THE DOLLARS AND SENSE OF NCOA^LinkTM....

Mailers that use the United States Postal Service^® NCOA^LinkTM program reduces costs of labor, postage and materials. You can realize ROI benefits by processing your mailing list through our NCOA^LinkTM program before you mail.

Return on Investment

The United States Postal Service^® has stated that the average NCOA^LinkTM match rate is 4.1%. That translates to 41,000 move changes for a 1,000,000 record file. The match rate not only includes recognized address changes but also closed PO Boxes, foreign moves and moves with no forwarding address. When associated postage and material costs related to these factors are recognized as well as addresses without ZIP + 4^® Codes, one begins to conceptualize the value of this service.

The following are average percentages of key NCOA^LinkTM elements:

The next process applies dollar values to these change dynamics. Two points regarding the figures used below.  First, we have used a typical discount for First-Class Mail^® and Standard Mail^TM  in the example. (Reference Domestic Mail Manual R100 and R600.) Also, the $0.05 material amount may be conservative for both mail classes.

Cost Savings Benefit #1 - First-Class Mail^®                    

Cost Savings Benefit #1 - Standard Mail^TM

Cost Savings Benefit #2 - First & Standard Mail^TM

Summary of Examples:

Cost Saving Benefits:

• *Changes of 12+ month old moves that would have otherwise resulted in returned mail for First-Class Mail^®.  This example assumes an average of  20% of total moves occur in the 13-36 month period
• Avoidance of mailing to closed PO boxes, foreign moves and moves with no forwarding addresses
• Address improvements resulting in ZIP + 4^® Codes
• Address standardization of all records
• Identification of probable moves and addresses with errors as noted in the "Footnotes" portion of the process

Most databases are relatively complete with ZIP + 4^® Codes, 90% - 95% on average. However, as the example illustrates, a database owner of 1mm records enjoys a further saving of $600 for every one-percent improvement the NCOA^LinkTM process provides.

Case Study

This study is presented as an example of the savings potential to small file owners that use Standard Mail^TM, in this case an owner with 82,153 records.

Client Savings

A Final Thought

Over 100 billion records are processed through all FASTforward^® and NCOA^LinkTM licensee systems each year. Hundreds of mailers appreciate the value of NCOA^LinkTM processing and realize positive benefits to their bottom line..  Let us show you how you too can reap the rewards of NCOA^LinkTM processing........

NCOA^LinkTM Processing is performed by a non-exclusive licensee of the United States Postal Service^®.