#database mailer

[mariacallous]

A doctors’ organization at the center of the ongoing legal fight over the abortion drug mifepristone has suffered a significant data breach. A link to an unsecured Google Drive published on the group’s website pointed users last week to a large cache of sensitive documents, including financial and tax records, membership rolls, and email exchanges spanning over a decade. The more than 10,000 documents lay bare the outsize influence of a small conservative organization working to lend a veneer of medical science to evangelical beliefs on parenting, sex, procreation, and gender.

The American College of Pediatricians, which has fought to deprive gay couples of their parental rights and encouraged public schools to treat LGBTQ youth as if they were mentally ill, is one of a handful of conservative think tanks leading the charge against abortion in the United States. A federal lawsuit filed by the College and its partners against the US Food and Drug Administration seeks to limit nationwide access to what is now the most common form of abortion. The case is now on a trajectory for the US Supreme Court, which not even a year ago declared abortion the purview of America’s elected state representatives. 

The leaked records, first reported by WIRED, offer an unprecedented look at the groups and personnel central to that campaign. They also describe an organization that has benefited greatly by exaggerating its own power, even as it has struggled quietly for two decades to grow in size and gain respect. The records show how the College, which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) describes as a hate group, managed to introduce fringe beliefs into the mainstream simply by being, as the founder of Fox News once put it, “the loudest voice in the room.” 

The Leak

A WIRED review of the exposed data found that the unsecured Google Drive stored nearly 10,000 files, some of which are compressed zip files containing additional documents. These records detail highly sensitive internal information about the College’s donors and taxes, social security numbers of board members, staff resignation letters, budgetary and fundraising concerns, and the usernames and passwords of more than 100 online accounts. The files include Powerpoint presentations, Quickbooks accounting documents, and at least 388 spreadsheets. 

One spreadsheet appears to be an export of an internal database containing information on 1,200 past and current members. It contains intimate personal information about each member, including various contact details, as well as where they were educated, how they heard of the group, and when membership dues were paid. The records show past and current members are mostly male and, on average, over 50 years old. As of spring 2022, the College counted slightly more than 700 members, according to another document reviewed by WIRED. 

The breach exposes some material dating back to the group’s origin. It includes mailing lists gathered by the group of thousands of “conservative physicians” across the country. (One document outlining recruitment efforts states in bold, red letters: “TARGET CHRISTIAN MDs.”) The ongoing recruitment of doctors and medical school students seen as holding Christian views has long been its top priority. The leaked records indicate that more than 10,000 mailers were sent to physicians between 2013 and 2017 alone. 

While the group’s membership rolls are not public, the leak has outed most if not all of its members. A cursory review of the member lists surfaced one name of note: a recent commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, who after joining in 2019 asked that his membership with the group remain a secret. (WIRED was unable to reach the official for comment in time for publication.)

The SPLC’s “hate group” designation, which the College forcefully disputes, haunted its fundraising efforts, records reveal. A barrage of emails in 2014 show that the label cost the group the chance to benefit from an Amazon program that would eventually distribute $450 million to charities across the globe. Amazon would deny the College’s application, stating that it relied on the SPLC to determine which charities fall into certain ineligible categories.

A strategy document would later refer to a “unified plan” among the College and its allies to “continue discrediting the SPLC,” which included a campaign aimed at lowering its rating at Charity Navigator, one of the web’s most influential nonprofit evaluators. One of the group’s admins noted that despite SPLC’s label, another charity monitor, GuideStar, listed the College as being in “good standing.”

The College’s GuideStar page no longer says this and appears to have been defaced. It now reads, “AMERICAN COLLEGE OF doodoo fartheads,” with a mission statement saying: “we are evil and hate gays :(((”

The Google Drive containing the documents was taken offline soon after WIRED contacted the American College of Pediatricians. The College did not respond to a request for comment.

The Talk

Leaked communications between members of the group and minutes taken at board meetings over the course of several years speak loudly about the challenges the group faced in pursuing its deeply unpopular agenda: returning America to a time when the laws and social mores around family squared neatly with evangelical Christian beliefs.

Many of the College’s most radical views target transgender people, and in particular, transgender youth. The leak, which had been indexed by Google, includes volumes of literature crafted specifically to influence relationships between practicing pediatricians, parents, and their children. It includes reams of marketing material the College aims to distribute widely among public school officials. This includes pushing schools to adopt junk science painting transgender youth as carriers of a pathological disorder, one that’s capable of spontaneously causing others–à la the dancing plague–to adopt similar thoughts and behaviors.

This is one of the group’s most dubious claims. While unsupported by medical science, it is routinely and incuriously propagated through literature targeted at schools and medical offices around the US. The primary source for this claim is a research paper drafted in 2017 by Lisa Littman, a Brown University scholar who, while a medical doctor, had not specialized in mental health. The goal of the paper was to introduce, conceptually, “rapid onset gender dysphoria”—a hypothetical disorder, as was later clarified by the journal that published it. Littman would also clarify personally that her research “does not validate the phenomenon” she’d hypothesized, since no clinicians, nor individuals identifying as trans, had participated in the study.  

The paper explains that its subjects were instead all parents who had been recruited from a handful of websites known for opposing gender-affirmative care and “telling parents not to believe their child is transgender.” A review of one of the sites from the period shows parents congregating to foster paranoia about whether there’s a “conspiracy of silence” around “anime culture” that was brainwashing boys into behaving like girls; insights plucked in some cases straight from another, more notorious forum (widely known for reveling in the suicides of the people it has bullied).

A 2021 prospectus describing the group’s focus, ideology, and lobbying efforts encapsulates a wide range of “educational resources” destined for the inboxes of physicians and medical school students. The materials include links to a website instructing doctors on how to speak to children in a variety of scenarios about a multitude of topics surrounding sex, including in the absence of their parents. Practice scripts of conversations between doctors and patients advise, among other things, ways to elicit a child’s thoughts on sex with the help of an imaginative metaphor. 

