Death-related data obtained from Social Security records, obituaries and other sources can be used for many purposes. When it comes to direct marketing, verifying death dates and removing deceased individuals from your mailing lists can benefit your business in several ways.
No matter how up-to-date your database is, there’s a good chance at least a few contacts on your mailing list are deceased. By identifying individuals who should be removed from your mailing list, you can more effectively target those who are able to utilise your goods and/or services.
Additionally, having to explain why marketing mail was sent to a deceased individual could prove to be an awkward situation for your business. Let’s say you’ve just launched a marketing campaign where a significant percentage of your mailings are unknowingly sent to deceased individuals. Not only does this make your company look bad from an organisational perspective, but you risk further damaging your brand image and upsetting customers by sending mail to a member of their household who has passed away. A deceased suppression service can help you avoid these sensitive situations.
When you can be sure your mailings are only reaching a responsive audience, you are maximising your marketing dollars. List targeting allows you to keep your print and mail costs down and response rates high. A deceased suppression service helps you maintain a fresh, updated contact list - thereby reducing the amount of returned mail.
As online activity has increased during the pandemic, many types of fraud have been on the rise - including scams involving death certificates. One use case where death data has been particularly beneficial is voter registration. Up to 1.8 million deceased individuals were listed as voters in 2019 - as voter data changes in real time due to life events such as moving, marriage, and death, it’s imperative that election boards keep voter data clean and up-to-date in order to maintain election integrity. In addition to mitigating fraud, election boards can utilise data capabilities such as appending addresses with apartment numbers and deceased suppression as part of their strategy to improve voter outreach efforts and reduce undeliverable mail and waste.
Melissa has been a leading provider of global identity verification and data quality solutions for more than 35 years. Melissa’s real-time Identity Verification solution, includes identity, ID and document verification, age authentication and global watchlist screening to establish the identity of a consumer or satisfy AML/KYC compliance. Melissa's Identity Verification Solutions meet stringent international compliance obligations and includes tools to help businesses with fraud mitigation. Melissa also makes it easy to clean and update your direct mailing lists with our Database Cleanse. This includes cleaning your data from deceased suppressions, which Melissa compile from records and other sources to match your records and identify those who should be removed from your contact list - so you can protect your brand image and reduce costs associated with wasted postage and production.