Regardless of what it is you put in the mail, there’s a reason you want it to arrive safely at its destination. Your mail makes a statement and shows potential customers and current clients who you are. They’ll never know what you have to say if they never see it.
When using mail for your business, you are likely sending out anywhere from hundreds to thousands of pieces of mail. You want as many of those as possible to arrive in the mailbox of their intended recipient. At the end of the day, mail with outdated or incorrect addresses is a sunk cost.
Ultimately, misaddressed mail costs you more than just postage. There is a more complex equation that includes financial loss, missed opportunities, and broken trust. Your customers and clients rely on you to get it right, and prioritizing correct addresses for them is one way to show them you are reliable and trustworthy. Qualified mail service providers can even manage it for you and make you look good with minimal effort.
So, what exactly is the true cost of an incorrect address? Here’s the breakdown.
Postage
Mail costs money. In addition to paying for postage, you have paid for paper, envelopes, design fees, and printing. All of these add up. The higher the percentage of wrong addresses, the more money you have wasted on your mail. Postage for a large mail project can be very expensive, and when you have a high rate of bad addresses, it equates to poorly spent money.
Missed Opportunities
Your mail contains a message. Whether that message is an effort to drum up business, collect a bill, or notify your customer base of a change, they must receive it for it to be effective. Mail that is incorrectly delivered or returned to sender never lives up to its full potential. The result is a missed opportunity.
Skewed Marketing Metrics
Your marketing team is taking note of response rates from the mail you send out. They are collecting data and basing their numbers on the number of mail pieces you sent. If a large percentage of the mail never arrives at its intended destination, the numbers will show a much lower engagement rate than if a high percentage of letters arrive at their proper address. These numbers help your team know how effective your mail is and will drive change, so your marketing team relies on good addresses to formulate their future plans.
Increased Opportunities for Fraud
Mail is a safe and effective way to communicate critical information. Companies send out bank statements, notices, medical information, and sensitive information. If these documents have proper addresses, there is little chance they will encounter fraud on their journey. But incorrect addresses change everything. When mail arrives at the mailbox of the wrong recipient, doors open up for fraudulent activities. Errors like this must be avoided at all costs.
Lost Trust
The worst case scenario is that wrong addresses can lead to lost customer trust. When you can’t get mail where it needs to go, people question what else you aren’t getting right. This is especially true when that mail contains sensitive or private information. Managing your addresses properly is an easy way to show everyone on your mailing list that you are qualified, professional, and worthy of their trust.
What is the Solution?
Truth be told, you’ll likely never get a 100% delivery rate, but you can get close. People move, mistakes happen, and you will ultimately get a few returned pieces of mail. While perfection isn’t a realistic expectation, you can take measures to reduce your error rate.
It comes down to managing your address databases. Ensuring that your information is synced and kept up to date anytime you catch wind of an address change. Returned mail should trigger an update to your address database. Someone needs to attempt to track down new addresses. It is tedious and requires constant attention and management.
While managing addresses isn’t hard, it does require regular attention. You can have someone on your team manage the task, or you can outsource it. Sometimes, the easiest solution is to work with a professional print and mail company that offers address services. If you have issues with keeping addresses current, you can find a mail professional who will tackle the task for you. When your print and mail partner offers address management services, they will track your returned mail, reduce waste and missed opportunities, and help you forget all about wrong addresses.
Ultimately, the addresses in your database are crucial for your business. Keeping them up to date sets you up for a world of opportunities to communicate and connect. When you consider that the addresses you keep current can translate to money in the bank, it is easier to find the motivation to keep your database clean.
It doesn’t have to be a painful task; it just requires some upkeep. Whether you task it to someone on your team or outsource the job, you will be glad that you gave it some attention.