While the material is not expressly religious, it is clearly aimed at painting same-sex marriage as aberrant and immoral behavior. Physicians lobbied by the group are also told to urge patients to purchase Christian-based parenting guides, including one designed to help parents broach the topic of sex with their 11- and 12-year-old kids. The College suggests telling parents to plan a “special overnight trip,” a pretext for instilling in their children sexual norms in line with evangelical practice. The group suggests telling parents to buy a tool called a “getaway kit,” a series of workbooks that run around $54 online. The workbooks methodically walk the parents through the process of springing the topic, but only after a day-long charade of impromptu gift-giving and play. 

These books are full of games and puzzles for the parent and child to cooperatively take on. Throughout the process, the child slowly digests a concept of “sexual purity,” lessons aided by oversimplified scripture and well-trodden Bible school parables. 

Another document the group shared with its members contains a script for appointments with pregnant minors. Its purpose is made evidently clear: The advice is engineered specifically to reduce the odds of minors coming into contact with medical professionals not strictly opposed to abortion. A practice script recommends the doctor inform the minor that they “strongly recommend against” abortion, adding “the procedure not only kills the infant you carry, but is also a danger to you.” (Medically, the term “fetus” and “infant” are not interchangeable, the latter referring to a newborn baby less than one year old.)

The doctors are urged to recommend that the minor visit a website that, like the aforementioned website, is not expressly religious but will only direct visitors to Catholic-run “crisis pregnancy centers,” which strictly reject abortion. The same site is widely promoted by anti-abortion groups such as National Right to Life, which last year held that it should be illegal to terminate the pregnancy of a 10-year-old rape victim.

The Professionals

The effort to ban mifepristone, legislation the Supreme Court paused last month pending further review, faces significant legal hurdles but could ultimately benefit from the appellate court’s disproportionately conservative makeup. Most of the legal power in the fight was supplied by a much older and better funded group, the Alliance Defending Freedom, which has established ties with some of the country’s most elite political figures—former vice president Mike Pence and Supreme Court justice Amy Coney Barrett among them.

A contract in the leaked documents dated April 2021 shows the ADF agreeing to legally represent the College free of charge. It stipulates that ADF’s ability to subsidize expenses incurred during lawsuits would be limited by ethical guidelines; however, it could still forgive any lingering costs simply by declaring the College “indigent.”

In contrast to the College’s some 700 members, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)–the organization from which the College’s founders split 20 years ago–has roughly 67,000. The rupture between the two groups was a direct result of a statement issued by the AAP in 2002. Modern research, the AAP said, had conclusively shown that the sexual orientation of parents had an imperceptible impact on the well-being of children, so long as they were raised in caring, supportive families.

The College would gain notoriety early on by assailing the positions of the AAP. In 2005, a Boston Globe reporter noted how common it had become for the American College of Pediatricians “to be quoted as a counterpoint” to anything said by the AAP. The institution, he wrote, had a rather “august-sounding name” for being run by a “single employee.” 

Internal documents show that the group’s directors quickly encountered hurdles operating on the fringe of accepted science. Some claimed to be oppressed. Most of the College’s research had been “written by one person,” according to minutes from a 2006 meeting, which were included in the leak. The College was failing to make a splash. In the future, one director suggested, papers rejected by medical journals “should be published on the web.” The vote to do so was unanimous (though the board decided the term “not published” was nicer than “rejected”). 

A second director put forth a motion to create a separate “scientific section” on the group’s website, strictly for linking to articles published in medical journals. The motion was quashed after it dawned on the board that they didn’t “have enough articles” to make the page “look professional.” 

The College struggled to identify the root cause of its runtedness. “To get enough clout,” one director said, “it would take substantial numbers, maybe 10,000.” (The College’s recruitment efforts would yield fewer than 7 percent of this goal in the following 17 years.) Yet another said the marketing department advised that “the College needs to pick a fight with the AAP and get on Larry King Live.” Another, the notes say, felt the organization was too busy trying to “walk the fence” by neglecting to acknowledge that “we are conservative and religious.” 

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

Republicans have ramped up an anti-transgender fear campaign for the 2024 election, hoping to sway voters in their favor. Many ads focus on incarcerated transgender individuals and gender-affirming care, with millions of dollars funneled into anti-trans messages during prime-time sporting events. Others target Democratic Senate and House candidates, claiming they would “allow men into women’s bathrooms.” Some school board mailers pledge to keep transgender athletes out of school sports. Still others argue in debates that by excluding transgender people, they are somehow protecting women—often used to deflect criticism for their anti-abortion stances. While these ads and tactics have historically fallen short, this year more Republicans than ever are centering their platforms on anti-trans policies.

If there’s one constant this year, it’s that Republicans across the ballot have put their faith in an anti-trans agenda. According to an ongoing database, at least 100 races and growing prominently feature transgender issues. While some of these races feature Democratic candidates defending their pro-transgender records, the majority of these races center on attacks targeting opponents who support transgender rights. And these aren’t limited to high-profile races like the presidency or Senate, which have dominated headlines. Anti-trans rhetoric is appearing in local legislative races, school boards, and more. By now, Donald Trump’s ads are familiar to everyone, running alongside sporting events nationwide. These ads claim that Kamala Harris “gave sex change surgeries to prisoners,” referencing two cases where incarcerated transgender individuals received gender-affirming care in jail. Under U.S. law and the Eighth Amendment, providing medically necessary care, as determined by a doctor, is required—a policy decision made during the Trump administration. Both Harris and Tim Walz have responded to these ads: Harris criticized Trump for “spending $20 million on those ads, trying to create a sense of fear in the voters,” while Walz defended transgender people against the attacks at length just days later.

