UK Postage Rates

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UK Postage Rates: All You Need To Know About Royal Mail’s New 2022 Postage Prices

Did you know that Royal Mail is updating its postage prices in April 2022?

Is your business prepared to handle the postage price change that is inevitably coming?

A lot of time and planning goes into executing direct mail campaigns for a business. One of the reasons most companies still use direct mail campaigns is their high ROI or Return On Investment. How big of an effect can the 2022 postage rates have on your direct mail ROI?

To answer this question, you first need to know how much does postage costs in the UK. Hence, here we have created a comprehensive list of the different postal services offered by Royal Mail and their latest postage rates.

This article will help you analyse the 2022 postage charges and prepare your new direct mail campaigns based on the latest data.

So, let us dig in!

Size and Weight Guide For UK Postage Rates

The postage rate for mailers everywhere globally is usually dependent on their size and weight unless it explicitly states otherwise. Hence, if you are trying to understand the UK postage rates, then the best place to start is the size and weight of postal packages.

Depending on the size and weight of the postal mailer, you can broadly classify it into six types, and they are:

• Letters
• Large Letters
• Small Parcels
• Medium Parcels
• Parcelforce Parcels
• Parcelforce Large Parcels

Type Of Mailer	Length	Width	Thickness	Weight Limit
Letters	24cm	16.5cm	0.5cm	100g
Large Letters	35.3cm	25cm	2.5cm	750g
Small Parcels	45cm	35cm	16cm	2kg
Medium Parcels	61cm	46cm	46cm	20kg
Parcelforce Parcels	1.5m	3m length and girth combines		30kg
Parcelforce Large Parcels	2.5m	4m length and girth combined		30kg*

Rolled and Cylinder-Shaped Parcels

You might have also come across rolled or cylinder-shaped parcels. If you did, you are probably wondering how their dimensions are measured. In such cases, the length of the package plus two times the diameter should not be over 104cm. Furthermore, Royal Mail also states that the most significant dimension of a rolled or cylinder-shaped parcel should not exceed 90cm.

Types Of Postal Mail Services And Their UK Postage Rates

We know the different sizes and weights for postal mailers you can send via a service provider like Royal Mail. What is another important aspect that might affect the postage prices in the UK? Apart from the size and weight of the package, the other thing that can affect the postage rate is the speed of delivery.

Royal Mail offers several postal mail services to its customers. Although not all postal mail services are based on the speed of delivery, the majority of the postage prices are dependent on the delivery speed. Some postal mail services have a higher postage rate because they include special services such as proof of delivery.

The types of postal services offered by the Royal Mail can broadly be classified into four distinct categories, and they are:

• UK Guaranteed 
• UK Signed 
• UK Standard
• Parcelforce Worldwide

UK Guaranteed Postal Services

The UK Guaranteed is one of the premium postal services offered by the Royal Mail. As the name implies, the postal service guarantees the delivery of your mailer within a specified time. Even within the UK Guaranteed services, you may see different postage rates UK. 

There are different types of UK Guaranteed services provided by the Royal Mail. The primary UK Guaranteed services you can use for your business communication are listed below.

• Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm
• Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am
• Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am with Saturday Guarantee
• Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm with Saturday Guarantee

Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am or 1 pm 

Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am or 1 pm is one of the most widely used postal mail services from Royal Mail. The primary reason why businesses prefer to use the Guaranteed 9 am or 1 pm service is that it enables them to ensure their mailer is delivered at the right time. Royal Mail provides a guaranteed 9 am or 1 pm delivery of your postal mailers. 

Trace And Track Facility

Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am, or 1 pm comes equipped with a track and trace facility. It allows the sender to track the mailer’s journey from the moment it leaves your hands to the point of delivery.

Signature On Delivery

Both Guaranteed 9 am, and 1 pm services require the recipient’s signature on delivery. Hence, you will always get proof of delivery when you use UK Guaranteed postal service. Furthermore, you can view the signature online just 10 minutes after the delivery.

Cover For Valuable Items And Late Delivery

Another significant advantage of the UK Guaranteed service is that they offer coverage for your valuable items and late deliveries.  

