Step by Step instructions for ordering an Occupant Lists

Geography

Use the Geography section to narrow your list to a specific locality, either by ZIP Code, county, city or within a certain radius of an address.

To select records by ZIP Code:

1.      Select the “By ZIP Code” option.

2.      In the text box, enter one or more ZIP codes, separated by commas or periods, or using the “*” character as a wildcard is allowed. For example entering “926*” will select all ZIP Codes beginning with the digits 9-2-6.

3.      Next, select your desired address type options in the “Options” section below.

To select records by Radius:

1.      Select the “By Radius” option.

2.      Select Miles or Number of Records . Miles will include all records within the selected radius. Number of Records will include the records closest to the address entered up to the number entered. However, in order to preserve saturation mailing rates, if more then half of the total records in a  carrier route falls within the radius, then the entire carrier route is included with your count. If less than half of the records in a carrier route fall within the radius than the entire carrier route will excluded from your job.

3.      Enter the address at the center of the desired radius. This must be a valid USPS street address including either City and State or a ZIP Code.

4.      Next, select your desired address type options in the “Options” section below.

To select records by county.

1.      Select the “By County” option.

2.      Select the state the county is in.

3.      The page then displays a selection box containing all counties within the selected state. Select a county.

4.      Next, select your desired address type options in the “Options” section below.

To select records by city.

1.      Select the “By City” option.

2.      Select the state the city is in.

3.      The page displays a selection box containing all cities within the selected state or territory. Select a city.

4.      Next, select your desired address type options in the “Options” section below.

Options

The options section lets you exclude certain types of addresses within the geography you have selected. You can choose to exclude City Delivery addresses, PO Boxes or Rural Routes. Within those address types, you can opt to exclude residential or business addresses. The City Delivery and Rural Routes also have the option to exclude apartment addresses.

“Note that excluding apartment addresses will result in incomplete carrier routes and may disqualify your list for saturation rates, but you may still qualify for the high density rate.”

Uncheck any address types you do not want to include. Unchecking City Delivery, PO Boxes or Rural Routes excludes all the address types under those major groups.

Include Names Where Available option

An Occupant list is addressed to “Resident”, “Business Owner” or “Box Holder” and not a specific person. However, you can choose Include Names Where Available to append names to you list for a more personal touch.

Note it is highly recommended that if you choose to have names appended. You put the name and “or current resident” in the address block on the mail piece, for example:

John Dow

Or Current Resident

123 Main St

Home Town US 12345-1234

Add Selection

Click the Add Selection button to add the selected list to your job. You may then repeat the process to add more geographies to the list. However, once you have selected one type geography, all of your other selection must be of the same type. In other words, once you have selected a count by ZIP Code, you cannot in the same order get a count by Radius, County or City. However for example, if you get a count “by ZIP Code” and decide you would rather get a count “by City” just click the “start over” link at the upper right hand side of the page. This will wipe out any geography you have previously selected and allow you to select by a different type of geography.  

Modifying your Selection

Every time you click the Add Selection button, your current selection will be added to a list at the bottom of the page.

The first column or columns will show the criteria used for that selection. The next column after that will include a link called “Options.” Clicking this will take you to another page that will allow you to change the address type options selected for that geography.

The next column will either show “Carrier Route(s)” (for By ZIP and By Radius lists) or “ZIP Code” (for By County or By City lists). Clicking these links will take you to another page that will let you uncheck either ZIP Codes or Carrier Routes and exclude them from your job.

The next two columns will show the number of records currently included your job and the number of records with names attached to them.

The final column includes a link that will allow you to remove the entire selection from your job.

Once you are finished selecting your geography and setting your options, click Next Step to continue. This will take you to the Order Summary page.

Order Summary

The top of the next page includes a table showing the selections included on the current job, as well as the total number of records and the current price.

Select Data Usage

Select number of times you intend to mail this list, from once to five times. Note that the CASS Certification of this list is good for only 90 days from the time of purchase, so all mailings you intend to do on this list must be done with in that time frame. Using it past that date is a violation of USPS rules and the list will not be eligible for postal discounts. If you wish to mail to the same area after that 90 day period you need to order a new list.

Please Select File Format

Select the file type that you want to use for your list. The options are dBase (.dbf files), Excel (.xls files), Comma-delimited text (.csv) and fixed-length text (.txt files).

Note that Excel files are limited to 65,536 records due to the limitations of the application.

Checking “Zip this file?” will packing your list inside a zip file archive. This will shrink the file size and reduce download time. The zip program used by Melissa Data is a Microsoft Windows-based so checking this option is not recommended for Mac users.

Also, if you are behind a firewall, downloading certain file types may be blocked by your system administrator. Check with that person if you are unsure.

Click Next Step to continue.

If you are not already signed in or if you have not yet registered with Melissa Data, you will be taken to a screen where you can do so. If you have already registered in the past just enter your email address and password, and click on the “sign in” button. If you have not yet registered with MelissaData.com, you will need to do so. This is not an obligation to buy, it is just to create an account that we can save your job to. This will give you the option to save the job you just built and come back at a later time if you are not ready make a buying decision. All you have to do is click on the link “ Create an account now ” in the box titled “Don’t have a Melissa account”. Once the registration form comes up please fill in all the required fields (Be sure to use a valid e-mail address or you may not be able access your purchased lists) and click the “submit” button. This will take you to the Save Job page.

Job Name

Enter a job name for your current order. A job name allows you to save your current setting and re-use them for another order in the future. This is especially handy if you purchase the same list every 90 days.

You can access saved jobs by clicking the Job List link at the top of the page.

Click the “Save Job” button if you do not intend to complete your order now but may want to come back in the future and order this list, otherwise click Check Out.

Shopping Cart

This page shows a list of all items being ordered. Click Remove to delete an unwanted item.

Click Check Out to continue.

Review and Submit Your Order

If you have no credit card information in your account, you will be taken to the credit card entry page. You must enter the billing address for the credit card being use. You should also have the physical card handy because you will need the CVV2 code. This is a three-digit number found on the back of most credit cards or a four-digit number found on the front of American Express cards.

You can feel safe giving us your credit card information. Our servers are tightly secure and our customer database is encrypted.

If you have already added a credit card number to your account, you can use a different card by clicking the Change button.

Click Submit Order to complete your order.

Order Confirmation

You will be presented with a summary of your order. Click the “print” link to print a copy for your records.

You should receive an e-mail from Melissa containing links to download the list and CASS form. If you do not receive the email with in 30 minutes of placing your order please call one of our List Support Specialist at 800-800-6245 option 7.

If you don’t want to wait for the e-mail to arrive, this page also includes a “download” link for each job on the current order. You can click this link to open the download page in a new browser window.

Download Page

Click the Get File button to begin downloading the list. This page also contains a link to an image of the CASS form for this list. Click this link to display the image in your browser and print it.

You will also receive an e-mail from Melissa containing the same download links.

If you have any questions or require technical assistance, please call 1-800-MELISSA.

List Support Specialist

Voice 800-800-6245 option 7

Fax 949-589-5211