Having a clean list of postal addresses is vital to the success of your marketing campaign. Meanwhile, it’s integral for your relationship with your clients.
If you work with a large amount of information, including contact details, one small typo could lead to wasted time and money.
Imagine sending products to the wrong address. You don’t just lose money. You lose an existing customer.
The only way to make sure you’ve got the right information is to check it on a regular basis. That’s where address validators come in.
This program checks your existing mailing list to ensure it contains valid addresses and points your attention to possible errors.
Checking a mailing list manually could take a formidable amount of time. Meanwhile, such checks aren’t insured against human error. A simple program could do it in seconds. It can also check the address for errors in real-time, not allowing your clients to make typos in contact forms.
How Does an Address Validator Work?
An address validator can check your addresses in two ways:
- Real-time address validation – software checks the address while the user types it on the website.
- Regular address validation – checks the address list you put into the system.
How An Address Validator Work: The Process
1. Formatting
One of the most common mistakes made with addresses is formatting. Each country has its own formatting rules for mailing addresses. For example, in the USA, all addresses should comply with USPS standards. However, if you are sending mail to other countries, you have to make sure the format suits its standards. They could drastically be different from what you are used to.
An address validator checks all addresses against the known formatting standards. It ensures you are using the correct format, and none of the vital details are missing.
2. Missing Information
Many users forget to enter some part of the address details when typing in their contact information. Be it a street number or zip code; if one of these components is missing, your mail could end up being returned or sent to the wrong address. Meanwhile, many users simply forget to enter one digit. Such a mistake causes the mail to be returned to the sender.
An address validator checks each address on your list for missing information. Even if it seems as if the missing part is not important to the mailing process, the program still alerts the user to check the problem manually.
3. Existence
The USPS database is usually used by address validators to make sure that the address exists in the United States. Other countries have their own databases. If the address exists in the database, it’s considered valid.
After adjusting the format, an address validator checks each address on your list against such databases to make sure it exists. According to experts from Byteplant, if the address doesn’t exist, the validator alerts the user to the problem. The rest would have to be checked manually.
Overall, the address validation process involves three simple steps:
- Address parsing – the program breaks the address down into components, such as street name, city, state, zip code, etc.
- Address standardization – the program ensures that the address suits the format accepted in the recipient’s country.
- Address comparison – the program checks the address against the existing databases to make sure it’s valid.
3 Reasons Why the Address May Be Invalid
When the address validator shows that some of the addresses on the list aren’t valid, there are several reasons why it may happen.
1. Fake Address
Some people tend to enter the wrong contact information when they want to get freebies from you. For example, if you offer free literature in exchange for contact details, they could share a fake address to get a freebie without consequences (such as promotional information from your side).
A real-time address validator spots fake addresses as they are being entered into the form to help you save time and money.
Fake addresses could also be made up by bots. So make sure you have a strong CAPTCHA system in place.
2. Poor Spelling
While an address validator is good at catching typos and spelling errors, some addresses may be so poorly written that fixing them is impossible for the program. That’s why the validator alerts the user, who may be able to deal with the problem manually.
3. Unregistered Address
An address may exist but not be registered in the database yet. This usually happens when new buildings are built. Such a mistake could also occur when occupants don’t want to receive mail.
In such a case, the user has to check the address manually by contacting the client to ask for the right address.
Do You Need an Address Validator?
Many companies wonder if they really need an address validator or they can do the job manually. It’s possible to check addresses without a program if you don’t have that many people on your mailing list.
However, when you have more than twenty recipients, checking their addresses manually is time-consuming. Meanwhile, you aren’t protected against simple human error.
It makes sense to consider an address validator for its efficiency, simple interface, and reasonable price.
Final Thoughts
An address validator checks if the addresses on your mailing list are valid by breaking them down into components, correcting formatting, and checking against the existing databases.
Such software could help you save formidable amounts of money while avoiding unsatisfied customers and wasted time.
More About Me