Compensation And Additional Coverage

The Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm is entitled to a compensation of up to £500. However, the compensation for Guaranteed by 9 am delivery is only £50. Furthermore, you can also access optional coverages for your mailers. 

Royal Mail allows you to access additional cover up to £2,500 and optional consequential loss cover-up to £10,000! Hence it is no wonder that the UK Guaranteed service is preferred for sending items of significant value.

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm

Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
100g	£6.85
500g	£7.65
1kg	£8.95
2kg	£11.15
10kg	£15.45
20kg	£19.45

Note: The above postage charges are applicable only if you want a standard cover of up to £500. If you wish to have additional coverage for your packages, you will need to pay higher postage, as shown in the table below

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm With Additional Cover
Weight Up To And Including	Postage With £1,000 Cover	Postage With £2,500 Cover
100g	£7.85	£9.85
500g	£8.65	£10.65
1kg	£9.95	£11.95
2kg	£12.15	£14.15
10kg	£16.45	£18.45
20kg	£20.45	£22.45

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am 

Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
100g	£22.95
500g	£25.95
1kg	£27.95
2kg	£33.95

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am With Additional Cover
Weight Up To And Including	Postage With £1,000 Cover	Postage With £2,500 Cover
100g	£25.15	£28.65
500g	£28.15	£31.65
1kg	£30.15	£33.65
2kg	£36.15	£39.65

Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am or 1 pm with Saturday Guarantee.

Guarantee Saturday delivery is an additional option for the UK Guaranteed postal services. However, the Saturday Guarantee comes at an additional cost. If you opt for Saturday Guarantee, the whole structure of the  UK postage rates change.

Hence it is best to mention the postage rates of guaranteed 9 am and 1 pm with Saturday guarantee separately.

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm with Saturday Guarantee

Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
100g	£11.22
500g	£12.18
1kg	£13.74
2kg	£16.38
10kg	£21.54
20kg	£26.34

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1 pm With Additional Cover
Weight Up To And Including	Postage With £1,000 Cover	Postage With £2,500 Cover
100g	£12.42	£14.82
500g	£13.38	£15.78
1kg	£14.94	£17.34
2kg	£17.58	£19.98
10kg	£22.74	£25.14
20kg	£27.54	£29.94

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am with Saturday Guarantee

Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
100g	£25.95
500g	£28.95
1kg	£30.95
2kg	£36.95

 

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 9 am With Saturday Guarantee & Additional Cover
Weight Up To And Including	Postage With £1,000 Cover	Postage With £2,500 Cover
100g	£28.15	£31.65
500g	£31.15	£34.65
1kg	£33.15	£36.65
2kg	£39.15	£42.65

UK Signed Postal Services

UK Signed services are another popular postal service offered by the Royal Mail. As you can guess from the name, it requires a signed proof of delivery from the recipients. You can get UK Signed postal service for your first and second class mail.

Most businesses use either first class or second class mail for their direct mail communication. Hence, the UK Signed services are an excellent way for companies to deliver direct mail to the target audience.

It can be beneficial for industries such as financial services. Financial service providers can use specialised tools like PostGrid to send adverse action notices and require the recipient to sign your letters.

You can learn more about how PostGrid’s direct mail system can help loan companies market their business on our blog “Marketing Ideas for Loan Companies UK”

Online Delivery Confirmation

A definite advantage of UK Signed services is the order delivery confirmation feature. It enables the sender to get a confirmation on the delivery, which can be crucial for many industry verticals and business organisations.

Compensation 

Royal Mail also provides compensation of £50 to its customers using the UK Signed services similar to the ones we saw in UK Guaranteed services. Such compensation can be ideal for businesses that regularly send direct mail communications. 

Eligible For eBay Seller Protection programme

Apart from its other features, the UK Signed services are also eligible for the eBay Seller Protection programme. Hence, it is also a perfect choice for E-Commerce companies for delivering their products and services. 

