Thursday, October 27, 2022

Correspondence Address vs Residential (Home) Address

Correspondence Address vs. Residential Address; Whats & Hows: The Overview

Let us start by sharing a story- A young entrepreneur established a small business. He was unfamiliar with peripheral areas other than the technicalities. It was a small office, and all postal mail was delivered to his residence, whether he received letters or other mail items.

address checker

It became apparent to him that there was some mistake when he provided his correspondence address as he provided his residential address. While it may not seem like a big deal, it was crucial to use a complete address for his company. Without an official work address, it would appear unofficial for businesses, their clients, and others. He found the solution using the internet and learned all about correspondence addresses vs. residential addresses.

He also came across a crucial piece of information, and it was- 

There are different types of mailing addresses that constitute a substantial part of Royal Post’s mailing service. You can remotely manage and send posts from any location to UK-based business addresses, PO Boxes, and Royal Mail redirection addresses.

Addresses other than residential addresses are another common question that he asked. So, we decided to take charge, and here we are for everyone seeking the same piece of information.

In this article, we will examine the difference between correspondence and residential addresses and their typical uses to provide a better understanding.

Let’s start our ride by highlighting a few basics!

What Is The Correspondence Address?

A correspondence address (also known as a service address) is where people can reach you. However, residing there is not a compulsion. Proof of identification and PSD2 SCA compliance are required to register for a correspondence address. People usually register for various services using their correspondence addresses UK; some services accept working addresses, while others require residence addresses.

Now, if you are still asking questions like, what is a correspondence address?- Let’s explain it a little!

When a startup tends to register within the country, all the individuals must fill out a form with the correspondence address UK where they wish people to contact you. It includes officials like directors, generic staff, and shareholders, in case they become members throughout the process and if they are also PSCs in the startups. 

If the correspondence address is a physical postal address that can receive and store mail items, it does not necessarily have to be a place where you are in constant contact.

Let us now see the types of business correspondence addresses that you can go for

  • Internal correspondence address.
  • External correspondence addresses.
  • Personalised addresses.
  • Sales correspondence addresses the UK.
  • And, Circulars.

Correspondence addresses are locations where real people can send correspondence to their family or friends. 

Your correspondence should be delivered to you by the individual at that address. You should not use a PO box, Post Codes, or an address where no one lives for this type of address.

direct mail operations

What is a Residential Address?

You are highly likely to answer a question like what is a residential address or what is your house address? 

Let us take a step ahead and discuss the residential address vs. a correspondence address. There are three types of residential addresses, street addresses, PO box addresses, and more. 

The most common residential address type is a street address. And generally includes a residential or resident or house number, a street name, and a unit number, or sometimes it also contains an apartment number.

PO Box is also used when the street address is unavailable, or the recipient wishes to receive mail at the PO Box instead of their home address. A rural route address is used for recipients residing in rural areas without street addresses. Rural route residential addresses UK include a box number and a route number. 

In other words, a residential address is an address you give for where you officially reside. You must live at a location for 183 days a year to qualify as a residential address. Proof of this fact must then be provided. For instance, the DVLA requires a residential or house address when registering vehicles. Your correspondence address cannot be used for this service- it must be your registered address.

Another example can be- the student may have multiple residential addresses at different times (presumably the address of where their family lives) during the term and out-of-term period. Since students are not currently residing or do not have a valid postal address, they would understandably not want to receive their mail there.

Residential Address vs. Correspondence Address

Talking about Residential addresses vs. correspondence addresses-  Both are similar to some extent and tend to serve similar functions. However, there are many differences between these two addresses.

A few significant differences between the two is that a correspondence address does not require a habitable address. All you need is a physical address that can receive and store mail. If you need to prove that you live at a residential address somewhere, you must reside there for 183 days a year. 

Another difference is that the correspondence address doesn’t need to be in the same locality, state, or country of residence. If you have permission, you can use a correspondence address from any country, unlike registered office addresses. In addition to being a physical address, it must also be one where mail can be readily delivered and signed for regularly.

When considering business mail, we think the following factors may help you to understand both addresses: 

Let us dive deeper into our conversation about correspondence address vs. residential address!

Correspondence Address

Service or correspondence addresses UK is relevant to shareholders, directors, and other officials employed by your business. In terms of correspondence addresses, there is some flexibility, while residential addresses must be the actual address of the officer. Also: 

  • You can use a correspondence address to send or receive direct mail items and parcels.
  • The location of the address is not a crucial aspect to look for when talking about correspondence addresses. 
  • This address does not require you to visit it physically.
  • Residential addresses are not required to avail of the services.

Residential Addresses

The main difference between correspondence and residential address is that- A residential address requires you to stay for a required number of days to prove your residency there. Banks require standard documentation for proof of a residential address, such as utility bills, mortgage statements, credit card statements, and lease agreements.

  • You must occupy the address at least 183 days (as mentioned above) out of the year at the physical address.
  • Also, you must provide your home address to sign up for certain services.
  • Since it is your home address, it contains more sensitive information than a correspondence address.

