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Explanation and Source for Development of OCS Client Lists…
Names and Addresses or Mailing Lists, are a very unique animal. The average person will usually react to a list of addresses and say, "Oh, no problem just go to the post office they can tell you who lives where". Well today there is a lot more to it than that. First of all the USPS does not give out lists. These consumer files, as they are generally referred to, are a major business. Lists are no longer just a list of names and addresses, they are life styles, income classifications, historical data, specialty groupings, market segmentations, profiling, etc. Putting these names and addresses together is a major undertaking. But like everything in life nothing is easy and there are degrees of what is good and what is better. We here at OCS always strive to achieve the best for our clients. A list can be developed or created in many, many ways. One obvious way is to create it with your own in-house available data. These sources are: your existing client data base, names from response materials generated by your organization, guest books, any phone contacts, past benefactors, data obtainable from any of your web connections such as facebook, linkedin and such. You could also access public record information, such as tax lists, voter records, chamber of commerce data, building permits, other related municipal files, phone books, the internet and so forth and so on. I mention these sources and general initial comments because for the basic novice, I want to present the point that getting information is not all that easy. Now for the well informed and those familiar somewhat with list development, they probably know a little of this. So let me mention briefly some "additional" details about what we here at OCS, Inc. consider. We have many type clients. They are different industries and organizations that relate to various groups. We have basic type mailings, where all we want is to effectively penetrate an area by covering all the addresses in a county or town by their respective zip codes. Then there is the special situations, where we want to "target" the area by mailing to certain market segments, demographics or geography, i.e. income levels, house values, age, sex, children present in family or a specific part of town or particular communities, etc. And with certain volunteer groups, like Fire & EMS companies, they generally want to concentrate in their first due area. We even have special overlap programs to insure we do not mail one company's solicitation into another company's area. We have years of experience, a dedicated and knowledgeable staff that works with the client to determine what "criteria" would be right for them to use. This is done so that they can properly match the audience they are trying to reach, with the message, request or offer they are presenting. Obviously like many mailers they do not have all the particular address lists in-house, so they must obtain information from select resource centers/brokers. We know those very few Compilers (that sell info to the various Brokers) and obtain the best and most pertinent data that better matches the client's needs. We are somewhat unique because for most of our clients we create, further develop & maintain the lists. In these situations we add personal notes, history information and donor response input, where applicable, to the list. Many mailing houses are just "middlemen" whereas we are a complete service. We insure that the lists are USPS qualified and fully deliverable addresses. In addition we check for correctness and duplications. We also have all the computer equipment in house to properly store all the data & with all the correct security controls. Prior to any mailing the client consumer file is run through the National Change of Address (NCOA) file, through the Social Security Administration deceased file, national Do Not Call list and through the DMA do not mail and deceased reference source. With any files we maintain we can append unique marketing data, along with income and other wealth information factors! We have even developed for our clients an on-line custom software package (i.e. CRG system) so they have access to this important data, in a secure manner. In general most clients can not or do not want to "fully" handle doing the collection, development & maintenance of list data because of the time required initially and on-going, knowledge and access to resources and the ability to properly qualify the data. Just what are some of the important questions that require consideration & OCS routinely handles? -- Do you know where to look for the source data? Can you quantify the data you are looking for, accurately? Are you aware of all the sources and the options that are available? How "easily" can you identify and find the data? Which source is better? Can you or do you have the proper computer system and software to develop and maintain the data? In addition, besides the time required there are definite costs to develop and obtain this data. Our years of experience and variety of clients have given us the ability to be able to develop and select lists that better match the client's needs and to properly retain all of the data, along with updating it easily for the client. And this can all be done by OCS at a fraction of the cost over the user trying to handle it on their own. We help our clients with all aspects of their needs. We assist with the project plan, the campaign type selection and parameters, the mailing time frames, where and to whom to mail (i.e. to the total database, to a particular target market, different copy/pieces to certain market segments, etc.), the solicitation or informational type packet formats, the designs and graphics, the printing of all the items, the addresses of course, complete mail prep services (i.e. addressing the product, inserting the pieces, traying the mail, delivery, etc.) and all the post tasks, like data entry (if applicable), follow-up reporting, etc. With OCS everything is important. These comments are presented to hopefully help any prospective client to better understand what is involved, at least in part, with developing, maintaining and adding informational data to particular address records. We want you to know that here at OCS we take the time to insure that you have the most accurate information possible and we do this at the best price possible! 
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