Before you post out your A4 portrait brochures to your entire mailing list, you’d be wise to ensure that the people you’re sending your marketing material out to are actually alive. It’s a good idea to review your mailing lists on a regular basis so you can keep them up to date and won’t send out potentially upsetting post to people.
New research from Wilmington Millennium, reported on by PrintWeek, has revealed that the number of households due to receive a minimum of one piece of deceased mail this year will reach 14.1 million, the equivalent of over 200 million pieces of mail.
Karen Pritchard, product director, was quoted by the news source as saying: “The cold hard truth of it is that there is a direct correlation between the mortality rate and the number of pieces of direct mail being sent to people that have passed away.”
Someone dying will always be a very emotional and turbulent time, which can easily be compounded if constant streams of post come through the letterbox addressed to the person who has passed away.
As a business, you can keep on top of it by enforcing good data hygiene practices and making sure you go through your databases and mailing lists regularly so you can keep on top of this. Relatives are sure to get in touch with you if post does come through regularly for someone who has died, so if that happens make sure you take them off the mailing list immediately. If post continues to arrive for a deceased person, it could damage your business reputation.