How Can you Use Your Residential Address UK as Your Correspondence Address?

To receive physical mail ensure that you use a valid registered residential address to meet all the requirements. Depending on the service you opt for, your correspondence address UK may become public, which is sometimes not recommended.

It is imperative to protect your privacy by using a non-residential address so that you do not receive unwanted marketing mail. Also, it’s possible to address your company in large cities and towns if you want to give your business a more professional image.

Virtual street addresses make excellent correspondence addresses for your business. With valid UK business addresses, you can store incoming business mail, receive incoming mail, and register a new business without hassle.

PostGrid and Its Benefits

You can send your business mail to a variety of postal addresses. Unlike email addresses, mailing addresses come in a wide variety. Communication and marketing strategies require effective management of customer address data.

To formulate an advanced marketing strategy, you need to go beyond simply knowing the validity of your correspondence and the residential address of your customers. You can manage your address database better with advanced address verification tools like PostGrid. The address verification tool from PostGrid can be used in different ways to benefit your business.

  • Get Address Verification As per Postal Standards in the UK: Royal Post’s official address database can be accessed using PostGrid’s advanced address verification tool. The addresses you provide us with are guaranteed to be accurate and deliverable, including both physical and mailing addresses. We also help you organise and categorise your mailing addresses to save you the hassle.
  • Address Autocomplete: PostGrid provides Address Autocomplete API and other functionality. You can use the API Key to integrate and Royal Post address database to suggest valid addresses to your web and app interface users.
  • Geocoding with Added Functionalities:  You can geocode your addresses with PostGrid to locate them geographically. Your making list can be mapped out using this tool. A feature like this can be useful if you are looking to identify residential or commercial clusters, as well as a variety of other things.

 PostGrid has several key benefits, they are:

  • Errors can be eliminated by cleaning bulk datasets.
  • Efficiency and productivity can be improved by reducing errors.
  • We provide higher-quality data with high-end customer service can also be ensured.
  • Data cleanup can facilitate future data maintenance.
  • In the event of a future problem, cleaner data can be more accessible through PostGrid.
  • Creating more precise business roadmaps and funnels can be achieved through cleaning up.
  • Service delivery bottlenecks can also be avoided by cleaning data.
  • You can also save 1000s of hours with direct mail automation.
  • Quality control with a 99.9% error-free rate. 
  • Creative and well-researched direct mail solutions combined with Address Validation functionalities.

Our Last Words

You can also use your list residential address along with correspondence address to get your mail items as long as you meet the desired requirements. It isn’t always a great idea as it is dependent on the services you wish you go for as correspondence addresses can also be disclosed publically. 

A non-residential address safeguards your privacy and prevents you from receiving invalid or unwanted mail items at your residence. Additionally, it might also be claimed to choose a commercial address, such as one in the state, major city, or town, and it gives you a valid or even a good identity. 

Therefore, a platform like PostGrid offers straightforward solutions to the common problem related to address verification. Business owners can securely eliminate duplicate datasets & pool records from different sources without losing track of time. PostGrid also supports businesses across various verticals- where there is bulk data, there is a requirement for curating the addresses.    

Huge datasets or data lake models are expanding and are even more outdated. Therefore, now is definitely the time for businesses to consider PostGrid to clean up their records.  It is time to take the importance of address verification or cleaning seriously. 

PostGrid address verification API can help you solve several business problems and link records according to your requirements. We can access the Royal Post’s official database to let you differentiate between Correspondence addresses and Residential addresses and help you with fuzzy addressing matching. It also provides you access to features like Address Autocomplete along with Geocoding.  

Also, functionalities like geocoding make sure that you never have to worry about targeting customers or official correspondence addresses. PostGrid helps you determine and identify the cluster of audience you can target through your collected address data. The outcome: you can also develop more curated, personalised, and customised direct mail marketing campaigns for your brand or businesses. 

Lastly, to learn or see exactly how PostGrid helps you with address verification or validations, get in touch with our solution experts right away and let us help you in detail for you; to help you, and guide you!

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Wednesday, October 26, 2022

Where to Buy Postcards?

Where To Buy Postcards Online For Effective Direct Mail Campaigns?

When was the last time you felt happy about receiving a marketing message? 

Most of you would answer “never” to the above question. It is one thing to be okay with receiving marketing messages and another to be happy or excited about it. Very few marketing channels can accomplish this, and Postcards are one of them. 

where to buy postcards online

Postcards tend to have an emotional impact on the recipients and manage to make your marketing message seem exciting. Because of these characteristics, the postcard is one of the most efficient marketing channels today. Hence, it is no surprise that business organisations are trying to find out where to buy postcards online for their marketing campaign.

If you are reading this article, the chances are you are here to find the answer to the same question. Luckily for you, we got the answer to the question you are looking for, and we are about to share the same with you. However, you must understand that choosing the best place to buy postcards is not as easy as you think.

