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Stephen Mally 2018, Christmas, Christmas appeal, Deceased, Evaluate, National Change of Address, NCOA, RTS, Segment, segmentation, tax appeal

Prepare your direct mail file for Christmas – tasks to complete…now

Christmas is ~200 days away. Seem like a long time? It will be here before we know it. With the tax appeal now behind you (for the most part), it is time to prepare your direct mail file for Christmas.

Why so early?

You will need the end of year file in September/October. That is approximately 3-4 months away. You likely have ample data hygiene to do prior.

Tasks to do before Christmas Appeal is ready

Analyse 2018 Tax
- Australian charitable organisations do not analyse their appeals results enough.
- How can you make decisions about 2018 Christmas without first evaluating 2018 Tax.
- Evaluate:
  - Overall appeal
  - Each segment
  - Compare 2018 Tax to the past three tax appeals.
- Need help to analyse your 2018 Tax Appeal?
  - Hire an expert.
    - Consider Wright Approach Marketing who offer deep analytics into appeals and other services.
Return to Sender (RTS)
- Be certain to handle all return to sender.
- Mark the address RTS.
- Develop a plan to acquire the addresses for these lost constituents.
- Encourage all staff to CEE every record.
Deceased
- Be certain to handle any mail that came back with the constituent marked as deceased.
- Develop a plan to screen your entire database for deceased.
NCOA/Deceased
- Engage with one of the top data firms to conduct a national change of address (NCOA) process across your data file.
  - Consider: Acxiom, Experian, and Conexum.
- Ensure you include any possible constituents who may be part of the data universe for 2018 Christmas.
- Engage with The Australian Bereavement Register to screen your data for other deceased.
Segmentation
- Segment your data!
- You’d be surprised the number of Australian charities that send the same package to all constituents without slicing and dicing their data file to monitor and measure results.
- Need help to segment your file?
  - Hire an expert.
Prepare a “kill file”/Suppression File
- Prepare a last minute do not mail, do not contact, do not solicit, and deceased file to ensure any of these constituents are removed from the marketing effort as requested.
- Your data will be delivered to the mail house weeks prior to the mail date.
  - You want to ensure anyone is removed who made such a request.

If you do the above thoroughly, it very well may take you 3 months. Get busy!