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Signed For 1st Class Mail

Type Of Mailer	Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
Letters	100g	£2.35
Large Letters	100g	£2.85
	250g	£3.45
	500g	£4.05
	750g	£4.70
Small Parcels	2kg	£5.55
Medium Parcels	2kg	£8.05
	10kg	£9.05
	20kg	£14.05

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail Signed For 2nd Class Mail

Type Of Mailer	Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
Letters	100g	£2.08
Large Letters	100g	£2.45
	250g	£3.05
	500g	£3.55
	750g	£4.10
Small Parcels	2kg	£4.45
Medium Parcels	2kg	£6.45
	10kg	£8.05
	20kg	£11.55

UK Standard Postal Services

The UK Standard postal service is the number one choice for businesses regarding direct mail marketing. UK Standard postal service includes the regular 1st Class and 2nd Class postal delivery services.

One of the main reasons businesses prefer to use the UK Standard postal service is the low postage costs. Hence, they are ideal for sending bulk marketing mail to the target audience. However, such extensive bulk mailing often requires an advanced automation solution like PostGrid to ensure your campaign’s optimal performance.

Want to know more about how an automated direct mail solution can help your business? Read our blog “Automated Direct Mail”

1st Class Mail

The advantage of using the 1st Class mail service is relatively fast. Royal Mail usually tries to deliver the 1st Class mail on the next working day, even if it is a Saturday. Furthermore, the 1st Class Mail comes with compensation cover up to £20.

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail 1st Class Mai

Type Of Mailer	Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
Letters	100g	95p
Large Letters	100g	£1.45
	250g	£2.05
	500g	£2.65
	750g	£3.30
Small Parcels	2kg	£4.45
Medium Parcels	2kg	£6.95
	10kg	£7.95
	20kg	£12.95

2nd Class Mail

The 2nd Class mail is the most affordable way to send direct mail to your customers. However, it does take a longer time to deliver. Usually, a 2nd Class mail is delivered within two to three working days, but this can vary from time to time. Similar to 1st Class mail, you also get compensation cover up to £20.

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail 2nd Class Mail

Type Of Mailer	Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
Letters	100g	68p
Large Letters	100g	£1.05
	250g	£1.65
	500g	£2.15
	750g	£2.70
Small Parcels	2kg	£3.35
Medium Parcels	2kg	£5.35
	10kg	£6.95
	20kg	£10.45

Parcelforce Worldwide Postal Services

The Parcelforce Worldwide postal service from Royal Mail offers to include several sub-services. The primary Parcelforce Worldwide postal services are classified into 7 categories, and they are as follows.

• express48
• express24
• expresssunday
• expressAM
• express10
• express9
• express48 (Large)

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail express48 Mail

Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
5kg	£8.95
10kg	£9.95
20kg	£11.95
30kg	£14.95
Per extra kg	£1.56

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail express24 Mail

Weight Up To And Including	Postage Cost
5kg	£9.35
10kg	£13.35
20kg	£15.35
30kg	£18.35
Per extra kg	£1.56

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail expresssunday Mail

Weight Up To and Including	Postage Cost
5kg	£25.80
10kg	£30.24
20kg	£37.02
30kg	£53.70
Per extra kg	£1.56

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail expressAM Mail

Weight Up To and Including	Postage Cost
5kg	£18.49
10kg	£19.69
20kg	£21.49
30kg	£24.49
Per extra kg	£1.56

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail express10 Mail

Weight Up To and Including	Postage Cost
5kg	£22.00
10kg	£23.00
20kg	£25.00
30kg	£28.00
Per extra kg	£1.56

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail express9 Mail

Weight Up To and Including	Postage Cost
5kg	£39.90
10kg	£44.43
20kg	£51.18
30kg	£67.80
Per extra kg	£1.56

UK Postage Rate For Royal Mail express48 (Large) Mail

Weight Up To and Including	Postage Cost
5kg	£31.80
10kg	£36.60
20kg	£44.10
30kg	£61.20
Per extra kg	£1.56

Conclusion

The Royal Mail updates its postage prices every year. Businesses that regularly send direct mail to their customers, prospects, or partners need to update themselves with the latest postage rates. Even a slight ignorance on your part could lead to a significant loss, especially if you send bulk mail.

Besides keeping well-informed about the Royal Mail postage rates, you also need to employ advanced direct mail solutions like PostGrid. A fully automated direct mail software can optimise your direct mail process and minimise your direct mail expenses.

