category usually winds up recycled.

These bad addresses happen for a variety of reasons, and it all starts at the beginning – Data Entry. Where did you collect this data from? Even a residence’s owner can misspell an address occasionally, but maybe it is more complex. Is it a part-time resident? Multiple owners? Then there is conversion of the data entry to your database and subsequent maintenance of it. What if the original address was written illegibly or just miskeyed into the database? What if the person moved shortly after submitting it? There are just so many ways an address can be considered UAA!

Data Maintenance = Sustainability

Thankfully, there are many tools available to assist in maintaining your database to weed out bad addresses, and many are offered directly from the USPS. The Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS) is a certification available to software manufacturers and/or mail service providers that verifies the address-matching software used meets their standards. The National Change of Address (NCOA) database accounts for most of the almost 50 MILLION Americans that move every year. Address Correction Service (ACS) is the third major service the USPS offers to cleanse your file and it takes place AFTER your mailing has arrived. For this reason, it is best used to collect those NIXIE changes since these changes are typically reported by the postal carriers themselves.

Both CASS and NCOA will change your mailing addresses if they find a match on a USPS database, and before your mailing goes out. Both are also an additional cost to run, but you typically recoup those costs in the postage discounts obtained. ACS can be a FREE service depending on the option chosen and will send an electronic file of address corrections back to the mail owner. However, these files are infamously difficult to interpret without specialized software. All three services will assign a code to each processed record that will either validate the address as mailable or define a reason for it being undeliverable – Change of Address, Insufficient Address, Not Deliverable as Addressed, Addressee Not Known at Place of Address; each of which are all common undeliverable definitions. Additionally, the USPS Secure Destruction service is an ACS option that confirms the mailpiece was destroyed AND provides the corrected address, if available.

REDUCE waste to a Greener DM program!

Removing bad addresses from ever being produced not only saves the post office resources, but it also saves your valuable time and money (not to mention response rates)! The Direct Mail industry as a whole loses over $20 BILLION in UAA mail every year. By cleansing your source databases regularly, you can ensure your direct mail program is not contributing to unneeded waste in the mail stream. And of course, Production Solutions is happy to assist in developing the greenest options for your mailing program!