The Database Marketing Awards judging panel convened in London at the end of last week and, after a full day of assessment, they have come up with a definitive shortlist for their first ever awards.

I am pleased to confirm that our entry for the Outstanding Marketing Services Provider category has been shortlisted.

Antony has commented, “We are pleased to support Database Marketing and wish them all the best for their inaugural awards”.

The event will be held at the Brewery in Chiswell Street, London on Monday 12th September. We are anticipating that the great and the good and not so good will be represented at the event. All the team are looking forward to event, anybody that is anybody will be there, so get your tickets soon.

Following John's earlier post about Royal Mail planning to stamp every envelope with "delivered by Royal Mail", it now appears the plan has been put on hold. According to an article in Marketing Week, Royal Mail has delayed its plans following complaints from direct marketers who were concerned that the change would reduce response rates from DM packs.

Either way, what we do know does reduce response rates is bad or inconsistent data management. Whoever delivers your direct marketing mail, whether it is Royal Mail or another company they will rely on your data being accurate. By taking part in a regular data cleansing exercise to suppress your goneaway records, remove deceased individuals and even obtain new addresses using our mover files, you can be sure you are sending over accurate data for mailing.

So, whoever delivers your mail, whether it has "delivered by Royal Mail" on or not, you can be sure you don't get it back with the words "Return to sender"...

For a free data audit on your database or for further information, register your details with us free of charge or give us a call on 0151 355 4555.

According to an article in Marketing Week, loyalty company Nectar is launching its biggest ever weekend points promotion by offering cardholders triple points between 29th July and 1st August.

Of course, if they are going to let people know about this, they are going to need to use direct mail to do so. With 18m members, it will be absolutely crucial to ensure they have their goneaways suppressed, deceased removed and have obtained new addresses otherwise the impact could be huge.

So whilst you might not be doing a mailing to 18m people, next time you're thinking of doing a direct mail campaign, process your data for a free data quality audit to show you just how much money you could save by investing in a simple data cleansing exercise. It's quick, easy to use and available online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call one of the team now on 0151 355 4555 or register your details with us for a free online account.

Although almost half the items delivered through your letterbox were posted by a competitor of the Royal Mail, Royal Mail does the last difficult bit of delivering it to your door.

The Royal Mail now wants everyone to know who got the letter the last few miles to the door. From mid September every letter that goes through their automated sorting system will have ‘Delivered by Royal Mail’ proudly stamped upon it.

This is something the Communication Workers Union are in favour of, Dave Ward, deputy general secretary, said: “As competition increases, stamping the post delivered by Royal Mail will help the public understand they still deliver the final mile. Postal workers deserve recognition for the job they do and this exercise will help.”

The only problem is that this has been announced now without any consultation and with the change happening in mid September companies will have to amend stocks of pre-printed envelopes and this has upset the dma and their members - “This proposal raises a number of concerns since it will be printed in an area that Royal Mail customers use for their logos and messages creating problems with the existing creative treatments and design of envelope.”

Data8’s data cleansing makes sure the Royal Mail have the correct delivery address on the envelope, however the designers will now have to look at innovative ways of getting their branding stamped on the envelope.

The term "single customer view" is often banded around our industry as the holy grail of effective database management. But does this actually mean anything or is it just a trendy buzzword that we like to use to look better in our jobs?

In fact, a single customer view is an extremely important way of managing your data so that everything you need is all in one place. It is a vital solution to ensure you are a successful in today's multichannel environment. It will provide you with a single, holistic view of your customers and prospects in a single location which enables you to understand how they interact with your business, charity or organisation. This will, in turn, enable you to make better informed business decisions whether you are in Marketing, Sales, IT, Data or Business Owner.

To help you achieve this, Data8 can help. By using powerful de-duplication processes, goneaway screening, deceased suppression and PAF address cleansing, you can be sure all the data you are importing to your single customer view is up to date, accurate and compliant with relevant legislation. To enhance your strategy further, integrate these processes with our Foundation Technology platform directly in to your CRM system for ongoing data cleansing.

For further information on our data cleansing solutions or integrating with your CRM system, call our sales team on 0151 355 4555.