Senate races across the United States are also filled with anti-trans advertising. Nearly every competitive Senate race with a Democratic candidate has seen that candidate targeted by such ads. Leading the charge is the Senate Leadership Fund, which has committed at least $80 million to this cycle, with the majority of its ads targeting transgender individuals. These ads have targeted Jackie Rosen (D-NV), John Tester (D-MT), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Casey (D-PA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI). Meanwhile, Republican candidates, like Mike Rogers—running against Elissa Slotkin for Michigan’s open Senate seat—have deflected from their strict anti-abortion stances during televised debates, instead claiming they will “protect women” by excluding transgender people. U.S. House races are no different; at least 20 tightly contested races feature Republican candidates who have sponsored significant anti-transgender bills, run anti-trans ads, and made opposition to transgender rights a major part of their 2024 campaigns. Anthony D’Esposito, running in a toss-up election in NY-04, a D+5 district, has focused heavily on transgender sports bans, backing a local ban in Nassau County. One ad from D’Esposito’s campaign highlights the endorsement of anti-trans swimmer Riley Gaines. Other republicans in close races that have targeted transgender people include John James in MI-10, Jen Kiggans in VA-02, Nick LaLota in NY-01, and dozens more. [...] The year 2024 may not be the first to feature an onslaught of anti-trans advertisements, but it has certainly seen the highest volume in history. Republicans are projected to spend nearly $100 million on these ads, making anti-trans messaging a central theme from the bottom to the top of the ticket. However, political analysts and public opinion polls question the strategy: a recent Data for Progress poll shows that voters overwhelmingly reject candidates who make supporting anti-trans legislation a prominent focus of their campaign, with a majority—including Republicans—expressing fatigue over the issue dominating the 2024 cycle. Historically, such ads have often fallen flat, with targeted candidates winning nearly every time this approach has been used.

More than 100+ Republican candidates in various races are running on bashing trans people to incite fear.

[its-your-mind]

Acquisitions reports

Incoming / Outgoing product

Scheduling contractors

Transcribing meeting agendas and minutes

Bank runs (or any form of movement of hard cash)

Recording of routine security checks

Inventory

Maintaining / updating client (and product, supplier, volunteer, etc) databases

Logging incoming / outgoing communication

Event request forms

Reservation / scheduling of event spaces

Schedules for events (involves location, materials, personnel, activities)

Mailers (writing, preparing, sending)

Reviewing / analyzing customer feedback

Waivers

We don’t talk enough about how fanfiction writers love to give character large amounts of non-specific paperwork they hate doing

[matchdatapro]

USPS Address Correction Service: Ensuring Accurate Deliveries and Reducing Mail Costs

In the world of mail delivery, accuracy is everything. For businesses that rely on direct mail to reach customers, having the correct address is crucial to ensuring that communications arrive on time and in the right hands. The USPS Address Correction Service (ACS) is a valuable tool designed to help businesses maintain accurate mailing lists, reduce undeliverable mail, and ultimately save money.

What is the USPS Address Correction Service?

The USPS Address Correction Service is a service provided by the United States Postal Service that helps businesses keep their mailing lists up to date. When a mailpiece is undeliverable due to an incorrect or outdated address, the ACS provides the sender with the correct address or other valuable information about why the mail could not be delivered. This service is particularly useful for businesses that send large volumes of mail, such as billing statements, marketing materials, or subscription services.

How Does the Address Correction Service Work?

The ACS works by linking your mailpieces to the USPS database of change-of-address requests and other address updates. Here’s how it typically functions:

Mailing with Address Correction Requested:

When you send out mail, you can request address correction by including a specific endorsement on your mailpiece. This lets the USPS know that you want to receive updates if the address is incorrect or the recipient has moved.

Handling Undeliverable Mail:

If the USPS cannot deliver a mailpiece due to an incorrect address, they will attempt to find the correct address using their National Change of Address (NCOA) database or other resources.

Notification to the Sender:

The USPS then notifies the sender of the correct address or the reason why the mail could not be delivered. This information is provided electronically or via hard copy, depending on your preferences and the type of ACS you are using.

Updating Mailing Lists:

With the correct address information in hand, businesses can update their mailing lists to ensure future mailings are delivered correctly. This not only improves delivery rates but also helps maintain customer satisfaction and reduces mailing costs.

Types of Address Correction Services

There are different types of ACS, each designed to meet specific needs:

Traditional ACS: Involves physical notifications sent back to the mailer with the corrected address.

Electronic ACS (eACS): Provides address corrections via electronic means, allowing for quicker updates and reduced paper use.

OneCode ACS: Uses Intelligent Mail barcodes to provide address corrections and tracking in one integrated system, offering real-time updates.

Benefits of Using the USPS Address Correction Service

Improved Delivery Rates:

By ensuring that addresses are current and correct, the ACS significantly reduces the number of undeliverable mailpieces, ensuring that your communications reach the intended recipients.

Cost Savings:

Undeliverable mail is not only a waste of resources but also costly in terms of printing, postage, and lost opportunities. The ACS helps minimize these costs by providing accurate address updates, reducing the need for re-mailing and avoiding additional postage expenses.

Compliance with USPS Requirements:

For businesses sending bulk mail, using ACS can help ensure compliance with USPS address quality requirements, which may be necessary to qualify for bulk mailing discounts.

Enhanced Customer Satisfaction:

Keeping your mailing list accurate means that your customers receive their mail promptly, which can enhance their overall experience with your brand and improve your customer retention rates.

Conclusion

The USPS Address Correction Service is an invaluable resource for businesses looking to maintain accurate mailing lists, reduce costs, and ensure their communications reach their customers. By leveraging this service, businesses can improve the efficiency of their direct mail campaigns, enhance customer satisfaction, and ultimately save time and money. Whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, integrating the USPS Address Correction Service into your mailing strategy is a smart move that can yield significant benefits.

For more info visit here:- address validation software

[ogma-conceptions]

Transform Enterprises Through Marketing Innovation

As a business, you often question how to get more prospects to recognize your company. With traditional routes such as print advertising or coupon mailers, you see a slight return with a trickle of business here and there.

Your business needs consistency. Whether you have a large or small following, there is always room for improvement with digital marketing solutions in India including social media marketing services in India.

Let’s transform enterprises through marketing innovation:

Innovative marketing is about being creative and uncovering fresh ideas to engage your customers. It’s about understanding the current trends in marketing and then taking it one step further to create something new and exciting. This can be anything from a creative campaign or concept to a fresh approach to traditional marketing techniques that sets your business apart from the competition with the help of digital marketing solutions in India.

Key Takeaways:

Distinctive Positioning: Embracing marketing innovation fosters a unique selling proposition that differentiates a product or service in a crowded market, capturing consumer attention and interest.

