Canada Post Has 7 Tips for Your Company’s Direct Mailing List – Both Local & Larger Data Services!

Your very own company mailing list plays a vital role in sales and retention. Think of the customer data you collect as a working diary about people who are interested in you. Clients have trusted you with their private information because they believe in the integrity of your business, as well as in your products and services.

This is why a clean and accurate direct mail list delivers significant return on investment (ROI). When mail marketing reaches established customers, there is a natural opportunity for high response. If a customer has already purchased your soap set at full price, why wouldn’t he or she buy another one with a 30% off coupon?

Direct mail advertisements move promotions into peoples’ homes. These physical pieces are personalized for every client, which makes each client feel special and remembered. In order to maintain the loyal customer relationships on your direct mailing list, here are 7 tips from Canada Post:

1. Consider every customer contact an opportunity to collect or validate data.
Whether online, on the phone or in a store, if your business is interacting with a customer you can collect data—either to validate existing information or to add depth to your database.

2. Make it easy for customers to give you information.
Collecting data online, in retail or at a call centre? Make sure your forms are easy to use. And think about the data you’re asking for: Asking for more than you’ll use wastes your time and your customers’ goodwill.

3. Collect data in a standard format across all points of capture.
Be the forms you use online and the forms your call centre staff use are capturing the same data in the same format. Build forms that will give you standard data output (for example, using checkboxes and drop-down lists, rather than text input fields).

4. Validate information as it’s being captured.
“Keystroke errors are very high,” says Psychogios, especially when capturing data on web forms. To improve accuracy, add tools to your forms that validate formats (such as 10 digits in a phone number) or verify accuracy (such as addresses). It’s also a good idea to have phone reps check key information with customers when they phone it, and correct any inaccuracies.

5. Validate email addresses extra-carefully.
Reduce email bounce rates by confirming the email address they provide. Have the customer enter the address twice, ensuring the entries match or consider using a double opt-in process, to confirm the address is real. Email addresses captured at point of sale are particularly prone to inaccuracy, so be sure to confirm them in person or with a confirmation email.

6. Collect ‘nice-to-have’ data over time.
Ask customers for profile-type data slowly, a bit at a time. Incent them to provide the information or try conducting a survey. Correlate this information with their purchase history to develop rich insights.

7. Follow privacy laws when collecting, storing and using data.
This includes Canada’s anti-spam legislation (CASL), the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and similar provincial legislation. Be sure to have a company privacy policy in place, and be accountable to your customer for what you’ll do with their data.

Your mailing lists are safe and secure with Troi Mailing Services, as we are a Canada Post certified Smartmail Marketing Expert Partner with government-issued privacy compliance.

Please call our GTA mailing house at 1-866-486-0423 for your data clean-up and direct mail quote!