Our Consumer Choice Tools have a solid reputation in the marketplace with consumers, regulators, and companies. Since the early 1970s, we’ve worked with millions of consumers and thousands of companies to honor marketing preferences by:

• Reducing promotional mail addressed to unresponsive consumers
• Removing sensitive mailings to families of deceased individuals
• Protecting our most vulnerable population of the elderly and individuals with health-related challenges

What specific data hygiene tools does the ANA provide?

The ANA offers effective and affordable data hygiene management tools. These assist marketers and fundraisers in building consumer trust by honoring consumers’ marketing preferences and accelerating their sustainability journey. By subscribing to these data hygiene tools, organizations will be:

• Respecting consumer marketing preferences
• Helping the environment by reducing unwanted mail
• Improving their bottom line by saving money by no longer targeting individuals who do not wish to receive their mail

The ANA offers the following management/hygiene tools through Interactive Marketing Solutions (IMS):

• DMAchoice: Prospect mail opt-out list
• Comprised of consumers who have opted in to this mail suppression service to reduce the overall volume of marketing or donor mail from businesses and organizations with which they do not have an existing business relationship.
• Do Not Contact List for Caretakers
• Caretakers who have registered individuals in their care (elderly and those with health-related challenges).
• Deceased Do Not Contact List
• Contains permanent opt-outs submitted by friends and family of the deceased.
• Telephone Do Not Call Lists for Pennsylvania and Wyoming
• While there is a National Do Not Call List, comprised of consumers who have registered their telephone numbers to stop receiving marketing calls from across the United States, Pennsylvania and Wyoming have also retained their own state Do Not Call lists.
• The ANA is the provider of the Pennsylvania and Wyoming Do Not Call Lists.
• Email Opt-Out List
• Comprised of consumers who have asked to be removed from unsolicited email promotional offers to their personal email accounts.

Will DMAchoice prevent companies or organizations from sending mail directly to their customers or donors?

No. DMAchoice has no effect on customer mailings. Organizations that subscribe to DMAchoice use it to scrub their prospect or acquisition marketing campaign lists.

Prospect: Consumers who have not purchased from, subscribed to, inquired about, or donated to the company or organization. There’s been no contact or transaction between the consumer and the company. DMAchoice is used for prospect mailings.

Customer/Donor: Consumers who have purchased from or subscribed to a company or donated to an organization in the past. DMAchoice does not apply to customer or donor mailings.

How do you show consumers that you subscribe to DMAchoice?

Once you've subscribed, you'll receive a confirmation email that includes the DMAchoice subscriber logo. You may proudly display this logo to show you are a responsible and ethical marketer in our community and that you participate in this important consumer choice program.

What types of mail, specifically, are covered by DMAchoice?

Covered mail: Companies subscribing to DMAchoice need to suppress those registered names before sending:

• Prospect promotional mail addressed to consumers with whom they don’t have a business relationship:
• For example: catalogs, magazine offers, donation requests, and retail promotions

Not covered mail: Companies subscribing to DMAchoice may still mail to registered customers:

• Transactional mail: Invoices, bills, statements, and notices
• Customer or donor mail for those companies or nonprofits which consumers have purchased from, subscribed to, or donated to in the past
• Many companies need to match the exact name and address to honor individual opt-out requests. Mailings that are addressed to “current resident” are not captured by DMAchoice. See question 6 for more information.
• Political mailings are exempt.

Can companies or organizations use DMAchoice as their internal suppression file?

No. Each company or organization should have their own internal suppression system to process consumer name/address removal requests. Consumers may be referred to DMAchoice if they’d like to see an overall reduction in prospect promotional mail. DMAchoice should not be used instead of having an internal Do Not Contact or Do Not Share list. A consumer should be able to contact an organization directly for assistance in being removed from company-specific promotional offers. Organizations should provide an easy way for consumers to contact them with their marketing preferences.

Does DMAchoice stop unaddressed mail for a Current Resident or Occupant?

