MAILING GUIDELINES

List Processing Disclaimer
Modern Postcard is not responsible to verify that the data in your list is accurate and properly formatted for mailing. Our list preparation process will standardize address formats, but will not create mailable addresses from incomplete or improperly formatted information, nor will it correct format errors.

Acceptable List Formats
When submitting your mailing list, we will review it for basic format, and to ensure it can be processed by our system.

[ Lists not meeting our specifications may incur additional costs and delays. ]

To expedite your order, we prefer lists to be submitted as PC based "text, tab delimited" files. However, we do accept PC and MAC files, they must be saved or exported in one of the following extensions: .txt, .ascII, .asc, .csv, or .dbf (dbfIII). If you submit your list in a different format, it may need to be converted which could result in processing delays and additional costs.

Extensions are simply the types of files you save (example: bestcustomerlist.txt or bestcustomerlist.asc...). You can save list files from a number of different programs for the PC such as ACT, Microsoft Works, Excel, QuickBooks Pro, Filemaker Pro, Label Maker Pro, and Outlook. You can also save list files from a number of different programs for the Mac such as ACT, Microsoft Excel, Filemaker Pro.

Below are the most common extensions used for mailing lists:
 • .ASC - ASCII text file.
 • .CSV - Comma delimited.
 • .DBF - Database File - dBASE.
 • .TXT - ASCII text file.

Note: We do NOT accept Cheshire labels, tapes, tape cartridges or DAT tapes.

Digital Formats

• Tab-delimited
• CSV (Comma Separated Values, also called "Comma-delimited")
• ASCII
• DBF III
• MS Excel (Multiple worksheets within a single file will be processed as separate lists)

Note: To see if your file is one of these types, check the file name, and look at the 3-letter extension at the end of the name. Files that say .txt, .tab, .csv, .asc, .dbf, .xls are acceptable formats. However; this does not guarantee that your list is usable. We do NOT accept tapes, tape cartridges or DAT tapes.

Mailing Labels
While we can apply your labels instead of ink jet addressing, we will not be able to apply postal barcodes to your mail, therefore no presort discounts are available. Your cost for the mailing will be the full First Class postage, plus a Mailing Services fee and a per piece charge to hand-apply the labels. Contact customer care for details and a cost estimate.

Organizing Your Database
Your database should be set up so that each record is contained in its own row. The individual elements of each record should be contained within separate fields in the same row. We do not accept lists containing addresses that are separated into multiple rows. This includes lists in mailing label format. All data for each record must be contained within the same row in a database.

Organizing Your Records
The fields below will be inkjetted in order displayed. Maximum of 50 characters per line, including spaces, punctuation, etc.

1. Name (Optional): Addressee information on the finished card may be submitted as either 1 field titled "Name", or as a combination of any of the following 5 fields, provided that the total number of characters when combined does not exceed 50:



	a. Sal	Salutation - "Mr", "Mrs", "Dr", "Lt", etc.
	b. First	First Name
	c. Middle	Middle Name
	d. Last	Last Name
	e. Deg	Degree - "Jr", "Sr", "III", "PhD", "MD", etc


(If separate fields are used, they will be combined in the above order)


2. Title (Optional): Professional title ("President", "Sales Manager", "Marketing Director", etc,)
   
3. Company (Optional): Company name
   
4. Department (Optional): Department name ("Sales", "Customer Care", etc.)
   
5. Address2 (Optional): Second line of address (Suite#, Apt#, etc.)
   
6. Address (Required): Deliverable address
   
7. City (Required): City
   
8. State (Required): State
   
9. Zip (Required): Zip code (either 5 digit or 9 digit)
   
10. Country (Required if mailing outside US): Full name of country

Note: All lists will be processed and inkjetted using fields listed above. Additional information (i.e. customer codes, promotional codes) will only be inkjetted if explicitly requested.

Address Standardization
Addresses will be automatically standardized according to USPS guidelines:

• All information will be capitalized ("Chad Smith" will become "CHAD SMITH").
• Punctuation will be removed from all fields ("MR. CHAD SMITH, JR." will become "MR CHAD SMITH JR").
• Abbreviations will be substituted where applicable ("STREET" will be changed to "ST", "AVENUE" to "AVE", etc.).  

International / Canadian Address
If possible, these records should be sent in a separate data file or have separate fields for the Province, Zip Code and Country fields. If these records are included in your domestic U.S. list, make certain that you do not have international postal or zip codes in the field designated for the US zip codes. We are unable to verify foreign addresses and all address data provided will be inkjetted as supplied.
International/Canadian mailings are priced separately. Contact us for details and a cost estimate.

Duplicate Removal
Duplicate removal (deduping) is an automated process that removes duplicates from a mailing list based on several criteria. The process is dependant upon several variables, and cannot be made 100% accurate. See below for further details.

The options for removing duplicates from your mailing list are as follows:

• Dedupe by Name and Address (default) - Unless otherwise specified, all lists submitted for processing will have duplicates removed using this process. Fields containing name and address info will be compared. Only records that contain duplicate name AND duplicate address info will be removed.
  
  Note: The deduping process looks for EXACT matches. If there is any variation between the names or addresses of two records, the duplicate will not be removed. For example:



	Will not be deduped (Last names do not match):
	Chad Scott	1675 Faraday Ave	Carlsbad CA 92008
	Chad Sctt	1675 Faraday Ave	Carlsbad CA 92008
	Will not be deduped (Address field does not match):
	Chad Scott	1675 Faraday Ave	Carlsbad CA 92008
	Chad Scott	1675 Fairaday Ave	Carlsbad CA 92008
	May be deduped (Common first names in long/short form):
	James Jones	1675 Faraday Ave	Carlsbad CA 92008
	Jim Jones	1675 Faraday Ave	Carlsbad CA 92008



• Dedupe by Address Only - Address field will be compared with all other records in the database. Only the first record will be kept.


• Do not Dedupe - List will be processed as-is, no records will be removed.