Enhanced Customer Relationships: Innovative marketing strategies nurture customer loyalty by engaging the audience with fresh and relevant campaigns, which translates to repeat business and a solidified brand community.

Revenue Growth and Market Agility: By continually reinventing marketing approaches, businesses can not only increase their revenue through novel offerings and expanded customer reach but also adapt swiftly to changing market conditions, sustaining their competitive edge over time.

Think about Tesla’s commitment to putting the first electric vehicle on the road in 2008, or Google’s introduction of a search engine in 1998. Each innovation was unheard of at the time and represented a major paradigm shift.

Benefits of digital innovation from digital marketing solutions in India with an eye on social media marketing services in India:

Improving the Efficiency of Marketing Campaign: innovation in technology and analytics can help companies optimize their marketing campaigns, making them more effective and efficient.

Increased Reach and Visibility: innovative tools and platforms can help companies reach a wider audience and increase their online visibility.

Increased Customer Engagement: it can also help companies interact and engage with customer in new and exciting ways.

How do social media play an important role in digital innovation?

We know what social media is and many of you reading this will most likely understand how it can be leveraged to meet your business goals, be it database capture, brand awareness or product sales. But how do you build a strategy that drives digital innovation with social media marketing services in India?

Here are three areas:

Building customer relationships

Enhancing brand credibility

Data, data and more data

Beyond improving efficiencies and streamlining tasks, perhaps the biggest advantage social media provides as part of a wider digital innovation drive is visibility. According to a survey, 90% of businesses understand the importance of social media and leverage it to drive growth.

A Word of caution from one of the best digital marketing solutions in India:

Firms must prioritize network security to safeguard against data breaches that can undermine customer trust and corporate reputation. Compliance with legal standards regarding customer engagement on social media is also paramount, as failure to adhere to these regulations can result in severe penalties. Maintaining a proactive stance on security and compliance helps protect the organization and its customers from potential cyber threats and legal issues.

[leam1983]

Ruins

Watched Kyle Hill's video on the Dead Internet Theory - which AI has all but seemingly proven to be mostly true - and I came to the realization that we've already got the complete distaff counterpart to AI Techbro frenzy.

I'm referring to NeoCities pages.

NeoCities is a web-hosting service that's focused on bringing back something of the Internet of the late nineties and early aughts; the idea of scrappy, indubitably user-created content that has zero search engine relevance but high personal value. Sites about your summer vacation or to host your questionable Transformers slash-fics, or just sites that seemingly exist to resurrect the early aughts' gaming tentpoles like The Phrozen Keep - along with the flurry of GIFs that resulted from someone managing to open up Diablo's PAK files. If you remember Space Jam's website or downloading Jamella's Item Generator for Diablo, chances are you remember the exact aesthetic I'm referring to. Windows-core, Vaporwave, the era of the Frames-laden page meticulously sliced through Adobe Dreamweaver in the halcyon days that predated Big Red turning power-mad; the era of Lingo being used to assemble, line by line, the hottest PowerPoint analogue ever known to man.

I'm a child of that era. I came of age back when databases didn't have dedicated scrapers and crawlers; back when you could make a living out of picking up cartfuls of books for a library, day by day, and painstakingly entering them into a file system designed by and for human hands. Not so the database would swallow them and regurgitate something out, but just so visitors to the library would just need a few minutes to know exactly what they were looking for happened to be located. That was my first job as a teen, actually. FileMaker was my first taste of aggregation, back when it happened thanks to human labor only facilitated by the use of computers. In those days, most of everything online referred to something that wasn't. Happen to be a fan of a particular movie? Good, there's physical copies aplenty. All you'd find online would be supplemental material. Non-essential, but appreciated nonetheless.

I'm thinking this is what we need to bring back, to foster again. In an age where 98% of all web traffic is AI-powered, you realize we're letting bad actors obsessed with gaming SEO tools turn what should've been a modern Library of Alexandria accessible worldwide into meaningless slop written by no-one and designed for nobody. In two months, ChatGPT 4o is now able to produce more of a volume of text that has ever existed in human history - all of it with practically no oversight.

I'm glad, when I see Sam Altman take to the US Congress to plead for further regulations, even if his demands yield nothing. It means he's at least aware of the problem. Conversely, I'm saddened by Elon Musk's decision to just let Grok feed off of Twitter's database of posts - as if most of its current and former content base hadn't already been bot-powered. Google buying all of Reddit's data for the purposes of furnishing Gemini's training text is a small-scale catastrophe, as it shows a staggering ignorance of Reddit's userbase. It's almost as if Techbros think nobody shitposts online, except for themselves. The end result is, of course, both hilarious and terrifying, such as Gemini seriously suggesting that someone should eat a few small rocks on a daily basis - after pulling text from The Onion - or Google's generated responses stating that opening your parachute after jumping off a plane is a statistically unsound way of ensuring your survival.

Considering, I'm thinking we should entomb the web as we know it, leave it running for the sake of various business-related bespoke sites and tools - but stop interacting with it. Instead, we should build a new layer for the Clear Web, populated exclusively and monitored exclusively by humans.

Imagine a "clear" email server, for instance. The Mailer daemon is replaced with a flesh-and-bones Account Manager, whose job it is to filter out spam and mark out high-priority content. With the right hires, you could practically kill current scamming practices in the womb, using this technique. Echo chambers could become notably more porous if social networks were peer-reviewed, and a video hosting platform where "the algorithm" is literally just good old user engagement would be likely to be able to keep its levels of toxic content much lower than, say, YouTube ever could. If this new layer of the Internet were peer-driven, you could bring back all sorts of jobs that are currently threatened by AI, while retaining the lessons learned by the AI frenzy.

I'd also advocate for the old, AI-driven web to be preserved in a vertical slice. We could probably do away with most of it, but the current craze - and its noxious effects - shouldn't be forgotten. The Internet as we know it today is increasingly made by and for AI scrapers, and the idea of wiping everything and restarting is just as dangerous. AI is already the domain of scam artists and thieves - like any new technology - and wiping the slate clean would only give these bad-faith actors more leeway.