The best place to buy postcards for your business depends on your direct mail needs. Hence, it is up to you to decide which is the best option to purchase direct mail postcards and send them. All we can do is point you in the right direction. Below we discuss some of the best options for buying postcards online for your business organisation.  

direct mail operations

#1 PostGrid

PostGrid is one of the best places to buy personalised postcards for businesses. It is not like PostGrid is your regular stationary store where you can walk in and buy a couple of postcards. However, it is the best place to buy postcards online for bulk business mail. 

PostGrid is a fully automated direct mail solution that lets you print personalised postcards and mail them directly to your target audience. You can either access PostGrid’s template gallery or use your designs for the postcards. However, that’s not the only reason PostGrid is the best place to buy postcards for your business.

PostGrid has an advanced bulk mailing feature that allows you to send thousands of personalised postcards for your business. The direct mail system is fully automated. One of our clients in the healthcare industry uses PostGrid’s system to mail 10,000 mailpieces periodically. Hence, PostGrid is the best place to buy postcards for businesses that may need bulk mailing. 

With PostGrid, you get several additional benefits that can help you streamline your business marketing efforts. These benefits make PostGrid the perfect place where to buy postcards online for your business. Here are some of the additional features you can get from PostGrid.

  • Ability to access mailing history.
  • Standard mail and Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMB) Tracking.
  • Template editor.
  • Bulk mailing via CSV file.
  • And more.

#2 Etsy

If you want to know where to buy postcards online without committing to an agreement, Etsy could be perfect for you. As you know, Etsy is an international marketplace where you can find all sorts of products, such as handmade and vintage postcards.

You can also find vendors on Etsy who can sell you pre-printed and customisable postcards. The good thing about Etsy is that it lets you place orders for single cards and larger quantities. However, that does not mean Etsy is where to buy postcards online for your business’s bulk mail campaigns.

Why? Because purchases on Etsy are bound to have limitations based on individual sellers. So, don’t use Etsy unless you are positive that the vendor is reliable and can meet your postcard needs. The best place to buy postcards online for businesses is to use professional services like PostGrid. 

Why? Because with managed print services like PostGrid, you can make things official by signing an agreement. That way, you can be sure where to buy postcards online as they must consistently deliver your direct mail requirements.

#3 Hallmark

Hallmark Cards is a century-old American card company with a significant presence in the UK. We would not suggest you walk into the nearest Hallmark store looking for postcards because they may not have them. However, many consider Hallmark’s website the best place to buy postcards online because of its vast collection of cards. 

You can find different postcards on the Hallmark website, including blank postcards. But you can find a suitable postcard on the Hallmark website, making it the best place to buy postcards for your company. However, Hallmark primarily focuses on greeting cards, and their collection of postcards is not as extensive when compared to greeting cards.

Hallmark’s vintage and travel postcards are also popular choices that you can consider. Of course, you can only use the type of postcards relevant to your niche or the offer you are pitching. Hence, if your answer to “where to buy postcards online?” is Hallmark, you should ensure that it has a relevant postcard design.

#4 Amazon

If you try to find where to buy postcards online, you will, at some point, consider using Amazon. The eCommerce giant sells everything a person could need in their life, including postcards. Amazon offers a variety of ready-made postcards from different sellers all over the UK. 

You may not know this, but Amazon also lets you purchase postcards in bulk. More often, buying postcards from Amazon is cheaper than printing them yourself. For this reason, many consider Amazon the best place to buy postcards for business organisations.

On the other hand, you also need to consider the logistical challenges involved in bulk purchasing postcards. Because you still need to personalise and mail them, which is a massive task. Suppose you are seeking convenience and operational efficiency. In that case, Amazon is not the best place to buy postcards for your business.

#5 Zazzle

Another print service provider you can consider from where to buy postcards online is Zazzle. The company offers a wide range of print services, which include everything from postcards to t-shirts. Hence, they are a good choice for your direct mail marketing campaigns and promotional materials for your business.

Furthermore, Zazzle provides you with an extensive range of postcards. Some of the popular categories of postcards available on Zazzle’s website include:

  • Birthday cards.
  • Christmas cards.
  • Father’s and mother’s day cards.
  • Holiday cards.
  • Congratulations cards.
  • And more.

On top of all this, Zazzle also allows you to create custom postcards. It offers an editor for creating customised materials. All this makes Zazzle the best place to buy postcards online for your business organisation.

You can add an image to the postcard to create an attractive marketing postcard for your business. However, this approach is best suited for smaller businesses, such as independent real estate businesses. The best place to buy postcards online for companies or brands is still customised postcards such as the ones you can get from PostGrid. 

#6 British Library

Another option to consider if you are wondering where to buy postcards online is the British Library’s website. Yes, we are talking about United Kingdom’s national library. The same organisation offers the most extensive research collection to the public.

British Library selling postcards may come as a surprise to at least some of you. Nonetheless, it is a viable option if you search for where to buy postcards online for your business. But as you can guess, the British Library does not primarily focus on selling postcards.

