Avrick Direct has recently begun a LinkedIn discussion group. If you wish join in, please click on the yellow button on the bottom. The USPS touts their NCOA (National Change of Address) and in order to obtain the lower postage rates, they require that you run all mailings through NCOA, to get the cleanest list file possible. In theory if you have a list of 100,000 names that you haven't promoted to for a year, when you run that list thorough NCOA 10%+ should have been moved. But as a practical matter, only a tiny percentage has been moved. I started the posting by telling of a recently conducted test. A client asked us to clean his 50,000 name list. We ran it through NCOA, and identified 1561 moved or bad addresses. We then ran their list against our 36-year NEW MOVER FILE. When we did that we found 8,336 moves. The difference is pretty shocking. After I posted this experience on our new discussion group, I saw the following comments: April Clark responded: Our experience is worse. 20% of this country historically moves each year and the average NCOA match is 3-4%. That tells the story. We add PCOA, deceased coding, and Phantom Finder to complete our data hygiene for clients. Richard Barclay chimed in: The metrics cited here are correct. We have discovered that a comprehensive PCOA (Propriety Change of Address) program that uses transactional metrics to track incremental moves over and above the USPS services are necessary to achieve acceptable consumer tracking. Combine this with a residency occupancy score and you have a really solid way of finding consumers who move and then validate that they are currently at that address. Brenda McGowan added: So true! NCOA processing is no longer enough, so many people don't want their bills to follow them, but they file changes with their subscriptions, internet and other sources, etc. There are lots of reasons for this. About a third of the nation doesn't even notify the USPS when they move. Due to privacy concerns, the USPS selection process leaves many names unmoved that in a traditional commercial organization would be moved and mailed to. What concerns me the most are the thousands of comments made every year by mailers. They're quick to tell you they "clean their house files using NCOA” ~ not realizing they are lucky to identify only 20% to 25%, leaving 75% of those people that moved uncorrected. After a few years, that begins to add up to a significant number of undeliverables.     If you're concerned about this issue, give us a call. Let's talk about using our legacy new mover file to truly clean your files.

For nearly half a century, Avrick Direct has marketed the nation’s premier new movers lists totaling well over a half million names per month. We compile weekly lists of pre-movers, new movers, new telephone connects and new homebuyers. Our new movers list, A Moving Experience, is consistently “first-to-market”, giving mailers the advantage of being the first to contact their prospects.

For additional information about these lists contact: David Bancroft Avrick at david@avrick.com or call 805–963–8888 Doreen Ellen Burk at doreen@avrick.com or call 805–683–6551 Laurence Shoobs at laurence@avrick.com or call 323–662–1143 Visit us at www.avrickdirect.com and www.homedata.com