When to use Proprietary Change of Address
Posted on Wed, Aug 18, 2010
By Amy O’Connor, List Planner
As direct marketers, we put our blood, sweat, and tears into every package we produce. As great as our work can be, it’s useless if we can’t actually get our package to our donors and prospects. Possibly the most important step we can take to make sure our lists are accurate is by using NCOA and PCOA processes. Here are a few of the most commonly-asked questions.
Q - What is Proprietary Change of Address?
A – Proprietary Change of Address is a type of change of address processing that collects data from commercial sources (banks, credit cards, magazine subscriptions, etc.) that have new change of addresses which were not reported to the post office in the traditional method: NCOA. The PCOA data can be used in direct mail campaigns to target the ideal address of an individual. PCOA might also be known as MaxCOA – each vendor that offers it typically uses their own naming convention.
Q – Who provides it?
A – Most merge purge and database service bureaus offer this service, however the name of this process vary between service bureaus.
Q – How do you use it?
A – PCOA is used to find the most recent change of address, that the Post Office and NCOA do not have listed, and therefore send all mail to hypothetically the ‘best’ address.
For example:
NCOA has John Smith at 123 Apple Street, NY, NY
PCOA has John Smith at 234 Banana Street, NY, NY through as the new address he gave to his subscription magazines.
If PCOA was used, John Smith would be mailed at his Banana Street address.
Q – When is Proprietary Change of Address a good idea?
A – Based on recent testing, we have found that PCOA is best used to find new addresses of lapsed contributors. These donors already have an established relationship with your organization, but have not recently responded to direct mail efforts. There is a cost associated with using this type of processing, and we have found it most effective to uncover donors who would have given but had been mailed at the wrong address. We have not found it to be an effective tool on rental names, as these donors have active information from the address the rental list provided.
I hope this served as a nice introduction to the change of address system. Do you have any more questions?