As a closing note, I find it kind of interesting to see how we've effectively skipped the realization of Cyberpunk as we define it, and gone straight into Post-Cyberpunk, with the radical transformations of yesterday rotting away mere months into their existence and leaving us with naught but ruins - or to paraphrase Shakespeare, an expanse full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

[runawaymarbles]

A bunch of people have asked, and this post has gotten wildly away from me, so I feel like I should clarify: What they were confused by wasn't that we had two separate databases, it was that we didn't want these databases to be connected at all. At my day job there's a bunch of databases, and employees have differing levels of access to different ones, depending on their role. But HR can get into all of them to give that access, which is what this company expected. It'd mean we only had one account with them, would be paying them one bill instead of two, etc.

In this company's defense, they probably didn't see why cross-pollinating would be such a big screaming deal, because at most organizations the volunteer database would already contain things like legal names and addresses. (Certainly everywhere else I volunteer knows where to send me mailers and holiday cards.) If someone connected a name or email in the volunteer database to one in the donor database, they might learn a little bit more about that person's personal finances, but they probably wouldn't get any more PII than they already had.

Whereas for most roles at the OTW, the only information we ask for is an email address and a name you'd like us to call you.* (And an ao3 account, for wranglers, but you can always make a sock.) So connecting volunteer and donation records by a shared email would be a much bigger deal. Which is why that isn't a thing anyone can do.

**some people stick with their real names, some don't. One of my small joys in life is sending a message to something like Full Legal Name, and their co-chair, pop-tart.

The midjourney stuff just reminds of when we were trying to find a new platform to host the ao3 donation form, and companies kept trying to tell me about all their "ai" features that would track donor engagement, and figure out the optimal pattern to email individual donors asking for follow up donations, and all the ways they suggest we manipulate people into staying on our websites. It was a great way to filter out who either wasn't listening to us when we described our ethics and donor base, or just didn't believe us.

Now granted ao3 is a unique case based on a) the amount of page views we get in any given time period and b) the fact that most donors absolutely do Not want to be identified as such anywhere, (the default "list of recent donors" module got nuked Immediately) but it surprised me some that the concept of "donors who value their privacy and would be furious at even the whiff of AI" is unique. Some of us really are just existing in different worlds.

[postalcodecanada]

National Change of Address (NCOA): What it is?

The National Change of Address (NCOA) is a program offered by the United States Postal Service (USPS) that provides businesses and organizations with the most current change-of-address information for individuals, businesses, and other organizations that have filed a change of address with the USPS. This service helps ensure that mail is delivered to the intended recipients and reduces the number of undeliverable and misdelivered mail pieces.

When an individual or business submits a change of address to the USPS, the new address information is added to the NCOA database. Businesses and mailers can then regularly update their mailing lists against the NCOA database to ensure that they have the most current address information for their customers and contacts.

The NCOA database contains approximately 160 million permanent change-of-address records filed with the USPS over the last 48 months. By utilizing the NCOA service, businesses and organizations can improve the deliverability of their mail, reduce the number of returned or undeliverable mail pieces, and maintain better communication with their customers and constituents.

In addition to reducing undeliverable mail, using the NCOA service can also help businesses and organizations save money on postage and printing costs by ensuring that mail is delivered to the correct address the first time. By updating their mailing lists with the most current address information, businesses can avoid the additional expense of re-mailing or re-printing materials that were sent to outdated addresses.

It's important to note that the NCOA process is designed to protect individual privacy, as the information in the NCOA database is only available to businesses and organizations for the purpose of updating their mailing lists. The USPS does not provide access to the NCOA information for marketing purposes, and mailers are required to adhere to strict guidelines and regulations to ensure the privacy and security of the individuals whose information is contained in the NCOA database.

Overall, the National Change of Address (NCOA) program is a valuable tool for businesses and organizations that rely on mail delivery to communicate with customers and constituents. By regularly updating their mailing lists against the NCOA database, businesses can improve mail deliverability, reduce costs, and maintain better relationships with their target audience.

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[leads-view]

Steps for Planning and Executing a Successful Direct Mail Campaign

In an era dominated by digital marketing, direct mail remains a powerful tool for reaching and engaging target audiences. When executed effectively, direct mail campaigns can drive brand awareness, generate leads, and ultimately, boost sales. In this article, we'll outline the key steps for planning and executing a successful direct mail campaign.

1. Define Your Objectives

Before diving into the logistics of your campaign, it's crucial to clearly define your objectives. Are you looking to increase brand awareness, generate leads, promote a new product or service, or drive sales? Identifying your goals will help shape the rest of your campaign strategy.

2. Know Your Audience

Understanding your target audience is essential for crafting a successful direct mail campaign. Conduct market research to gather insights into demographics, preferences, and behaviors. Segment your audience based on relevant criteria such as age, location, interests, and purchasing history to tailor your messaging and offers accordingly.

3. Develop Compelling Creative

The creative elements of your direct mail piece are critical for capturing attention and driving engagement. Invest in high-quality design, imagery, and copywriting that aligns with your brand identity and resonates with your target audience. Consider incorporating personalization and customization to make your mailers more relevant and impactful.

4. Choose the Right Format

Selecting the right format for your direct mail piece depends on your campaign objectives and budget. Options include postcards, letters, brochures, catalogs, and dimensional mailers. Each format offers unique advantages in terms of cost, visibility, and impact, so choose one that best suits your goals and audience preferences.

5. Build Your Mailing List

Building a targeted mailing list is essential for reaching the right audience with your direct mail campaign. Leverage your existing customer database, purchase or rent targeted mailing lists, or use data enrichment services to acquire new leads. Ensure that your mailing list is up-to-date, accurate, and compliant with relevant data privacy regulations.

6. Craft Compelling Messaging

Your direct mail piece should deliver a clear and compelling message that resonates with your audience and drives action. Focus on highlighting the benefits of your product or service, addressing pain points, and offering solutions. Use persuasive language and calls-to-action to encourage recipients to take the next step, whether it's visiting your website, making a purchase, or contacting your sales team.

7. Test and Measure

Testing is essential for optimizing the effectiveness of your direct mail campaign. Conduct A/B tests on different creative elements, formats, messaging, and offers to identify what resonates best with your audience. Track key performance indicators such as response rates, conversion rates, and return on investment (ROI) to measure the success of your campaign and inform future strategies.