No. Resident mailings, also called Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) or saturation mailings, are provided by the United States Postal Service (USPS) and local companies the USPS partners with to deliver mail to local zip codes. EDDM is used for particular zip codes, not individual names and addresses. Therefore, DMAchoice opt-outs which use both name and address for suppression will not work to stop EDDM mailings. Consumers can contact their local Post Office with their opt-out request, but since this is for “every door” locally, the local Post Office cannot process that request easily since the local carrier would have to extract the mail piece from the prepared stack of mailings going to the zip code.

Does DMAchoice stop prescreened credit and insurance offers?

It can. Additionally, consumers who want to be removed specifically from prescreened offers of credit and insurance can opt out of receiving them for: 1) five years, or 2) permanently. This opt-out service is managed by the main credit bureaus, not the ANA. If you obtain a list of prospects from a credit bureau — like Equifax, Experian, Transunion, or Innovis — then anyone who has opted out through this service will be suppressed from this list. Consumers should still be able to contact your organization directly for company-specific suppression as well.

How can companies or organizations remove deceased individuals from their mailing lists?

Companies and organizations can subscribe to the ANA’s Deceased Do Not Contact List (DDNC). The information on this list has been provided by families of deceased individuals to stop this mail. The DDNC list is permanent and updated and sent to subscribing companies each month. All companies and nonprofits are encouraged to subscribe to this file — these are the most sensitive name removal requests. Organizations will be sensitive and responsive to grieving families by not mailing to the deceased and saving money in the process.

How can companies or organizations remove the elderly and those individuals with health-related challenges from their list?

Caretakers who have the elderly or individuals with health-related challenges in their care can subscribe to the Caretaker Do Not Contact List. The information on this list is updated and flagged on DMAchoice and sent to subscribing companies each month.

Is there a difference in subscribing fees for ANA members vs. nonmembers?

Yes! ANA members receive a huge savings and special pricing through our vendor Interactive Marketing Solutions (IMS). Companies can learn more about ANA membership to see if it’s the right fit for them.
Annual Subscription
Mailers: Flat fee of $2,750 for ANA members, $5,500 for non-ANA members.
Service Providers:  A tiered pricing structure with a floor of $2,750 and a ceiling of $27,500 for ANA members, based upon the volume of names the service organization processes against the DMAchoice file.
Annual Subscription Pricing Model for Service Providers

Click here for more information and to subscribe to DMAchoice.

Is DMAchoice a tool to assist consumers with state privacy laws, like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)?

As a nonprofit organization, we provide DMAchoice to help consumers express their marketing preferences to participating businesses and organizations. It is not a tool to effectuate rights under any specific law, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Does the ANA provide a Do Not Call list?

Yes. While companies should subscribe to the Federal Trade Commission’s National Do Not Call List to honor consumer do not call requests nationally, companies and organizations can also subscribe to the Pennsylvania and Wyoming state Do Not Call Lists, since these states have retained their own Do Not Call lists. The ANA is the official provider of these two state lists.

Does the ANA provide a Do Not Email list?

Yes. We have an Email Opt-Out List which is comprised of consumers who have asked to be removed from unsolicited email promotional offers sent to their personal email accounts.

Does the ANA offer any mediation services or guidance on marketing and ethics best practices?

Yes. The ANA is interested in hearing from businesses and consumers. If you have a question about a marketing practice or believe a direct marketing promotion or practice is questionable and may warrant a formal review by the ANA Ethics Committee, please reach out to ethics@ana.net. The ANA receives and investigates complaints against member and nonmember organizations. We can also confidentially review a marketing practice and offer input and educational — not legal — advice.

• File a General Marketing Ethics Complaint: Concerns about terms and conditions of the offer, deceptive copy, sweepstakes promotional issues, etc.
• File an Interest-Based Online Advertising Complaint: Applies to online ads served based on browsing history (does not apply to being served general online ads)
• File an Online Political Ad Transparency Complaint: Applies to political ads served which did not include proper disclosures and source information

Can you tell me more about the ANA’s marketing compliance tools and services?

In addition to these data hygiene tools, the ANA advocates for marketers and fundraisers to employ best marketing practices. Please contact the ANA Ethics Team or visit us at the ANA Center for Ethical Marketing for knowledge-sharing and educational opportunities through committees, compliance tools, ethics issue alerts, guidelines, and tips.