Clean Lists Save Postage: CASS, NCOA and Deduplication

Every piece of mail that cannot be delivered is money spent for nothing. Before a list goes to print, it should be cleaned. Three steps do most of the work.

CASS: standardized addresses#

CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) is the postal standard for address quality. A CASS check corrects spelling, adds missing ZIP+4 codes and flags addresses that do not exist. Clean addresses are delivered more reliably.

NCOA: people who moved#

NCOA (National Change of Address) compares your list with change-of-address requests filed with the postal service. When an owner has moved, the mail goes to their new address instead of a house they no longer live in.

Deduplication#

Lists from different sources overlap. Without deduplication, the same owner can receive two or three identical mailers in the same week. That wastes postage and looks careless.

Watch for duplicates in:

• The same owner listed under slightly different name spellings
• Owners with several properties on one list
• Owners who appear on two lists you combined, such as absentee owners and tired landlords

A simple routine#

1. Combine all lists for the campaign
2. Remove duplicates
3. Run CASS and NCOA
4. Remove anyone who asked not to be mailed
5. Review a sample of the final list by hand

text
Before:  123 main st apt 4, springfeld
After:   123 MAIN ST APT 4, SPRINGFIELD, IL 62701-1234

The cleaner the list, the more of your budget actually reaches a mailbox.