Lorton Data offers easier address lists via clickable map tool

Minnesota-based Lorton Data is aiming to make it easier for marketers to make use of the mail, with an expanded and improved address list service.

The new offering, called A-Qua Lists, is accessed instantly from the internet through Lorton’s existing cloud computing system, and offers a greater range of information on US businesses and households than the previous service.

Along with an easier-to-use interface, the new service also introduces a map-based list creation system that Lorton says will help make direct mail more accessible to smaller companies and less-experienced direct marketers.

Ray Davey, Lorton Data president, told Post&Parcel that the Polygon mapping system allows marketers to define an area on a map with a few clicks of a mouse in order to source the addresses for a mail-out, or specific information like household incomes, vehicle ownership and other demographic details.

“Historically, if you wanted to get the right audience around your location, you had to understand how the Postal Service works and how they break up the geography,” said Davey. “Polygon mapping makes direct marketing more easily available to businesses that might not have either the depth of knowledge or experience, or can’t afford a marketing department.”

Expanded files

The A-Qua Lists service will replace the company’s existing Lorton Lists service from next month, but existing users will find the new offering provides extra data files along with the standard occupant/saturation file, business file and consumer file.

A New Homeowners file brings information from the US County Recorder offices on around 1.5m consumers who have purchased new homes within the last six months, with details updated each week.

A New Movers file includes details on people who have moved address within the last six months, including renters and businesses, containing around 4.5m records.

The existing business, saturation and consumer files include information more than 20m businesses, 111m households and 176m individuals.

Payment for the A-Qua Lists service can be made for individual jobs or on a monthly subscription basis, as with Lorton’s other services.

Cloud computing

Davey said Lorton’s cloud approach to accessing its address services was proving popular with customers, and that the concept of accessing software online rather than through installations from discs “is not going away”.

“It’s a matter of which types of application are being made available where,” he said, pointing to his company’s work at the moment to integrate its address services with software systems provided by other companies, which allows external applications to make use of the mail using better quality address data.

“We’re working with several software companies to take functionality that was part of their software and moving that up to the cloud,” said the Lorton president.