Case Study: Mailing List Creation
- Charles Castro
- Jun 23
- 3 min read
Case Study: Building a Clean, Targeted U.S. Mail List for a Local Travel Agency
Client Type: Independent Travel Agency
Industry: Leisure & Tourism
Location: Round Rock, TX
Project Scope: Mailing List Consolidation, Data Cleaning & Formatting for Direct Mail Campaigns
The Challenge
A local travel agency had gathered customer address data from paper forms, handwritten sign-ups, booking records, and referrals over the years. However, the information was fragmented, inconsistent, and unsuitable for direct mail campaigns without significant cleanup.
Client pain points:
Mailing addresses stored in multiple, outdated formats
Incomplete or missing addresses, ZIP codes, cities, or states
No internal system to identify households vs. businesses
Inability to use mail merge for customized postcards or letters
Our Process
1. Data Consolidation
The client provided us with:
Four Excel files
A printed guestbook with handwritten names/addresses (scanned as PDF)
Export from a legacy CRM system
We merged all data into a single master sheet with consistent headers:
First Name / Last Name
Street Address
City / State / ZIP
Household or Business Indicator
Result: 317 raw entries collected into a unified format
2. Data Cleaning & Validation
We conducted a multi-step cleaning and enhancement process to ensure USPS-ready data.
Key actions:
Address Verification & Formatting:
Verified each mailing address to correct:
Misspelled Incomplete Street names
Abbreviations (e.g., “Apt” → “APT”)
ZIP+4 formatting for better deliverability
Duplicate Removal:
Identified and removed duplicate households or entries sent to the same address
Husband-and-Wife Household Handling:
For shared households (e.g., "John and Lisa Smith"), we:
Combined both names into a custom ‘Mailing Name’ field using proper case
Formatted for personalization: e.g., “John & Lisa Smith” or “Maria Ramirez and Javier Gomez”
Business Contact Segmentation:
We flagged entries associated with business names or trusts (e.g., FBO Mary Smith, Joe Wilson as Trustee of the Wilson Family Trust) and copied them into a separate sheet. Business names were moved to an additional sheet for future use.
Postal Compliance Check:
Verified compliance with USPS addressing standards to ensure no delays or returns
Removed or Sorted 10 incomplete, invalid, or duplicate entries
Final count: 292 verified and formatted U.S. mailing addresses, 25 Business Addresses
Client Enablement: Mail Merge Instructions
To support personalized campaigns, we delivered:
A ready-to-import workbook. (CSV and MS Excel formats.)
Custom columns for:
"Mailing Name" (e.g., John & Lisa Smith)
Full Address Line (City, State ZIP)
A brief guide on using Microsoft Word Mail Merge for printing labels, letters, or postcards, with conditional formatting for shared households
Outcome & Impact
The client received their first fully usable direct mail list
All addresses met USPS formatting standards
Personalized greetings enabled for household mailings
Separate B2B list allowed more tailored messaging to potential partners
Client Testimonial
“We’ve always wanted to send postcards to our loyal customers, but the list was a mess. Now we’re finally ready to do it the right way—no guesswork, no bounced mail.”
— Advisor, Travel Agency
📌 Summary
Conclusion
This project highlighted the value of high-quality data (Data Quality Management) in offline marketing. By preparing a clean, structured, and personalized mailing list, the travel agency can now:
Send targeted postcards for seasonal promotions
Reconnect with past travelers
Build brand visibility through direct mail
Need help preparing your postal mailing list for a successful campaign?
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~ Xolo
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