USPS address lookup allows you to find addresses, correct addresses, and verify addresses all based on the United States Postal Service (USPS) formatting guidelines. Formatting addresses according to USPS guidelines not only ensures that mail and packages get delivered to the right places, but also that delivery is as quick as possible.
USPS Address Format
The U.S. Postal Service uses a standard format for all U.S. addresses. While you might think you know how to format an address effectively, we’re pretty sure some of these guidelines will be news to you!
Residential addresses, for example, are formatted as follows:
[Recipient]
[House or building number] [Street name]
[Secondary address information]
[City] [State]
[ZIP code]
For businesses, be sure to include the company name as in this example:
JANE L MILLER
MILLER ASSOCIATES
1960 W CHELSEA AVE STE 2006R
ALLENTOWN PA 18104
Addresses should be in all caps to avoid any confusion. Identify the apartment or suite number if applicable. Use valid USPS acronyms and abbreviations without the use of periods. Additionally, do not use a comma with the city and state or otherwise. Instead, space once between city and state and twice between state and zip code. Finally, to ensure the highest accuracy and speed of delivery, use a nine-digit zip code.
Most people don’t know the four-digit code associated with their zip codes. So it’s unlikely that you will get clients, leads, and customers to provide them. However, a USPS address lookup tool can append (add) them for you. More benefits of a USPS address lookup tool below.
5 Tips for Formatting Addresses
In addition to the basic USPS standard format for valid U.S. addresses, there are some additional factors you should consider before sending your mailpieces.
- Put the suite/apartment number on the line above the delivery address if it doesn’t fit on the same line rather than on the line below it.
- Directionals like “east” and “west” are very important; a missing or bad directional can prevent mail from being delivered correctly.
- Use a USPS address lookup tool to find the zip+4.
- If you need to deliver a mailer to a certain address and not a particular person, you can address it to a generic title like “Postal Customer,” “Occupant,” or “Resident” instead of a name.
- Almost 25% of mailpieces are addressed incorrectly—they can still get delivered, but it costs the post office more money and resources to do so.
Essentially, you want your mail addressed as accurately as possible to ensure the smoothest and quickest delivery.
Who Sorts Your Mail?
Mail is sorted by automated mail processing machines. The machines orient the mail, cancel the stamp, apply the postmark, and spray a 17- or 19-digit number that codes the mail and indicates where it goes down to the block or even house.
In the cases where there is no postage recognized or the address can’t be read by the machine (maybe it’s missing essential information or the handwriting is illegible), it goes to a reject pile for an actual person to review. Sometimes the machine captures an image of the unidentifiable mail and sends it to a remote encoding center. When done correctly, mail is never even seen or handled by a human employee during processing.
While automated processing machines greatly speed up the mail sorting process, the less rejected mail there is for postal workers to sort, the quicker mail gets routed and delivered and the less room there is for human error. So it’s important to address your mail as accurately as possible so that it gets routed properly the first time.
How to Use USPS Address Lookup
With all of these guidelines and specifics, you can see how much room there is for error. Someone can provide you with an address that is missing information, is misspelled, or is illegible. Rather than spend your time and resources manually verifying addresses, correcting mistakes, and resending returned mail, you can use a USPS address lookup tool to check the validity of an address.
Enter as much or as little of the address information as you have. By entering a full address, you can determine whether or not mail is deliverable to that address.
If you just enter a street name with the city and state or zip code, you can get a list of all of the house numbers on that street to generate a list of valid addresses. Alternatively, you can enter a house number and zip code to get a list of all addresses with that house number in that zip code.
You can also generate a list of street names in a given zip code by looking up a specific zip code. Finally, enter a street name and state to get a list of all cities and zip codes with that street name.
Results
The results you get from a USPS address lookup are complete, deliverable USPS addresses. You won’t get results with missing information, misspellings, or incorrect or outdated information. This is because the tool accesses USPS records to verify and provide you with the information. So a USPS address lookup tool gets you the same information the USPS currently has and uses. This ensures a speedy and accurate delivery process.
The USPS address lookup provides residential address information as well as business. Whether you are looking to verify a high-rise, street, rural, or P.O. Box address, you can use a USPS address lookup to ensure the addresses are deliverable.
Results of your lookup also include the address status. So for each address you search, you can tell whether the address is valid, vacant, non-deliverable, missing information like an apartment number, etc.
With all of this information available to you in one place, you never have to wonder or worry about addresses that come across your desk.
Benefits of USPS Address Lookup
Verifying address information before you send your mail saves you time and money in the long run. You can correct any mistakes early and ensure you retain only valid, deliverable addresses and save money resending returned mail. Using a USPS address lookup saves you time and resources immediately. Rather than manually research addresses and make necessary amendments, just enter the information you have and get a status immediately. Or, quickly find a specific address you need.
If you frequently send mail to customers, clients, and leads, having accurate addresses ensure that your mailers reach the intended recipients. Failure to do so could result in important communication being lost, marketing campaigns tanking, or orders getting lost and costing you money in chargebacks. Accuracy is also important to your personal and professional reputation.
Getting addresses right the first time also saves the USPS time and resources. The less time postal workers have to spend manually reviewing mail, the more time and money the USPS can spend on other duties that facilitate and speed the delivery process.
Finally, in addition to verifying existing address information, you can use a USPS address lookup to generate new address information. Especially for marketing purposes, you can use a USPS address lookup to generate a list of valid addresses for a particular street or zip code.
Once you have the address information you need, you can cross reference that with a batch data append tool. This resource locates additional information associated with a particular address. This might include the name of the resident(s) and any phone numbers registered to the address.
With the right tools, you have access to all of the information you need and a quick and easy way to prevent costly errors.
Conclusion
So how much does it cost for all of this useful information? Just $0.05 (5 $T) per list or verification. Because the charge is so minimal, you do need to purchase search tokens ($T) to pay for your lookups. However, they are very easy to use and are accompanied by a host of additional benefits to you. Click here to find out more.
To get started finding and verifying addresses, check out our USPS address lookup tool today! Have an address list and want to append names and numbers? Upload the whole list to get the information you need and complete your records with batch data append. It’s never been quicker or easier to get the information you need!