Hence, you would have to go through each postcard on the website to pick a relevant one for your business organisation. They offer aesthetic postcards that quickly grab customer attention. However, you must decide whether it is the best place to buy postcards for your business or not. 

#7 School Stickers

Schoolstickers.com is an eco-friendly way for you to get your hands on some attractive postcards. However, as the company’s name suggests, School Sticker offers niche services to educational institutions. It is arguably the best place to buy postcards online for educational institutions.

As you can imagine, the postcards offered by School Stickers target children as their audience. Hence, they feature attractive postcard designs, including dinosaurs, rainbows, and more. The company even offers postcards for specific subjects, a popular choice among teachers. It makes School Stickers the best place to buy postcards for educational institutions.

#8 Royal Mail

You can buy direct mail postcards for your business directly from Royal Mail. There are several benefits of buying postcards directly from Royal Mail. For instance, you don’t have to worry about the standard size for your business postcards because Royal Mail postcards are always standardised. Moreover, Royal Mail is usually the first answer to your mind when you hear “where to buy postcards online?”

Royal Mail’s website features several postcards you can choose from, and they develop new designs periodically. For instance, right now, Royal Mail has postcards commemorating the passing of Queen Elizabeth. So, the next time you are unsure where to buy postcards online, look at the Royal Mail website.

#9 eBay

Purchasing postcards on eBay is similar to buying them from Amazon or Etsy. It is a giant online marketplace where you have numerous options for postcard designs that come in different sizes and shapes. It is the best place to buy postcards online if you don’t require a specialised business mailing service.

However, like Amazon, the quality and reliability of the postcard depend heavily on the vendor or seller. It is in your best interest to check the seller ratings and do your research before placing an order. eBay is not the best place to buy postcards online for your business if you can’t find a reliable seller that can meet your postcard requirements. 

Why Should You Use Direct Mail Automation For Sending Postcards?

Direct mail automation is the best way to send business postcards to your target audience. You can automate the entire postal mail process with the help of direct mail automation software like PostGrid. Additionally, Postgrid gives you access to postcard templates and a template editor, making it the best place to buy postcards for your business.

That’s not all. With an advanced solution like PostGrid, you get access to several features to streamline your direct mail campaign. For example, you can use PostGrid to schedule your business mailing or set up triggered mail. All these factors make PostGrid the best place to buy postcards online for your business.

PostGrid provides a direct mailing system that you can control using a centralised system. It means PostGrid lets you:

  • Send bulk mail from its dashboard
  • Use customised templates 
  • Allows you to connect it with your CRM solution for easy personalisation

The best place to buy postcards for your business is with a direct mail solution like PostGrid.

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Thursday, October 20, 2022

School Marketing Strategies

How to Create Result-Driving and Effective Marketing Plans for Schools?

Did you know there are 32,163 schools across the UK, and this figure is rapidly growing? And does that mean you need a school marketing plan to keep up with the competition?

direct mail for education

The answer is yes! Educational institutions can no longer think, “But we do not need to advertise because our enrollments are doing just fine.” With increasing parent and student expectations, you must be up-to-date with today’s trends around marketing for schools and technology!

E-learning, VR rooms, computer classes, Augmented Reality (AR), etc., have raised the bar for all educational institutions. Thus, marketing themselves to increase enrollment and set their organisation apart is the need of the hour!

This blog explores the different marketing plans for schools you may use as a reference. Let us begin!  

Why Is Marketing Your School Significant?

Apart from dealing with growing competition and fulfilling your audience’s expectations, here’s why you must use an effective school marketing plan to succeed:

Build Awareness and Improve Brand Image

71% of parents in the UK state that Ofsted school reports are a reliable information source. Also, 8 in 10 parents felt these reports depicted an accurate image of the educational institution or provider! 

Hence, gone are the days when you could maintain a reliable brand image without devising education marketing strategies efficiently. Today, parents are more attentive and do a lot of research before selecting a school for their kids. 

Thus, your school marketing plan must focus on showcasing your institution in a positive light and creating confidence among people. Also, it should increase visibility so that more parents and students become aware of your services and contact you. 

Boost Enrollments

Another primary reason to use marketing strategies for schools is to boost your enrollment numbers. You may feel that your current operations are enough to get admissions, but are they?

Imagine you get around 100 new enrollments yearly, but another school in the city receives 250. What can you do to change this scenario and convince more parents to enrol their kids with your school instead of the other one?

Yes, you need a well-crafted school marketing plan to persuade people to give your school a go! You can send prospective students your school prospectus or run a social media campaign to target parents living in the neighbourhood. 

Retain Students and Build Valuable Relationships With Parents 

Getting enough enrollments isn’t enough because admissions are not a one-time process. Schools also need to work on their student retention programs. And the best way to do that is to create a marketing plan for private schools and execute it correctly.

Also, your goal should be to establish genuine bonds with your student’s parents. Make them believe they took the correct decision to send their children to your school. Along with internal meetings with parents, marketing plans for schools can help fulfil this objective!

direct mail operations

How to Create a Marketing Plan For a School?