8. Follow Up

Following up with recipients after sending out your direct mail piece is crucial for maximizing engagement and conversion opportunities. Implement a multi-channel approach that integrates direct mail with digital channels such as email, social media, and retargeting ads to reinforce your message and stay top-of-mind with prospects.

Conclusion

Planning and executing a successful direct mail campaign requires careful strategy, creativity, and attention to detail. By following these steps and leveraging the unique advantages of direct mail, businesses can effectively reach and engage their target audience, drive meaningful results, and achieve their marketing objectives in a tangible and measurable way.

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What Does Canada’s Post Precision Targeter Do?

Canada Post's Precision Targeter is a sophisticated data analytics and segmentation tool designed to empower businesses with the ability to execute highly targeted and effective direct mail campaigns. It serves as a comprehensive solution for businesses seeking to reach their ideal audience with precision, delivering personalized and relevant mailers that drive engagement, conversions, and return on investment (ROI). Precision Targeter leverages Canada Post's extensive database of consumer and business data, combined with advanced analytics capabilities, to enable businesses to identify, segment, and target specific customer segments with precision and accuracy.

At its core, Precision Targeter offers businesses the ability to perform data-driven audience segmentation based on a wide range of criteria. Leveraging demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral data, businesses can define custom targeting criteria to reach audiences that align with their marketing objectives and target demographics. Whether targeting households based on income, age, household size, or lifestyle interests, Precision Targeter provides the flexibility to tailor mailers to the unique preferences and characteristics of each audience segment, maximizing relevance and engagement.

One of the key features of Precision Targeter is its customizable targeting criteria, which allow businesses to define specific parameters based on their unique goals and objectives. Businesses can specify criteria such as location, radius, demographic attributes, purchasing behavior, and more to create highly granular and precise audience segments. This level of customization enables businesses to tailor their mailers to reach the most relevant and valuable prospects for their products or services, increasing the effectiveness of their direct mail campaigns and driving higher response rates and conversions.

Precision Targeter also offers advanced geo-targeting and mapping capabilities, enabling businesses to target audiences based on geographic location. Using interactive mapping tools, businesses can draw custom boundaries such as postal codes, neighborhoods, or trade areas to define their target geography and reach audiences in specific locations. This geographic precision allows businesses to deploy their direct mail campaigns strategically, focusing their efforts on areas with the highest concentration of their target audience and maximizing the impact of their marketing efforts.

In addition to segmentation and targeting capabilities, Precision Targeter leverages predictive modeling and analytics to identify high-value prospects and optimize audience targeting. By analyzing historical data and behavioral patterns, Precision Targeter can predict which individuals are most likely to respond to a particular offer or message, allowing businesses to focus their resources on prospects with the highest propensity to convert. This predictive insight enables businesses to achieve greater efficiency and ROI by targeting their direct mail campaigns more effectively and maximizing the impact of their marketing efforts.

Precision Targeter seamlessly integrates with businesses' existing marketing data and customer relationship management (CRM) systems, allowing for streamlined campaign execution and data synchronization. Businesses can import their customer data, transaction history, and other relevant information into Precision Targeter to enhance audience segmentation and targeting. This integration ensures consistency and accuracy across marketing channels, enabling businesses to deliver a cohesive and personalized experience to their customers and prospects.

Moreover, Precision Targeter provides comprehensive reporting and analytics capabilities that enable businesses to evaluate the effectiveness of their direct mail campaigns and track key performance indicators (KPIs). Businesses can track metrics such as response rates, conversion rates, ROI, and cost per acquisition to assess campaign performance and identify areas for improvement. Detailed analytics dashboards and customizable reports allow businesses to monitor campaign performance in real-time, identify trends and patterns, and make data-driven decisions to optimize future campaigns for maximum impact.

Precision Targeter prioritizes compliance with privacy regulations and data security standards to protect customer information and ensure ethical and legal conduct. Adhering to regulations such as the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) in Canada, Precision Targeter employs robust data security measures, encryption protocols, and access controls to safeguard customer data and prevent unauthorized access or misuse, ensuring trust and confidence in the platform.

In conclusion, Canada Direct Mail Post's Precision Targeter is a powerful tool that empowers businesses to execute highly targeted and effective direct mail campaigns. With advanced segmentation, targeting, predictive modeling, and analytics capabilities, Precision Targeter enables businesses to reach their ideal audience with precision, delivering personalized and relevant mailers that drive engagement, conversions, and ROI. By leveraging data-driven insights and integration with existing marketing systems, Precision Targeter helps businesses optimize their direct mail campaigns and achieve better results, ultimately contributing to their success and growth.

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Traditional Direct Mail Marketing Process

Traditional direct mail marketing has been a cornerstone of marketing strategies for decades, offering businesses a tangible way to reach their target audience directly through physical mail. The process typically involves several key steps, from initial planning and audience segmentation to design, printing, and mailing. Here's an overview of the traditional direct mail marketing process:

Strategy Development: The first step in the traditional direct mail marketing process is to develop a comprehensive strategy that aligns with the business goals and objectives. This involves defining the target audience, setting clear objectives, and determining the key message or offer to be communicated through the direct mail campaign. Strategy development also includes establishing a budget, timeline, and measurement criteria to evaluate the success of the campaign.

Audience Segmentation: Once the strategy is in place, the next step is to segment the target audience based on various factors such as demographics, geographic location, purchasing behavior, and psychographic traits. Audience segmentation allows businesses to tailor their messaging and offers to specific groups of recipients, increasing the relevance and effectiveness of the direct mail campaign.

Creative Development: With the target audience identified, businesses can begin the creative development process, which involves designing the visual elements and copywriting the messaging for the direct mail piece. The creative elements should be aligned with the brand identity and messaging strategy, while also capturing the attention of recipients and encouraging them to take action.

Printing and Production: Once the creative elements are finalized, the next step is to produce the physical direct mail pieces through printing and production. Businesses may choose to work with a printing company or in-house printing facilities to produce the mailers, ensuring high-quality printing and finishing to enhance the overall appearance and impact of the direct mail pieces.

