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 you upload it.
However, one sure fire 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’. This unfortunately means that the Stannp team are unable to edit or reformat data on your behalf.
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 friendly Stannp team have put together some top tips to help you get your data right first time, every time. In all 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!
- 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.
- 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.
We hope you find our Dependable Data Guide helpful. For more helpful hints, tips, guides and info you can find us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, or feel free to speak to your account manager if you have any questions or need any help.