It can be expensive and daunting to design several marketing strategies altogether. The trick is taking one thing at a time and moving your way upwards slowly. Thus, you can expand your plans according to your goals, budget, and convenience. 

Here are the most effective marketing plans for schools you can use:

Create a List of Your Objectives

You cannot settle on how to develop a marketing plan for a school without clarifying your objectives. Thus, create a list of the goals your school marketing plan can help you accomplish!

Most leading organisations use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) approach to increase efficiency. It is an excellent goal-setting tool for understanding what you want to achieve and how. This mechanism allows you to lay the foundation of your school marketing strategies, helping you set challenging objectives with trackable results. 

For example, your objective can be:

  • Our school must get 500 new enquiries this admission season.
  • Our school’s website must generate at least 20 new leads this week.
  • All the newly-shifted families in the city must know about our school within a few days of their arrival. 

These are all attainable objectives using well-thought marketing strategies for schools to help you grow. You can set short-term and long-term goals according to your preferences, but the motive is to create a roadmap. 

This roadmap helps you decide which marketing channels to select and what kind of content to use. Thus, you don’t need to spend much time and effort devising a school marketing plan once you complete the planning stage. 

Another thing you must consider is to use a tracking mechanism, like QR codes, personalised URLs, etc., to measure your progress. You can use unique features for all campaigns to compare which one worked the best!

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis helps you understand your school’s current standing in-depth. Is your school well-known in the area? Are there any significant aspects you must work on to improve?

Before you create a school marketing plan, you must gather the answer to these questions to make the correct decisions. It can help you distribute your marketing spend better and give a head start to your campaigns!

  • Strengths: As discussed earlier, start marketing your school by first analysing your popularity or reputation among your target audience. You can conduct a survey or use internal resources to find your strengths. Also, you may compare yourselves with other educational institutions to get an idea. 
  • Weaknesses: They are all the things your school lacks and should implement soon to keep up with other schools. Perhaps, missing online presence, not enough enrollments, or an inadequate number of parent-teacher meetings are your weak spots. Also, please note that not working on your marketing strategies for schools is also a weakness. 
  • Opportunities: Identifying your opportunities at the correct time can be complicated but not impossible. You must constantly engage with your students and parents and determine their expectations from the school. 
  • Threats: Naturally, your competition is the primary threat to your enrollments and student retention rates. Thankfully, a result-driving school marketing plan can help you fight against this threat and improve response ratios. 

Improve Your Website’s User Experience (UX)

Many parents judge a school by viewing your website’s design and functionality. Websites represent you in the online world, and you must offer an impeccable UX to your audience. Hence, try to include them in your marketing plans for schools to start with!

Below are some school marketing strategies for revamping your website:

  • Your website must be responsive on all devices. You do not want a parent to visit it on their mobile phones and find it hard to navigate. It can leave a negative impression and cause visitors to leave unsatisfied. 
  • Also, your web pages should load fast if you want visitors to stay and get the information they need or contact you. It is one of the most underrated school marketing strategies but subtly helps you to develop trustworthy school-parent relationships. 
  • Use different sections to make your website easily navigable. For example, include separate contact, about us, upcoming events, faculty information, and blog pages. 
  • Make your website look professional by avoiding stock images and low-resolution icons. Instead, use real-life images and high-quality graphics to make your school’s mission pop and get more leads. 

Your website is the centre of your marketing plans for schools, so make it the knowledge hub for your audience. Ensure your website has all the information a student, parent, or stakeholder might need!

Use Google Adwords to Increase Search Traffic

Google Adwords is one of the fastest marketing strategies for schools to increase their online traffic. It enables you to advertise to parents and students in real time, i.e. when they try to research a school online. 

Thus, instead of approaching your audience and discussing your services, you can present your organisation when your prospects are ready for it. However, you must learn how your intended audience interacts with a platform before you dive into any school marketing plan or strategy. 

Decide whom you want to advertise to and for how long. Many schools use Google Adwords during the admissions season to get the maximum enrollments. But it depends on your school marketing plan and budget! 

Also, settle on your call-to-action (CTA) to use in your advertisements. You can ask parents to fill out a contact form or call you immediately. 

Here are some crucial tips to consider when using Google Adwords:

  • Write an interactive and compelling ad copy with the relevant keywords for marketing your school to motivate parents to click on it. 
  • Redirect visitors to a custom landing page that speaks to the audience directly. 
  • Keep your Google Adwords school marketing plan short and upfront. Refrain from adding a lengthy form with ten questions or ask parents to go out of their way to complete the CTA. 
  • Monitor your campaign results and identify which keywords and ad groups can drive better conversions. 

Build Your Facebook Community

Creating a Facebook page for your school can enable you to improve your communication methods with families and students. You can also use it as an effective school marketing plan to promote your services and expand your network. 

Schools can upload videos, post the latest updates, ask questions, run quick polls, talk about upcoming events, etc. There are numerous ways to increase your followers on this social media platform, like using location-specific Facebook retargeting and sponsored ads. 

