Email Change of Address Services (ECOA) | How-to Guides for running your business from Business.com

Whether you’re changing your own email address or trying to keep up to date with customers’ new email addresses, take advantage of email change of address services and ECOA software. When people move physical locations, they send out change of address cards. But if you regularly send customers email — either as a marketing tool or business communication, you know that 30 percent of people change their email address per year and don’t send an email change of address to let you know their new email address. That results in bounce-back emails that don’t reach the intended audience. There are several email change of address services you can use to update your records. The benefits of using email change of address services include:

Maintaining the accuracy of your customer database. By using ECOA software or outsourcing email change of address services, you decrease undeliverable email and increase your customer retention.
Informing colleagues or clients about your email change of address. There are numerous free sites that allow you to post your old and new email addresses to help people keep in touch.
Saving time. By using ECOA software or outsourcing to email change of address providers, you save time hunting down customers’ new email addresses.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Register you email change of address so customers and colleagues can find you

If you don't depend on email as a marketing tool and only use it for business communication, you have probably changed email providers at least once in your career. Whether you changed jobs, or went from a job to starting your own business, you need to provide an email change of address to your important contacts. And it works the other way, too. You email an old work colleague or client to share news about your business and the email bounces back to you. The solution is to register online for email change of address services. It works when someone enters your old email address, and the email change of address service provides your new email address to them.

I recommend: EmailChange.com, MyFreeEmailSearch.com and ContactClean let you register your new email change of address for free and allow you to search for other people by their old email address.

Hire email change of address providers to find accurate email addresses for your customers

Many businesses collect customer email addresses to communicate news, sales, new products and services, special offers and business communications to the customers. If you've ever used email addresses to reach a large amount of people, you know that you're never 100 percent successful. Many emails bounce back to you because the customer has changed their email address. The solution is to hire email change of address providers who can update your emailing list for your communication or marketing efforts.

I recommend: FreshAddress’s patented email change of address technology keeps your email lists up-to-date by identifying bad emails and updating them with good ones. Return Path's email change of address service uses consumer-reported, permission-based email change information to update your file. Experian's email change of address service confirms email addresses by sending verification emails to consumers' old and new addresses to confirm accuracy of email addresses. TowerData’s ECOA service offers a free no-obligation test to see if they can provide new email addresses of your customers.

Purchase ECOA software to manage customer email lists

As with everything in the small business bag of tricks, there is a DIY approach to email change of address. ECOA software helps you take over the task of maintaining and updating customer email address lists.

I recommend: AtomPark Software’s Atomic Mail Verifier ECOA software uses three techniques to clean up your list including e-mail address syntax checks, mail domain existence and response checks, and complete SMTP mailbox checks. Dynamic Email Validator ECOA software from Apex Pacific connects directly to the SMTP server to check them without sending customers an email to verify their new address.

Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

Email change of address providers regularly check the address that you have on file for each customer and either delete dead email addresses or update to the new email addresses.
Many email change of address providers send emails to customers to verify that it's a working address. If you don't want your customers to know that you are using one of these services, choose a provider that doesn't send a verification email, but instead connects to the user's SMTP server to verify their address.
Encourage new employees, especially sales people with previous contacts, to register their new company address on a free email change of address service. This allows old customers who want to keep in touch with them to find them in their new position.
Ask new employees if they have sent out an email change of address email to their colleagues. A direct email identifying their new contact information usually motivates people to update it in their address book.
Add an email change of address button or page to your website to enable regular users or customers to send you their new email address.

The official source of Email Change of Address Services (ECOA) is
the Email Change of Address Services page at Business.com

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