It’s happened to us all, at one point or another, and it’s why we all LOVE backups! But, I’m betting you don’t have a back up. Well, you’re not completely in “Winnie”, but you’re close enough!

Think of it this way, you’re data is made up of a number of “elements”. Those being Name, Address and Phone numbers. So, take those elements apart, and start doing a “Humpty Dumpty”. It’s a little complex, and you’ll never be back to 100% of what you had, but I’m sure you’ll get back the majority. Start off by ensuring that your addresses are correct. There are a number of address validation tools out there, and they can pretty much fix most minor errors in an address.

Once this is done, then it’s a case of matching the name to an address, and then to a phone number. The easiest way to achieve this, is to rely upon someone whose data set is greater then yours. By marring up your addresses with their data, you can usually pick up a surname from them. With this, you can then match your name information, to obtain your full first name, as most other sources may only contain an initial. Once you have a name and an address, you’ve got a mailing record. From here you’ve got a few more options…