Also, employ other social media platforms like Instagram and YouTube to increase visibility among students and parents. They form a significant part of all school marketing strategies because most people like getting information through social media. Like a website, your social media accounts also represent your brand and show you are up-to-date with today’s technology. 

But, you must learn the primary tactics and algorithms of all the platforms you use to succeed in marketing your school effectively! For example, it is better to upload lengthy videos on Youtube and short reels on Instagram. Similarly, you can use Facebook and Twitter for word-form content to increase traffic. 

Effective social media marketing strategies for schools can help you get more followers and engagement. It can take your school a while to build a reputable, strong community, but it is worth the wait!

Send Direct Mailers

Many organisations make the mistake of thinking that direct mail is a traditional school marketing plan and cannot produce profitable results. However, there are many ways to modernise this channel and use it to increase responses. Furthermore, several globally-reputed companies, like Google, use direct mail marketing to close deals. 

Thus, adding direct mail to your school marketing plan makes sense. It can help you speak to parents one-to-one and create trustworthy bonds. Also, you can cut through the digital clutter and reach your target audience before other schools. 

Your direct marketing plans for schools must be personalised, engaging, and persuasive. Try to segment your audience according to their demographics and send tailored messages to win more leads. 

You can send marketing postcards with your school’s mission statement and a few images. Or you can draft custom letters to parents to add more value to your school marketing strategies and grab your audience’s attention. 

However, if you find direct mailing daunting and expensive, try PostGrid’s direct mail API. It allows educational institutions to automate their mailing activities and save costs. Also, it offers an extensive suite of features, like address verification and real-time tracking, guaranteeing your campaign success. 

Start a Blog Section

Blogging is the ideal tool to level up your school marketing plan offline and online. You can contribute to several educational topics, like the current trends in the industry, new student clubs, field trips, etc. 

Motivate your students and faculty members to write guest posts from their points of view. It allows your audience to read genuine content about your school, helping you boost your school marketing strategies quickly. 

Also, publishing students’ posts helps you brush up on your journalism skills. Thus, you can transform your blog section into a community project and motivate everyone to contribute.

Apart from articles, you can include infographics, images, videos, checklists, presentations, and reports. Parents and students can rely on your blog section to acquire helpful knowledge and stay informed about your school’s operations. 

You can use your blog links in all your school marketing strategies to drive traffic. For instance, you can print your article links to your direct mail letters or postcards for people to access your website and know more about your school. Alternatively, you may use QR codes to make it easier for people to read your blogs. 

Furthermore, you can add these links to your emails and social media pages. Thus, you can interlink your online and offline marketing strategies for schools and improve your chances of getting more leads. 

Create an Email Series

Email marketing may not be the most profitable school marketing plan, but it helps increase brand awareness. You can conduct email drip campaigns for several purposes, like:

  • Onboard new families and welcome them to your community. 
  • Welcome new staff or faculty members. 
  • Promote your services and talk about how your school is better than the others. 
  • Discuss upcoming school events or trips. 
  • Talk about the previous year’s academic performance, etc. 

Also, you can trigger email campaigns for specific events to boost your school marketing plan, like:

  • A parent fills out your contact form. 
  • A parent sends an enquiry email to your official address. 
  • A parent clicks on your Google ad, etc. 

Remember to align your email marketing strategies for schools with other channels. For example, you can launch a multi-channel campaign, wherein your prospects receive the direct mail item the same day as the email. You may also include the details of your mailers in the email, like:

  • We have a surprise for you. 
  • Wait for the perfect mailer at your doorstep today. 
  • Scratch the postcard and get exciting news about our school. 

It helps give recipients a heads-up about your direct mail’s arrival and sparks curiosity. Thus, you are more likely to get higher responses and conversions by marketing your school using integrated campaigns

Use Video Marketing

Here’s an exciting fact: Video content generates 85% better brand recall than text. Also, the average person watches 100 minutes of video content daily. Hence, we cannot deny that your marketing plans for schools need more videos to engage your target audience. 

You can use third-party videos, but it is better to post visual content that depicts your school’s work. For example, you can record clips from the annual day and upload them to your Youtube and Instagram handles.

Moreover, you can create more buzz around your school marketing strategies by sending video mailers. Simply print a QR code that takes recipients to your Youtube channel or web page where they can watch the full videos. 

You can record your existing students and their parents explaining their reviews about your school. Or you can post videos of students learning in a classroom or enjoying an industrial visit. As said earlier, there are endless ideas and opportunities to improve your school marketing plan using videos. 

Re-Evaluate Your Performance From Time to Time

It is essential to conduct a re-evaluation program regularly to know if you are on the right track. Sometimes, your school marketing plan may produce positive results, but not enough to cover the cost of your campaign. Similarly, often, you may not take advantage of a few opportunities that can help you do better. 

