Sending your list to Municipal Marketing
Services.
The BEST list you can use is a PURCHASED list. These lists are typically the
most accurate. You might think a tax list from your municipality is the best way
to go, but keep in mind, the addresses on a tax list are those of the property
OWNER who may NOT live in the property! Also, an apartment building will have
only a single address, the property owner, NOT the addresses of each of the
apartments.
If you are a current customer and need a copy of
your existing list to make corrections or updates, click on the ORDER REPORTS
link at the left.
The ultimate success of your direct mail fundraising campaign
can be measured, by a number of factors. One of the most crucial steps in
creating a successful campaign is obtaining an accurate, up to date mailing
list.
Since Municipal Marketing Services has been providing direct
mail fundraising programs since 1980, based on our experience, we have
developed a number of tips and preferences on providing your mailing list to us
for input into our computer system.
Of course, we can hand input your list from paper, but the
easiest and most efficient method is to supply your list on disk, CD or via email.
Realizing that there are thousands of computer programs
available, not only PC based, but also mainframe type computer systems, we have
to limit the types of files we can convert into our system.
Types of Files
Our most preferred type of file is a simple, tab delimited,
text file or a Microsoft Excel file. A text file would have a .txt extension after the file name and can be
created from MOST programs. This includes some of the most widely used programs
such as: Microsoft Word and Excel, WordPerfect, and other office suites. Please
check your program documentation for instructions on how to export (or SAVE AS)
a text file. For most programs, your help file can be accessed from within your
program by pressing F1 on your keyboard.
PLEASE: we CANNOT use
a label format file or a printout to a file. If your file is not received in the
correct format, it may be returned to you!
Fields
In supplying your mailing list to Municipal Marketing
Services, please keep in mind that our system only uses the fields necessary to
process your mailing. We do not use or need tax parcel numbers, phone numbers,
property descriptions, etc. This information will not be used if supplied.
IT IS IMPERATIVE that you tell us what fields are contained in
your file and what fields to use. Normally, we use the following fields:
| Field Name |
Data Type |
Max. Field Length |
Data Example |
Explanation |
| NAME |
TEXT |
35 |
DOE, JOHN |
The name of your resident or business. |
| ADDRESS |
TEXT |
30 |
12345 N MAIN ST |
The address of your resident or business. |
| EXTRA ADDRESS |
TEXT |
30 |
APT 301 |
The apartment, suite or unit number. This
field can also be used to refer to the actual property address in the case
of a non-resident owner. |
| CITY STATE |
TEXT |
25 |
ANY TOWN PA |
The city and state of the address. |
| ZIP |
TEXT |
10 |
15237 |
The Zip Code of the address. |
| TYPE |
TEXT |
2 |
01 |
This field identifies the area you want to
assign to this address for use in your statistical analysis. This can be
used to identify businesses, residents or apartments. |
How to Send MMS Your Address List
You can EITHER send your list to us on a disk, a CD, or you can email the list to us
(contact your Account Executive or Sales Office for the correct email address).
IT IS IMPORTANT that you identify yourself, provide a phone number and MOST
IMPORTANT identify the organization you represent. If you are an existing
customer for which we already maintain your mailing list, please let us know if
we are to replace your existing list or if your new list is just additions to your
current list on file.
Sending Photos
If you want to send us photos or other graphic images to use
in your newsletter, you can either send them on a disk, CD, or email the graphic
image or photo to us (contact your Account Executive or Sales Office for the correct email
address).
PLEASE, DO NOT SEND us a Word
document (.doc extension) to use for the picture.
As with data files, there are many different types of graphic
formats available. Our preferred format is to have the image as a tagged image
format. This file would have a file extension of: .tif and would offer the
highest quality.
Our next preferred format is as a "jpeg" file with an
extension of .jpg. While this format is generally the most universally accepted
format, it offers slightly less quality than that of a .tif file.
As mentioned above, in all cases, please identify yourself, provide a phone
number and MOST IMPORTANT identify the organization you represent. |