Mailing List Acquisition: In parallel with the creative development and production process, businesses need to acquire or build a mailing list containing the addresses of the target audience. Mailing lists can be obtained from various sources, including customer databases, purchased lists, or third-party providers. It's essential to ensure that the mailing list is accurate, up-to-date, and compliant with data privacy regulations.

Personalization and Addressing: Personalization plays a crucial role in the success of direct mail campaigns, as it allows businesses to tailor the messaging and offers to individual recipients based on their preferences and behavior. Personalization can include customizing the recipient's name, addressing specific interests or preferences, and even incorporating variable data printing to create unique mail pieces for each recipient.

Postage and Mailing: Once the direct mail pieces are printed, addressed, and personalized, businesses need to prepare them for postage and mailing. This involves sorting the mail pieces by ZIP code or postal route, applying postage stamps or indicia, and delivering them to the post office or a bulk mail facility for distribution. Businesses may also choose to work with a mailing house or fulfillment center to handle the postage and mailing process.

Tracking and Measurement: After the direct mail pieces have been mailed out, businesses can track the delivery and response rates to measure the effectiveness of the campaign. Tracking methods may include using unique tracking codes or phone numbers, monitoring website traffic or online conversions, and conducting follow-up surveys or inquiries. By analyzing the response data, businesses can identify areas for improvement and optimize future direct mail campaigns for better results.

Follow-Up and Response Handling: Finally, businesses need to follow up with recipients who respond to the direct mail campaign, whether through phone calls, emails, or in-person visits. This involves handling inquiries, processing orders or requests, and nurturing leads through the sales funnel. Prompt and personalized follow-up can significantly impact the success of the campaign and help businesses convert leads into customers.

Overall, the traditional direct mail marketing process involves careful planning, creative development, production, mailing list acquisition, personalization, postage, tracking, measurement, follow-up, and response handling. While it may require upfront investment in time and resources, direct mail remains a valuable and effective marketing channel for businesses looking to reach their target audience directly and drive meaningful engagement and conversions.

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Elements to Test Mailing Lists

Testing mailing lists is an essential component of any successful direct mail campaign. By thoroughly evaluating and refining mailing lists before launching a campaign, businesses can ensure that their message reaches the right audience with maximum impact and effectiveness. In this guide, we'll explore the key elements to test when evaluating mailing lists and how businesses can use testing to optimize their direct mail campaigns for success.

1. List Segmentation: One of the first elements to test when evaluating mailing lists is list segmentation. Segmentation involves dividing the overall mailing list into smaller, more targeted segments based on specific criteria such as demographics, psychographics, behavior, or purchase history. By segmenting the list, businesses can tailor their messaging and offers to different audience segments, increasing relevance and engagement. Testing different segmentation strategies allows businesses to identify the most effective segments for their campaign objectives and allocate resources accordingly.

2. Data Accuracy and Completeness: Another critical element to test when evaluating mailing lists is the accuracy and completeness of the data. Data quality directly impacts campaign performance, as inaccurate or incomplete data can result in undeliverable mail, wasted resources, and missed opportunities. Businesses should test mailing lists for data accuracy by verifying contact information, such as addresses, names, and contact details, against reliable sources or third-party databases. Additionally, businesses should ensure that the data is up-to-date and complies with privacy regulations to avoid compliance issues and maintain customer trust.

3. Response Rates and Conversion Metrics: Testing mailing lists for response rates and conversion metrics is essential for evaluating their effectiveness in generating leads and driving sales. Businesses can conduct A/B testing or split testing by sending different versions of a mailer to different segments of the mailing list and measuring response rates and conversions. By comparing the performance of different segments, businesses can identify which segments are most responsive to their messaging and offers and allocate resources accordingly to maximize ROI.

4. Target Audience Relevance: Testing mailing lists for target audience relevance involves assessing how well the selected audience aligns with the business's target market and objectives. Businesses should evaluate the demographics, interests, and preferences of the audience to ensure that they match the ideal customer profile. Testing different audience segments allows businesses to identify which segments are most relevant to their campaign objectives and refine their targeting strategy accordingly to improve engagement and conversion rates.

5. Geographic Coverage and Distribution: Geographic coverage and distribution are critical considerations when testing mailing lists, particularly for businesses targeting specific regions or markets. Businesses should test mailing lists to ensure that they provide adequate coverage in the target geographic area and reach the desired audience effectively. Testing different distribution strategies, such as local, regional, or national targeting, allows businesses to identify the most effective approach for their campaign objectives and optimize resource allocation accordingly.

6. Response Time and Follow-Up: Testing mailing lists for response time and follow-up is essential for evaluating the effectiveness of the campaign in generating timely responses and nurturing leads through the sales funnel. Businesses should monitor response times and follow-up actions, such as inquiries, requests for information, or purchases, to assess the campaign's overall performance and identify opportunities for improvement. Testing different follow-up strategies, such as email or phone calls, allows businesses to optimize their follow-up process and maximize conversion rates.

7. Cost-Effectiveness and ROI: Testing mailing lists for cost-effectiveness and ROI is crucial for evaluating the campaign's overall profitability and return on investment. Businesses should track key metrics such as cost per lead, cost per acquisition, and overall campaign ROI to assess the campaign's performance and identify areas for optimization. Testing different mailing list segments and targeting strategies allows businesses to allocate resources more efficiently and maximize ROI by focusing on the most profitable audience segments.

In conclusion, testing mailing lists is a critical step in optimizing direct mail campaigns for success. By evaluating key elements such as list segmentation, data accuracy, response rates, target audience relevance, geographic coverage, response time, follow-up, cost-effectiveness, and ROI, businesses can identify opportunities for improvement and refine their targeting and messaging strategies to maximize engagement and conversions. By incorporating testing into their campaign planning and execution process, businesses can achieve better results and drive greater success with their direct mail campaigns.

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CASS Verification and Safe Mailing for Postcard API

Direct mailers, print-mail service providers, and software companies that make address verification/standardization a part of their services use software that taps into USPS’ official database to verify/correct addresses. Such software comes with a variety of tools that are capable of repairing formatting errors, filling in missing pieces of zip code information, turning latitude/longitude coordinates into valid addresses, and other address validation processes.