Hence, always take the time to look back and see what you are lacking. Find areas for improvement and work on them in your next campaign. You can also use custom contact numbers, email addresses, pURLs, etc., to compare all school marketing plans and draft reports. 

Luckily, PostGrid’s automated direct mail services help you access real-time analytics and school marketing plan insights. You can log into your PostGrid account after a campaign and view these reports through your dashboard. Thus, you don’t need to analyse your performance manually or spend weeks compiling everything. 

More About PostGrid’s Direct Mail Solutions to Help Schools Plan and Launch Successful Campaigns

Before we dive into PostGrid’s direct mail services, here is a checklist to help you launch an effective school marketing plan using direct mailing:

  • Artwork: You must design eye-catching and appealing artwork to grab your potential recipients’ attention. Also, you should use a unique mail design each time, primarily if you want to target the same group of people. Your artwork decides the success of your school marketing strategies because it is the first thing people see when they get your mailer. 
  • Mailing list: You require a targeted mailing list to focus on relevant prospects only and manage your budget well. Often, schools compile their student records to create a mailing list. But, you may need to dig deeper to gather information on newly-shifted families or fresh prospects. 
  • Printer: Schools have several printers to print their postcards, flyers, letters, etc., in-house. But, they don’t because it takes time and effort and increases unnecessary costs. Thus, they require a printing vendor to handle their school marketing plan tasks and boost efficiency. 
  • Mailing partner: You can lodge your mailers at the Post Office to launch your marketing strategies for schools after completing the other steps. It can take one to three business days for your direct mail items to reach their destinations. 

So, can you launch a successful school marketing plan using these aspects only? Though these are the primary requirements, you must consider the behind-the-scenes, like packing your mailers, labelling, tracking, etc. 

PostGrid’s direct mail API allows you to conduct all the above activities under one roof at the click of a button. Thus, you do not need to find a printer or carry hundreds of mail items to the Royal Mail office. 

You can automate your school marketing strategies from the comfort of your office and sit back. Also, PostGrid offers many advanced features, like metadata tagging, GDPR-compliant mailings, bulk mailings, etc. 

Click here to learn more about how PostGrid can assist you in your direct mail marketing plans for schools!

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The post School Marketing Strategies appeared first on PostGrid UK.



Via https://www.postgrid.co.uk/school-marketing-strategies/


source https://postgridunitedkingdom.weebly.com/blog/school-marketing-strategies

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Address Data Quality

What Is Address Data Quality, And Why Is It Crucial For Your Business?

Would you agree with us if we said that darts and address data quality are very similar? Before you jump up and say no, let us make our case. You win at darts when you land the most throws at the centre of the dart board. In other words, the more centre shots you can land, the more your chances of winning.

postcode address file paf

Maintaining address data quality is not so different from this. The more accurate address data you have, the more your chances of running marketing and business operations for your company. Here, we explain the role of address data for your business organisation and how you can streamline your marketing and communication efforts.

What Is Address Data Quality?

As the name suggests, address data quality indicates the quality of postal mail addresses. A postal address must exhibit three qualities or conditions to ensure total address quality.

  1. The address has to be complete
  2. The address has to be correct
  3. The address has to be current

When Is An Address Complete?

You can say that an address is complete when it contains all the address elements to deliver mail accurately to that address. In other words, you need every detail from the street numbers to the complete postcode to ensure address data quality for your postal addresses.

When Is An Address Correct?

Sometimes an address can look legit and still be a fake one. These addresses are like knock-off G-shocks you can get for super low prices. They both look and feel the same until you try to use them. Hence, the address data quality check ensures you don’t get a knock-off or fake address.

Creating a fake address is easy. Some may do it intentionally, and sometimes it’s just an honest mistake. The only way to determine the correctness of and ensure address quality is to validate it using a reliable address database. In the UK, the Royal Mail maintains this address database.

When Is An Address Current?

Sometimes, the address could be legit and complete, yet the mail is undeliverable. In such cases, the reason for poor address data quality is that the address is not current. In other words, the addressee no longer lives at the address. 

Perhaps the customer moved to a different address without informing the postal service provider. Or maybe the customer temporarily moved for renovation. It is not current if the addressee can’t receive the mail at the given address. Hence, it lacks the address quality for accurate mail delivery.

direct mail operations

Why Does Address Data Quality Matter For Your Business?

Unlike what you might think, the address data quality can significantly impact business organisations and their operations. Most businesses remain in the dark about the impact of low-quality addresses until a detailed analysis reveals the problem. 

Below we will discuss some problems that business organisations could face by ignoring the quality of address data. So, if any of the following sounds a little familiar, it might be because of your low address data quality.

Compromised Or Low Productivity

25% to 30% of data becomes inaccurate every year, and it can hurt companies’ sales and marketing efforts. Business organisations spend significant money on getting rid of erroneous data. But when it comes to the address data quality, most businesses tend to slack off.

However, you can no longer afford to ignore address quality anymore. Direct mail marketing and other location-based marketing efforts are once again becoming relevant. Hence, having accurate address data is a non-negotiable now. Furthermore, mailing address data is vital in multi and omnichannel campaigns.

