- What
is FreeMAX8?
- What
do you mean by “optimization”?
- What
do you mean by “just in time”?
-
How much improvement can FreeMAX8 produce?
-
Can you do FreeMAX8 for any one?
- Do
I need change merge vendors in order to take advantage of FreeMAX8?
- What
if I’m not a member of Prefer Network; can I still use
FreeMax8 and get my new files back in four days?
- How
much production time is required to take advantage of the FreeMAX8
service?
- What
does the FreeMAX8 service cost?
- What
does advanced address hygiene mean for me?
-
What is “persistent key” technology?
-
Can you provide me with the address changes you identify so
that I can update my database?
-
What all does advanced address hygiene do to my mail file?
-
How does advanced address hygiene provide cost savings?
- What
results should I expect to see?
- How
will I know that advanced address hygiene is performing as expected?
-
Are you telling me that my addresses that you identify as PCOA
changes have no value?
-
What are low yield addresses?
- How
are the models built that you use to optimize the performance
of my prospects?
-
Can I find out which attributes about my prospects are actually
predictive?
- How
are the models built that you use to generate balance names
to replace low performers in my prospect mailing?
-
How can you help me validate that FreeMAX8 works for me?
-
How does the test work?
- I
like the idea of getting the best intelligence late in the production
cycle, what if I reuse the same files I did last year and let
FreeMax8 make all the enhancements?
- Is
their a minimum amount of records necessary to qualify for FreeMax8?
Q:
What is FreeMAX8?
A: FreeMAX8
is a Pre-bindery Intellect technology that provides a “just-in-time”
mail file optimization service that significantly improves the
financial performance of each mailing. There is nothing else like
it being provided in the industry.
Q:
What do you mean by “optimization”?
A: FreeMAX8
optimizes the performance of each mailing by performing three
primary functions.
• Advanced address hygiene to ensure addresses are current
and accurate.
• Identifying under performing prospects from within your
mail base.
• Producing higher performing prospects to replace bad addresses
and under performing prospects.
Q:
What do you mean by “just in time”?
A: FreeMAX8
is performed after the merge and when all back-end selection and
key code processing is completed and just before the file is presorted.
By performing FreeMAX8 at this point in the process, your mailing
can take advantage of using the absolutely most recent information
for improving the deliverability of the mailing and mailing to
the most profitable prospects.
Q:
How much improvement can FreeMAX8 produce?
A: Our experience
has proven that we can generate as much as 6% or more profitability
improvement after paying for the FreeMAX8 service.
Q:
Can you do FreeMAX8 for any one?
A: Unfortunately
no. For us to provide the FreeMAX8 service our client must be
a member of the Prefer Network and mail volume must exceed 300M.
Q.
Do I need change merge vendors in order to take advantage of FreeMAX8?
A. No. That’s
the beauty of FreeMAX8. It doesn’t require you to change
virtually anything to take advantage of it. Your merge service
bureau transfers the data to Prefer Network when they are finished
with the merge processing instead of to the printer. After CMS
Direct completes the FreeMAX8 project, the data is transferred
to the printer or who ever is doing the pre-sort and ink jet processing.
Q:
What if I’m not a member of Prefer Network; can I still
use FreeMax8 and get my new files back in four days?
A: The Prefer
Network is an essential part of the FreeMax8 engine. It’s
used to model your prospects to predict their propensity to purchase
in your product category. Based on these models and the knowledge
about your best customers the Prefer Network is also used to produce
balance names to replace low performing prospects and address
hygiene replacements.
Q:
How much production time is required to take advantage of the
FreeMAX8 service?
A: FreeMax8
works within a small production window of just 4 days.
Q:
What does the FreeMAX8 service cost?
A: We charge
$10/M names output. That’s only a penny per catalog. This
includes the PCOA processing, response model, prospect file modeling
against the Prefer Network database, balance names generated from
the Prefer Network database using a response model and a final
merge. All back end processing for segmentation, messaging, etc.
and included. The balance names are free up to the quantity of
Prefer Network names rented for that particular mailing.
Q:
What does advanced address hygiene mean for me?
A: Advanced
address hygiene introduces the next generation of change of address
(COA) and merge processing. This service provides mailers with
the highest quality mailing lists by incorporating data tracking
technologies introduced by the financial services industry.
By comparing each name on a mailing list against a PCOA database
comprised by hundreds of address change tracking sources, advanced
address hygiene provides a holistic view of an individual; identifying
the best, most current address under the correct name.
This third
generation of list processing functionality provides:
- Uses technologies
from outside the catalog industry to produce merge outputs containing
higher performing mailings than were previously available.
- Compares
catalog mailing lists against external data to provide the best
address.
- Applies
relational database logic to track different variations of an
individual’s name, resulting in better duplicate identification
than character-based matching solutions.
- Uses persistent
key technology to track individuals across name and address
changes.
Q:
What is “persistent key” technology?
A: Persistent
key is a technology introduced by the financial and insurance
industries to advance the equality of tracking consumer movement.
Instead of identifying individuals by their name, individuals
are identified by a alphanumeric code that never changes. This
provides you the ability to:
- Update
records to reflect name changes due to marriage or divorce.
- Compare
mailing information across multiple sources to select the most
recent, most complete address (best address).
- Ensure
that your mailing is getting the consumer it was intended.
Q:
Can you provide me with the address changes you identify so that
I can update my database?
