Although most of your company’s communication is done by email, the postal service is not yet obsolete. Many companies still depend on direct postal mail for legal summons, utility bills, mailer vouchers, and other advertising mail.
Unfortunately, when the delivery agent does not have the correct address, a large portion of this mail is not delivered. Undelivered mail not only affects the outcome of advertising strategy analysis but also results in financial losses. After all, there are postal costs involved with any piece of mail you send. When buyers fail to receive discount vouchers, your company’s sales may decline.
Here are five ways of increasing the probability of your mail delivered to the right address.
Address Verification
A simple error such as entering the incorrect apartment number will result in mail being sent straight up to the apartment building and then returned to you. Similarly, a street name may have changed between the delivery date and the point the consumer entered the address. This is information that can be reviewed and updated to increase the likelihood of delivery.
USPS address validation API can gain access to government records and validate addresses. It may even be used to fix unintended errors such as missing elements and updating information.
Delivery Point Validation
This is a method of ensuring that mail can be sent to a specific address. Customers’ addresses are checked against an authoritative database for similar entries. If there is a match, the address is considered credible. If no matching addresses are found, mail cannot be delivered there.
You must understand that delivery locations are not like street addresses. For instance, all apartment building units can have the same street address, but each unit has a special delivery point, such as the unit’s mail slot.
Update Your Mailing List
To guarantee that your mail is received, you must keep track of your mailing list and ensure it’s up to date. When a client moves and gives you the new address, the previous address must be deleted from the system to avoid confusion. With returned mail, the address should be reconfirmed with the client and, if necessary, updated.
Geocoding
USPS address validation systems can go beyond validating and checking addresses to include geocodes. Geocoding is the method of pinpointing the precise longitudes and latitudes of the delivery point. This aids shipping agents in deciding the right route and maintaining on-time delivery. Longitudes and latitudes cannot alter, whereas apartment names and street names can. This means that regardless of any updates, the delivery address remains unchanged.
Address Completion
Another explanation why a lot of mail goes undelivered is missing components. For instance, the consumer may miss entering the street name. USPS address validation API could use other information in the address, like the building name, postal code, and so on, to determine the correct street name and update the address. It can also be used to detect mistakes and correct improperly entered information, like misspelled street names.
Keeping an accurate address registry is critical to delivering mail to the required receiver. Using the right technology will guarantee that all of your database addresses are complete, deliverable, and properly formatted.