To ensure that the data is accurate, these Postcard API are certified by USPS as CASS-compliant. In other words, they are approved to be able to validate/standardize address data and update them using the latest records of the LACS (Location and Address Conversion System) database. Some even go a step further and also provide Delivery Point Validation and Real-time Address Change processing.

The use of CASS-certified address verification/standardization software helps reduce the work load for USPS employees. As a result, the USPS can process your mail faster and more efficiently. As a reward for you sharing the workload, they will even give you “workshare discounts” that can help you save on the overall cost of your mail operations.

It offers an easy to integrate, USPS-certified CASS Address Verification API that can be used for a wide range of applications. From generating leads to re-engaging old customers, you can use it to send highly personalized and attention-grabbing postcards that boost ROI for your business. Moreover, the lead tracking abilities enable you to follow-up on all your new leads and convert them into valuable customers. And with free technical support, you can get assistance whenever you need it.

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Enhancing Data Accuracy and Customer Engagement with Salesforce Address Validation

In the dynamic world of customer relationship management (CRM), accurate and up-to-date data is crucial for businesses striving to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Address validation plays a pivotal role in ensuring that customer information within Salesforce, one of the world's leading CRM platforms, is precise and reliable. This article explores the significance of Salesforce address validation, its benefits, and how businesses can leverage this feature to enhance data quality and customer engagement.

The Importance of Accurate Addresses:

Data Integrity and Reliability: Inaccurate or incomplete addresses can lead to communication errors, shipping delays, and a diminished customer experience. Address validation in Salesforce acts as a gatekeeper, ensuring that only accurate and properly formatted addresses enter the system, thus maintaining data integrity.

Cost Efficiency: Inaccurate addresses result in undeliverable shipments and wasted resources. By implementing address validation, businesses can reduce shipping costs, minimize return shipments, and optimize their logistics processes.

Salesforce Address Validation Features:

Real-Time Validation: Salesforce address validation provides real-time verification, allowing businesses to validate addresses at the point of entry. This ensures that only accurate and properly formatted addresses are added to the CRM, preventing the accumulation of erroneous data.

Standardization: Address validation standardizes addresses according to postal guidelines, ensuring consistency in data format. This is particularly beneficial for businesses operating in different regions, as it helps maintain a unified and standardized database.

Integration with Third-Party Services: Salesforce allows integration with third-party address validation services, enhancing its capabilities. By tapping into these services, businesses can access additional features such as geocoding, which provides latitude and longitude coordinates for precise location data.

Benefits of Salesforce Address Validation:

Improved Customer Experience: Accurate addresses contribute to timely and reliable deliveries, boosting customer satisfaction. This, in turn, strengthens the overall customer experience and increases brand loyalty.

Enhanced Marketing Campaigns: Clean and accurate address data enables businesses to conduct targeted and effective marketing campaigns. Whether it's direct mailers or location-based promotions, validated addresses ensure that marketing efforts reach the intended audience.

Compliance and Risk Mitigation: Address validation helps businesses comply with postal regulations and reduces the risk of regulatory penalties. By ensuring data accuracy, organizations can avoid legal issues associated with sending communications to incorrect or unauthorized addresses.

Implementation and Best Practices:

Automate Address Validation: Implement automated address validation processes within Salesforce to ensure real-time verification during data entry. This minimizes the chances of errors and maintains the accuracy of the CRM database.

Regularly Update Existing Data: Conduct periodic reviews and updates of existing address data within Salesforce. This ensures that the CRM system remains a reliable source of information as customer addresses change over time.

Train Users: Provide training to Salesforce users on the importance of accurate address data and the proper use of address validation features. This helps in fostering a data-conscious culture within the organization.

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Address Lookup API

A good address lookup api is a must-have for many online businesses that use their customers’ postal addresses for order delivery, placing orders and more. Address accuracy is quintessential for businesses to serve their customers well, and overlooking this area can result in poor customer satisfaction. Address verification and validation helps to ensure that the addresses are valid, and this article covers everything about it.

A scalable address lookup api can integrate seamlessly with your website or mobile app without creating any internal conflict in existing workflows. It can help you improve user experience by removing any friction during checkouts or account sign-ups and help you reduce delivery failures by catching bad addresses early on.

An address lookup api can be used to verify and standardize addresses in 240+ countries. It can correct addresses with typographical errors and other formatting issues, help users fill in their own addresses by suggesting potential address matches based on each keystroke of input, and turn latitude/longitude coordinates into addresses. Some of these apis are CASS certified and are approved to use the official database USPS for address validation, ensuring that your addresses are up to postal standards.

Some of these apis allow for bulk verification, which is especially useful if you have a lot of old customer records that need to be cleaned up before sending out mailers to them. This is also known as post-entry address validation, and it can be carried out on a large scale to save time and resources.

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Printing and Statement Mailing Solutions for Healthcare

The reality is that most medical practices, clinics and hospitals have a few employees who handle printing and mailing of their statements and invoices. However, with a limited staff this can be extremely time-consuming. It also can add up with costs related to paper, ink and postage rates.

Outsourcing these tasks to a HIPAA-compliant statement printing and mailing partner can help you reduce the Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) and collect payments faster. This gives your staff more time to focus on enhancing your patient experience and boosting the quality of the services you offer.

Your healthcare statement vendor can help you send eye-catching documents that make it easy for patients to understand their outstanding invoices and pay on time. This can boost your brand’s credibility and strengthen relationships with your patients.

Using a HIPAA-compliant print and mail statement vendor with a variable data printing service can make your communications more personal and boost response rates for compliance, transactional and marketing mailers. It can also save you time by avoiding manual data entry and simplifying your data processing workflows.

Choosing a HIPAA-compliant statement provider that offers real-time tracking allows you to stay on top of when your statements are delivered so you can follow up with patients who haven’t paid on time. Additionally, your HIPAA-compliant statement provider can automatically cross-check your mailing list against the National Change of Address database so you know if any patients have moved and ensure that your mailers are being sent to the correct addresses.

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