A: No, you
wouldn’t want it. The value of FreeMAX8 lies in its recency
of identifying recent movers. FreeMax8 is a dynamic product that
parallels the changes in your mail community.
Q:
What all does advanced address hygiene do to my mail file?
A: Advanced
address hygiene identifies address changes, additional duplicates,
and low yield and undeliverable addresses. This process contains
all necessary address and postal processing including:
- Address
standardization
- Zip correction
/ zip+4 append / bar code append
- AEC (Address
Element Correction)
- Apartment
number appends
- CASS certification
- NCOA /
PCOA (Proprietary Change of Address)
- Nixie
identification & restoration
- Low yield
identification
- LACS (Locatable
Address Correction Service)
- Proprietary
duplicate identification
- Suppressions,
PANDER, House, etc.
Q:
How does advanced address hygiene provide cost savings?
A: Advanced
address hygiene brings PCOA, persistent link technology, and low
yield identification features into every FreeMAX8. These services
ensure a high quality, high performing mailing list.
Q:
What results should I expect to see?
A: Results
will vary greatly depending on the house to prospect mix, the
frequency of address hygiene, and other factors
In general, catalogers
should expect the following results on their house file:
- Address
Element Corrections of between 2 and 3%.
- Proprietary
Changes of Address between 2 and 5%.
- Low Yield
identification of between 0.3 and 2%.
Q:
How will I know that advanced address hygiene is performing as
expected?
A: We are
confident that advanced address hygiene will improve response
rates and help grow your business by acquiring new customers you
otherwise would not have connected with.
Q:
Are you telling me that my addresses that you identify as PCOA
changes have no value?
A: No we are
not necessarily saying that old PCOA address have no value. In
fact, for the purposes of projecting the value of new PCOA addresses
we conservatively project that has having 40% more value overall.
We know that a catalog delivered even to the wrong consumer at
the old address can turn into a sale – it just not as likely
as the right consumer at the new address. In fact, we have determined
that in certain product lines that old PCOA addresses can make
excellent prospects – being mailed to the “current
resident” of that address.
Q:
What are low yield addresses?
A: Low yield
addresses are addresses that are predicted to be undeliverable
for a variety of reasons. It is due to missing pieces of the address
or otherwise incomplete. Generally speaking we believe these names
won’t be delivered and therefore recommend dropping them
and replacing with qualified Prefer Network prospect names. Realizing
that the low yield concept is new to some mailers, we recommend
that you test low yields in the initial test project to validate
our recommendation.
The software
we use has the intelligence to discriminate between urban and rural
area low yields. Meaning that a low yield in a rural area will most
likely be delivered even if the address is incomplete or wrong,
for those we don’t flag them as low yield. However in urban
areas, we believe these low yield address will be come recycled
paper.
Q:
How are the models built that you use to optimize the performance
of my prospects?
A: Prefer
Network has built several models that we use to process prospect
names against the Prefer Network database to predict their propensity
to respond to your mailing. We have built a simulator that will
test each of these models to determine which model will actually
work best for you. The result of the simulator is selecting the
optimum model to use for optimizing your prospect names.
Q:
Can I find out which attributes about my prospects are actually
predictive?
A: Unfortunately
not – that is part of our secret sauce. Talk with your Prefer
AE to gain insight into model performance.
Q:
How are the models built that you use to generate balance names
to replace low performers in my prospect mailing?
A: We build
the model using your customer data when you join Prefer Network.
Our Prefer Account Executives will work with you to test the model(s)
and customize it to realize the best performance of our Prefer
Network rental names.
Q:
How can you help me validate that FreeMAX8 works for me?
A: We have
a risk free test offer for half price that we guarantee to be
profitable to you or we make up the difference.
Q:
How does the test work?
A: In its
purest form, a FreeMAX8 test will perform the three primary functions
described earlier – advanced address hygiene, prospect optimization,
and balance names generation. I mention “purest form”
because we sometimes make slight modifications to the test plan
due to low volume or client preferences. To validate FreeMAX8
performance we recommend the following test:
- The test
plan maintains the original circulation quantity established
before the FreeMAX8 processing was conducted unless otherwise
specified during our project planning process.
- To
measure the PCOA gains:
-
Half of the new PCOA addresses are mailed and the other
half is dropped.
-
The dropped PCOA original addresses are mailed.
- To
measure the replacement name gains:
-
Half of the low yield names, and low performing prospect
names (through optimization) are mailed.
-
All of the duplicates and the other half of the low
yield and low performing prospect names are dropped
and replaced with the same quantity of higher qualified
and better performing modeled names from Prefer Network
as identified by FreeMAX8.
- By tracking
the performance of the four groups of names, the test will measure
the level of improvement achieved through the advanced data
quality and name quality improvement techniques as applied in
the FreeMAX8 process.
Q:
I like the idea of getting the best intelligence late in the production
cycle, what if I reuse the same files I did last year and let
FreeMax8 make all the enhancements?
A: While to
you it may make sense to do that in certain situations, to maximize
your marketing potential you must start out with a good circulation
plan that targets names that have a high probability of buying.
Deliver your best segments to us and we will find the address
and name changes at the last possible point prior to entering
the mail stream. But the real lift happens after we identify the
worst performing prospect segments and replace them with better
performing prospects from the Prefer Network.
Q:
Is their a minimum amount of records necessary to qualify for
FreeMax8?
A: Each mailing
should be comprised of at least 300,000 records.
FreeMAX8
Pre Bindery Definition