Effects On Reputation And Data Security 

Imagine sending an important document to your customers via mail, like an invoice or a collection letter. If you do not maintain address data quality, you may send these crucial documents to the wrong address. The customer may miss payments because of fault at your end and may even have to pay a fine for delayed payments. 

It would be even worse for eCommerce companies because who would buy from a website that consistently makes misdeliveries? As you can see, low postal address data quality can affect your brand’s reputation and not in a good way. And on top of all this, there are also data security problems.

For instance, a healthcare organisation sending the medical reports of a patient to the wrong address can compromise sensitive information. Businesses in every industry vertical can ruin their reputation and compromise data security if their address quality is not up to the mark. 

Thankfully, there is a simple solution to this problem. You can use an advanced address verification solution like PostGrid to verify your addresses against Royal Mail’s official address database. PostGrid’s software solution ensures address data quality for your business.

Limited Scope For Automation

The only way business organisations depend heavily on automation for meeting their customer’s needs. It has come to the point that organisations that do not use automation are slowly becoming obsolete. If you don’t address quality to the required standards, it can affect your ability to automate your business operations.

For instance, take the case of sending invoices (or other essential documents) to the customer. You can ensure the accurate delivery of your invoices and other crucial documents if you address data quality and use automation. Moreover, you can use PostGrid’s address verification and direct mail automation tool to get an optimised mailing system.

That’s not all. PostGrid’s print and mail API can integrate with your CRM to personalise your mailers. And we are not just talking about invoices. You can send everything from postcards, brochures, business letters and much more. On the other hand, PostGrid’s address verification API ensures the address quality in your CRM database.

Negative Impact On Customer Experience

The average consumer expects quick and responsive interactions from your business organization. Even a slight interruption to the buying journey can discourage the customer.  Not having a solution like PostGrid for maintaining address data quality would also mean that you can’t access advanced features like Address Autocomplete.

PostGrid’s Address Autocomplete is a feature that enhances the customer experience. It uses the information the customer types in and the server location to suggest verified addresses. Besides ensuring address quality, PostGrid provides a convenient customer experience.

Typing in the long address to make a purchase or verify payments is often reason enough for the customer to abandon their cart. Hence, PostGrid ensures there is no negative impact on customer experience while keeping a close eye on the address quality of your customer database.

Financial Losses

The negative impact of poor address data quality extends beyond operational roadblocks or customer experience. It can also hurt your business’s financial performance. Of course, this should be no surprise because insufficient data anywhere eventually leads to financial losses.

You must repeat the process whenever a mail or package is undeliverable to the correct address. The postage and other expenses of the undeliverable mail alone can cause significant losses. Then there is the additional cost of sending the mail all over again. And all because you couldn’t maintain address quality for your business organisation.

But, if you thought that’s all the financial loss that poor address data quality can cause, you are wrong. There is more. Address inaccuracies can lead to operational problems, which would require an inspection, which means more expenses for your organisation. Then there is the cost of fixing your records, which can add up over time. 

Considering all this, wouldn’t it be easier to invest in an advanced address verification tool like PostGrid? Think about all the money you could save by ensuring address data quality for your business. Furthermore, you can optimise your direct mail operations using PostGrid’s automated solution and eliminate manual errors.

How To Ensure Address Data Quality For Your Business?

The only way to ensure address data quality for your business is to verify the address database against a reliable address database. And there is no address database more extensive or authoritative about UK addresses as Royal Mail. Hence, it would be best to opt for a verified address verification system like PostGrid that can use the Royal Mail address database.

PostGrid is not just a tool to verify your address database and ensure address quality for your organisation. It offers several additional features and capabilities to enhance your business operations. Some of the noticeable attributes you can access through PostGrid are listed below.

Bulk Address Verification Via CSV File

With an advanced tool like PostGrid, ensuring the address quality of your database is significantly easier. You can download the CSV file of all your customers and verify them with a button. 

Address Parsing And Standardisation

PostGrid does not just verify the addresses you feed it. Our advanced address verification software splits the address into small parts. It standardises them as per the guidelines of the Royal Mail. Hence, PostGrid makes mail processing fast and ensures zero delays in the process. In other words, PostGrid significantly improves the address quality and verifies it.

Address Autocomplete

PostGrid’s address verification software comes with an autocomplete feature that can automatically fill addresses on your website and landing pages. PostGrid accesses Royal Mail’s address database and detects the server location to suggest the most relevant address to the user. Hence, PostGrid not only ensures address data quality but also enhances customer experience.

Apart from ensuring address data quality for your business, PostGrid also provides you with additional features such as:

  • Fully documented API library
  • Test and live environments
  • Geocoding
  • Advanced analytics
  • County data
  • Census data
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The post Address Data Quality appeared first on PostGrid UK.



Via https://www.postgrid.co.uk/address-data-quality/


source https://postgridunitedkingdom.weebly.com/blog/address-data-quality

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