Mail Lists

Mail Lists

ASU Mail Services has made the investment in software and equipment to process mail ASU's mail to meet USPS automation standards for the best possible delivery of the mail. We standardize addresses, verify we have the most current mailing address the USPS has on file for the individual, verify the address is a deliverable address for the USPS and format the address to include a delivery point barcode for faster delivery.

Non-Profit Standard and Profit Standard Mail

University Mail Services continually makes investments in software, postal equipment and employee training with the purpose of efficiently processing your mail to meet postal standards. Once we have received your address file, we process it through multiple postal systems in order to verify and standardize the addresses, determine the most current mailing address that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has on file for each individual through the National Change of Address system (NCOA), verify that the address is a deliverable address for the USPS and format the address to include a delivery point barcode for faster delivery.

The benefit for your department and the university is that your mail is delivered quickly and efficiently and at the lowest possible cost. The Postal Service requires at all non-profit and standard (bulk) mailings are only mailed to these corrected addresses. All other addresses will be returned to the department for correction and use at a later time. By only mailing to ‘good’ addresses the university will reduce printing, mailing and processing costs as well as reduce the amount of mail that is not delivered that would then need to be recycled.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) requires that all mailing addresses meet postal specifications or they cannot be mailed at non-profit standard or profit standard rates. Therefore, the following steps will be used in all these mailings:

1. University Mail Services will process your address database and determine which addresses meet postal standards.
2. Your non-profit standard and profit standard mail will only be sent to addresses that Mail Services has validated or corrected.
3. Only the addresses that meet the postal requirements will be mailed at that time. All incorrect addresses will be returned to the department for correction or deletion.
4. The department will receive a report after the mailing is completed that contains the incorrect addresses and their associated errors to help in correcting the database.
5. The department will then be able to use this information to correct these addresses and will be able to use these addresses in future mailings.

Sustainable Mailing Options for Departments

Steps you can take at the beginning of the mailing project:

1. Send your file to Mail Services before you order or print your materials. We will process your address file and let you know which addresses are incorrect. You will then have the option to review, correct or delete these addresses. This is a good sustainable option as you will be able to reduce the amount of materials you need to order, saving your department money in printing and postage and saving the environment the need to recycle undeliverable mail.

Automated Mail Address Database

You must submit your address information as an email attachment to mailasu@asu.edu, on a cd or flash drive for us to prepare your address files so they can be processed through the USPS automated equipment. Once you have supplied us with your address database we process this file in order to verify and standardize the addresses, determine the most current mailing address that the United States Postal Service (USPS) has on file for each individual through the National Change of Address system (NCOA), verify that the address is a deliverable address for the USPS and format the address to include a delivery point barcode for faster delivery.

When setting up your address database, do not mix field information. Keep your fields consistent throughout the database (see format below). If the Business/Firm Name is in Field 5 in one record, be sure it is in Field 5 in all the records. If data address fields are intermixed, they may be printed twice or it may not meet postal requirements and be returned to you for correction. In addition there should be no more than two Delivery Address lines per record and these address lines should be kept consistent. For example, Delivery Address 1 should contain the street address for each record and Delivery Address 2 can contain the Suite or Apartment Number. When the address is printed, the suite or apartment numbers must be in the same address line as the street address.

Address Format

The above is only sample. You do not have to have only these fields in your files or only this information on your label – but the information must be the same in each field – if there is no information for a field, leave that field blank.

If a record has both a post office box and a street address, they must be kept in separate fields – they cannot be together on the same line. The USPS zip code database looks for a delivery address and will not recognize both addresses on the delivery line. If the mail is delivered to a PO Box, it is to be the address line directly above the City, State and Zip Code. If the mail is delivered to the street address and not the PO Box, the street address should be directly above the City, State and Zip Code.

For addressing purposes, the most important line is the line above the city-state-zip line – this is the delivery address and that is all the information that line should contain – no apartment names, c/o references, etc.

Post office box information should be capitalized as P O Box 1234 or PO Box 1234 - NOT po 1234 or box 1234

Delivering Address Files

1. Save time – send your address file to mailasu@asu.edu
The easiest way to send your file to University Mail Services is as an email attachment. This will save you time and eliminate the need to send a disk back and forth. Below is the information needed in the email so we can match it up to your Mail Processing Request Form and material:

Name of Department printed on mail piece
Name of Mail Piece (example: Research Magazine; November 07 CFA Newsletter)
Name of Address File (to correspond to the file name listed on your MPRF)
Number of records in your file

The file attachment containing your address list may be in any format that separates the information into fields, such as an Excel worksheet, comma-delimited text file or tab-delimited text file.

2. Deliver address file on computer disk
Copy your address files to a CD and send to: MC 0710 University Mail Services
If you have any questions or problems, please call Andrew Fassett, University Mail Services 480.965.9819.