In order to get the efficiency benefits of automation in something as complex as a direct mail campaign, we’ve learned there has to be standardization of important data fields.
As a result, there are limits to the number of characters in the data fields that make up the Contact Record in eduPostal. We have to know what the maximum number of characters can be for us to properly address a mailer or include personalization in a direct mail template.
What Happens To Contact Data That Is Too Long?
Upon import, eduPostal will automatically “truncate” contact data fields that exceed the maximum number of characters for the eduPostal field that the data is mapped into. So, if you attempt to upload a First Name that looks like the above, we will truncate the data to be a maximum of 20 total characters.
Required Contact Record Name Fields
Name fields are required for eduPostal to flag a contact as “Valid” to send mail to. We have to know who you want to mail to! There is some important logic associated with name fields:
- Every contact must have data in the First Name and Last Name AND/OR Company fields.
- If you don’t or can’t break out First Name and Last Name into separate values, we recommend mapping the full name into the Company field.
- You can send to a Company without names of people by mapping the company name column to Company.
Contact Record Name Field Lengths
First Name: 20 characters (alpha/numeric)
Last Name: 20 characters (alpha/numeric)
Company: 40 characters (alpha/numeric)
Required Contact Record Address Fields
Address fields are also required for eduPostal to flag a contact as “Valid” to send mail to. We have to know where you want to mail to! To mail in the U.S. you must have at least Address, City, State and Zip Code data for a contact to be flagged as Valid.
Address: 64 characters (alpha/numeric)
Address 2: 64 characters (alpha/numeric) – Use for apartment number, Suite #, etc.
City: 50 characters (alpha/numeric)
State: 2 Digit Short Code “MA” or valid full name “Massachusetts”
Zip Code: 5 digit numeric “02370” or 5 dash 4 digit numeric “02370-1234”
Other Common Optional Fields
eduPostal also includes standard fields that you can optionally map data into.
Email: 100 characters (alpha/numeric)
Occupation: 255 characters (alpha/numeric)
Phone: 50 characters (alpha/numeric)
Mobile: 50 characters (alpha/numeric)
Website: 500 characters (alpha/numeric)
User Defined Personalization Optional Fields
Do you have custom data that you’d like to use with the eduPostal Variable Data or Variable Logic features? Map that data to any of these 35 user defined fields.
Variable Data Fields 1-35 (Var1-35): 255 characters (alpha/numeric)