What is the best way to address someone on a piece of bulk mail?

[crispini]

I am working on a mailer to my precinct and I have a ton of addresses. Sometimes there are two people of the same surname living at one address. Am I out of line to send them one piece of mail and address them as Mr. and Mrs. X? But what if they are not husband and wife; maybe they are father and daughter? That would be weird, and I have no way of knowing.

I would LIKE to address them as "The X Family" but in order to do so I would have to address EVERYONE as "The X Family," even the singles. As a person living alone I find it odd when I get mail addressed to "The X Family" because who do they mean? My cats and dogs?

Thoughts? What is the least offensive? I am trying very hard to be polite!

[skygazer]

1. "Resident"?

It's pretty impersonal but it covers all the bases. :shrug:

[crispini]

4. ah... but that's SO cold!

HEY, how about

To the Democrats at:
1234 Main St.
City, State, Zip.

Would that be weird?

[skygazer]

8. I kinda like that

Better than mine. :)

[crispini]

17. Maybe I'll go for

"Registered Voters at"

because I don't want people who don't consider themselves 100% Dems to get offended. :think:

[JackBeck]

5. Maybe even "Current Resident"?

[crispini]

7. Current Democrat?

Republicans can throw it away for all I care. :bounce:

[MissMillie]

2. "hey you"

I think "resident" works.

[Dora]

3. Is the address info in a spreadsheet or table?

If so, just merge all the names onto the same line:

Mr. John Doe and Ms. Jane Stag
1234 Changeiscoming Lane

[crispini]

6. Spreadsheet, and I don't know how to merge fields in excel.

You can do that in Excel?

[JackBeck]

11. You can use "Mail Merge" in Word.

The program will you walk you through. When asked what file to use, pull up the excel.

Add column names at the top of the excel, as well, e.g Contact 1, Contact 2, Address 1...and so forth. It makes it easier when you "Match Fields" in Mail Merge.

[Dora]

14. Oh, yeah.

Create your letter/label document in MS Word. Then run a typical mail merge process using your Excel file as your data source.

Just be sure that each column in Excel has a row heading, otherwise it won't work. By row heading, I mean that your first row cells should NOT contain mergeable data, but contain a descriptor of what the data in that column is, e.g., FName, LName, Address 1, Address 2...

You may know this already, but it's best to keep City, State, and Zips all in their own cells. Do not put them all together in one cell.

[crispini]

15. But see, I've got one record for each person.

So how do I tell the difference between records 1 and 2 that have Tim Smith and Janna Smith at the same address, and record 3 that only has Jane Doe at one address?

See what I mean? I'll have to seperate out my data and two different merges, one for singles and one for doubles. I guess I could do that.

Still doesn't solve my problem of whether or not Tim and Janna are Mr. and Mrs. or son and daughter, although I guess I could do "family" for file #2. Hmmmm

[Dora]

16. One way to work around it...

Merge your labels so that each individual has his/her own label:

Don Smith
1234 Whatever Ln
Blahbla, BS 11111

Diane Smith
1234 Whatever Ln
Blahbla, BS 11111


After you print your labels and are affixing them to the mailers, overlap your labels on the mailer so that it looks like this:

Don Smith
Diane Smith
1234 Whatever Ln
Blahbla, BS 11111

[crispini]

18. Yeah, I'm actually using an online mailing service

which will do the merge and will send it for me at bulk rates. Because I don't have a bulk permit and it's way cheaper to have them send it for me. And because I am hella lazy and hate doing up my own mail. So I have to get the data source right when it goes to the printer.

Maybe I will just go for the generic "To the Democrats at:" or "To the voters at:"

[Dora]

21. If you really want to use names, and have a little bit of time...

Drag and drop may be your answer. First of all, save a backup copy of your spreadsheet as it is. Also, I'm assuming that your spreadsheet has two columns for the individual's name: Fname, Lname.

Keep those columns, and rename them: FName 1, LName 1.

Insert two more columns to the right of your FN1, LN1 columns. Name these new columns: FName 2, LName 2.

Now, sort your spreadsheet data according to the mailing address. This will pair all duplicate addresses together.

Drag-and-drop your second adressees into the cells you created when you inserted the new columns.

Is this clear? I love doing this kind of noodling, so if you need more help, I'd be happy to walk you through it over the phone. PM me if you do.

[crispini]

23. Thanks for the help.

I think I'm going generic. This little project has eaten too much of my time already. :D

[Magrittes Pipe]

9. Dear sad, sad people:

I see that you are so lonely you have resorted to reading bulk mail instead of tossing it. I am so sorry your life lacks meaning. Please accept my condolences and continue reading this, as I'm sure it will prove more interesting than "The Price is Right."


;)

[crispini]

10. But it's beautiful bulk mail!

It's MY bulk mail! :cry::cry::cry:

;)

[Magrittes Pipe]

12. Oh, I'm sure it's beautiful.

But to admire something's beauty is a whole different thing than to actually read it. :D

[Shine]

13. Why don't you simply address it to "Resident"?

:shrug: I've gotten lots and lots of bulk mail like that. It's pretty simple, but it gets the job done.

:hi:

[skygazer]

19. Great minds think alike

See post #1.

How've you been, Shine? Happy belated birthday, by the way - I missed your b'day thread. Can you believe this rain? It's windy and blustery as anything at my house today. I'm glad I didn't have to work. :hi: :loveya:

[Shine]

22. Oh, that's funny. Great minds, indeed.

:hug:

I'm doing Ok, but I am totally annoyed with all this rain. I can't even remember the last time it rained on my bd. I was reading in the paper today that out of the past 22 WEEKS, we've had some sort of measurable rain for 21 of them. !!?! I'm sooo ready for some consistent SUN, for a change.

I had a great bd, thanks for asking. Got lots of good lovin', from all my friends and family. It's great to be a part of this wonderful DU community.

:loveya:
Enjoy your day off. I bet you're wearing sweats, a sweatshirt and your cozy slippers, right? Me too! Yup, great minds..... :pals:

[skygazer]

24. Wow, you must have psychic powers!

That's exactly what I'm wearing! :rofl:

[Shine]

25. I'm tellin' ya...

doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo.....(insert theme from "The Twilight Zone" here)

:rofl:

[LaurenG]

Do you know their first names?

If so John and Mary Smith wold be my suggestion.

[SOteric]

20. To the "Voters at" (insert address here)

Dear Voter(s):