6 Tips To Ensure Dependable Data

Here at Stannp, we like to make it as easy as possible for our customers to send Direct Mail campaigns, and the Stannp platform will do it’s best to interpret your data in whatever format that you upload it.

However, one sure way to speed up the process of creating a campaign is to maximise the number of addresses that verify first time.

If you want to find out more about address verification you can read all about it in our “Why are My Addresses not Verified“ blog post.

Example Data File

When you upload data to the Stannp platform, it remains your data, you are the ‘data controller’ and Stannp is the ‘data processor’. Unfortunately this means that the Stannp team are unable to edit or reformat data on your behalf, as you obtain full control over the data. 

One great way to get your data structure right first time is to download our Example Data File and use it as a template for the headings and content of your data before you upload.

6 Top Tips for Dependable Data

Your Stannp team have put together some top tips to help you get your data right first time, every time. In each of the examples below, green text shows the right way to do things, and red text shows errors and things to avoid.

1) Field Order

Make sure the address fields are separated correctly, and are in the correct order;

2) Duplicate Entries

Make sure there are no duplicate entries in a row, or duplicate numbers in a field;

3) Postcodes

Make sure all addresses have a postcode, and the postcode is in the ‘postcode’ column;

4) International Addresses

If there are international addresses in your data, make sure you include a ‘country‘ column in your data and indicate the country using 2 letter country codes (also know as ‘Alpha-2’ codes in the ISO 3166 international standard.);

The Stannp platform is happy to handle sending to multiple countries from the same data set as long as you include the country code.

Some of our customers find it easier for their teams to manage if they upload data for each country as a separate data file.

Don’t forget you can also set a Default country when you upload your data; the Stannp platform will use this where your data doesn’t include a country code.

5) Personalisation Fields (name etc)

Where you are using personalised data in your campaign, (for example “Dear {firstname}”), make sure you have an entry in every row (i.e. no blanks in the data). 

Having blanks in your data won’t prevent the addresses from verifying, but it will look strange to your (un-named) recipients to receive post addressed to “Dear        “.

6) No Special Characters

Make sure that there are no special characters in the data or column headers;

2 Bonus Tips!

1. Example Data File; Don’t forget, the easiest way to make sure that your data meets all six of these requirements is to download our Example Data File and use it as a template to build your data.
2. Company Name; If you are sending to Businesses, don’t forget that the company name is included in the registered address, so a business address won’t verify if the company name is missing or incorrect.