National Change of Address (NCOA)

An illustration displaying how the USPS' National Change of Address tool allow users to figure out if an address is still current and active. — Illustration showing the usefulness of NCOA.

Key Points

NCOA is a USPS maintained program that contains individuals and businesses that have filed a change of address request within the past 48 months.
No process can completely eliminate undeliverable mail, but NCOA and CASS can greatly reduce the number.
Running the contents of mailing lists through NCOA can help reduce returned mail and improve deliverability.

Introduction

One of the best ways to reduce getting returned mail is by processing your data through the National Change of Address (NCOA), a database that is maintained by the USPS. By running data through the NCOA, the company can minimize the amount of mail that gets returned. The NCOA allows mailers to determine whether the individuals or businesses on their mailing lists have filed a Change of Address request within the past 48 months.

What Does NCOA Do?

NCOA processing compares your mailing list against this database and updates the address of any contact who has moved and filed a change of address. It does not generate new address information. Instead, the database simply updates existing records when a USPS-confirmed move has occurred. There are several important benefits that NCOA processing provides.

The NCOA helps by:

Updating moved/not current addresses
Flagging undeliverable records
Reducing the amount of returned mail
Keeping databases accurate and current

Why Should I Run My Data Through NCOA?

As mentioned, running data through NCOA will greatly reduce the amount of undeliverable mail by updating the outdated addresses. Running data through NCOA will also greatly assist with maintaining data recency. It is a standard practice for list managers to practice data hygiene (read about the importance of data hygiene here) and to clean their data on a regular basis. Due to addresses becoming more outdated as time passes, NCOA is a fantastic tool to help maintain an accurate database. To understand what makes a good mailing list, learn more about that here.

CASS vs. NCOA

The USPS has another program, Coding Accuracy Support System (CASS). While the two programs are similar in that they help verify and make mailing addresses more accurate to reduce bad addresses and returned mail, they have different uses. For more information on CASS Certification, check out Geon’s article on the importance of that.

The functions of CASS are:

Standardizing addresses
Verifies formatting
USPS certification

The functions of NCOA are:

Updates moved addresses
Finds forwarding addresses
USPS change-of-address database

How Geon Uses NCOA

At Geon Media, every one of our mailing lists is processed using the latest USPS CASS and NCOA data available. This occurs both when we initially receive the data from the list owner and at least once every month thereafter.

In addition, every order is processed through CASS Certification and NCOA Processing again on the day it is delivered to you, ensuring you receive the freshest and most accurate data possible. While no process can completely eliminate returned mail, we use every available resource to keep it to an absolute minimum. To learn more about how mailing list data is collected and maintained, read our article on How Mailing Lists Are Built.

Conclusion

Ensuring that your mailing list data has been ran through NCOA before a campaign is one of the most effective ways to improve your mail piece’s deliverability and reduce receiving returned mail. While there is no solution that can eliminate undeliverable mail entirely, combining NCOA processing with CASS Certification while processing data hygiene on a regular basis gives your campaign the best chance of reaching who it needs to.