| I've been working in Direct Mail for over 17 years | | | | lot of information and he needs to know what he |
| in the data processing field. I now own a | | | | has so he can get the best prospects in his door. |
| marketing firm, but always wondered why it's so | | | | Now my job as a processor is to perform a |
| hard for people to understand the concept of | | | | number of functions on the data in order to pull |
| data processing. Of course I live and breathe it so | | | | the data that will best suit Company ABC's needs. |
| it's easy for me to say that, right? | | | | I will give you the high level breakdown and then |
| A client of mine suggested that I should take all | | | | in upcoming issues, I will explain things in more |
| of my knowledge and write a book to help other | | | | detail. |
| people. He also commented that I explained things | | | | The following processes are performed once the |
| in laymen terms so people could truly understand | | | | data is received: |
| what was being done to their data so I am going | | | | 1. The data is reviewed to make sure all of the |
| to do my best to help and you are my first | | | | necessary fields are available and that the format |
| readers. | | | | is useable. |
| Most Important thing about Data | | | | 2. Data hygiene is performed on the data. This |
| The bottom line with any direct mail campaign is | | | | includes address certification, pulling out bad data, |
| the data. You can have the best graphic design | | | | removing duplicates and preparing reports that |
| and obscene amounts of money to throw at the | | | | break down the counts after data hygiene. |
| campaign, but if the data is crap, then your | | | | 3. Once Company ABC gets the data breakdown |
| campaign is going to fail. | | | | via reports (I will show you samples in upcoming |
| We are going to use a fictitious company for the | | | | issues), they will see a summary of the data they |
| beginning stages of data processing to keep | | | | have to work with (ie: qty of each year, qty of |
| things in laymen terms. Okay, here we go. | | | | each make, state counts, etc) |
| Company ABC (an automotive dealership) has a | | | | 4. After the data is selected by the client |
| customer list that they've been building for years. | | | | (Company ABC), the data processor will extract |
| This list has amassed to over 48,000 customers | | | | the necessary data and presort the data for the |
| and there have been many different people | | | | best possible postal discount. |
| inputting the data into the database over time. | | | | 5. If back end reporting is requested, the data |
| Now they want to use this list to do a mailing | | | | processor will match the names of the mailing |
| because they have a big event coming up. | | | | against a current list of Company ABC's data to |
| Where does the company start? They will start | | | | see who has responded and what happened when |
| by extracting the data from their database and | | | | they came in. Did they buy a car? Did they have |
| sending it to a qualified data processor (like | | | | it serviced? |
| myself) to help them understand what's in the | | | | Glossary: |
| database. Almost always, the mail house that you | | | | Address Certification - Address Certification |
| send your data to has a data processor on staff. | | | | (CASS) enables the Postal Service(TM) to |
| * Data extractions will be covered in Issue #2. | | | | evaluate the accuracy of address-matching |
| Now Company ABC wants to target specific | | | | software programs in three areas: |
| people. Let's say that this dealership wants to | | | | (1) ZIP+4 delivery point coding, |
| target all of his customer list with vehicle years | | | | (2) carrier route coding, and |
| 1998-2003 because they are the most likely to | | | | (3) five-digit coding. |
| be ready to buy a car. In his database there is a | | | | |