Furthermore, using an automated tool like PostGrid is also the most convenient option for businesses. It lets you personalise, print, and deliver your mailers with just the click of a button. As a result, it saves you valuable time and eliminates the scope for manual error, which ultimately saves you even more money.

Ready to Get Started?

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How to Send a Postcard Internationally

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Sending Postcards Abroad is Easy: Connect to The World Successfully

Most companies are now running to implement direct mail for efficiently delivering their marketing message. Unfortunately, most businesses do not know how to send a postcard internationally as modern businesses never use direct mail as a communication or marketing channel. But, the rising popularity of direct mail is undeniable, and postcards are the most effective direct mail for business communication.

Postcards often connect with people like no other communications channel. Furthermore, personalised postcards are more likely to strike an emotional chord in the recipients. Despite all the advantages of postcards, marketers still can’t employ them to the fullest extent.

Hence, we have created a quick guide to help you understand how to send an international postcard for your business. The guide takes you through the essential aspects of international postcards, including the address format, its cost, and delivery duration. You will also learn about a new and advanced way of conveniently sending international postcards with zero error.

Sending A Card Internationally

Sending international postcards is always confusing for individuals as well as business organisations. For example, the address format is one of the things that is confusing about international postcards. Do you use the address format defined by the Royal Mail or the postal service provider of the recipient’s country?

Similarly, many more questions come to the sender’s mind when sending a postcard internationally. Yet, when sending postal mail for businesses internationally, postcards are preferred over any other postal mail format.

Most companies send postal mail in bulk, which can be somewhat expensive, especially to international addresses. Using postcards instead of any other postal mail format enables businesses to minimise their net expenditure. Furthermore, it is easier to print, store, and transport in bulk than other formats.

Letter vs Postcard

One of the biggest questions about sending international mail for business organisations is whether to use letters or postcards. As you may already know, a standard letter includes an envelope. But, when it comes to postcards, you don’t need an envelope.

Hence sending postcards is less expensive than letters as it does not require envelopes. However, on the other hand, letters offer a certain amount of privacy to the mail’s content. Another note about letters is that their postage is based on weight and size.

Even though postcards come in different sizes, most businesses use the standard postcard format for their direct mail communications. Hence, the cost of sending a card internationally remains relatively low.

Don’t know how to create a business postcard? Take a look at our previous blog, “Business Postcard Ideas & Examples,” to learn how you can use Postcards for your business.

Universal Postal Union’s Standard Postcard

The Universal Postal Union specifies a standard size for postcards so that the sender can qualify for the standard rate. The following table shows the standard size specified for international postcards. 

Postcard Shape	Minimum Length	Maximum Length	Minimum Height	Maximum Height
Rectangle	140mm	235mm	90mm	120mm

Additionally, the Universal Postal Union also suggests that you ensure the material used for the postcard is stiff. The stiffness will help the postcard survive the long journey to its destination. Businesses should also be careful not to make their postcards too small, minimising the net cost.

If the postcard is too small, the postal service providers, including the Royal Mail, will not mail it. On the other hand, if the postcard is too large, it usually gets classified as a letter, and your business will end up paying higher postage.

How To Address An International Postcard?

Addressing an international Postcard is relatively easy. You can start by writing the address on the right side of the postcard. It should be easy to locate the position of the address because there are usually three or four horizontal lines provided on the postcards.

You can either write the address by hand or print them. The only thing is that the address must be easily readable. When sending postcards abroad, it is usually preferred to use the standard address format of the recipient’s country. So, if you are sending a postcard to the USA, use the standard address format specified by the USPS. 

Use The Left Side For Correspondence

We know that the right side of the postcard is reserved for the address. But the left side of the postcard is for you to write the correspondence. The correspondence can be anything from pitching a new product/offer to inviting the recipient to an exclusive event when it comes to business mail.

Include The Return Mailing Address

You may also include your business’s return mailing address on the left side of the postcard. However, make sure to position the return mailing address to the upper left corner of the postcard. Businesses also write the return mail address vertically To get more space for their message. Apart from providing the return address, it also serves as the separation between the address part and the correspondence part of the postcard.  

Keep The Bottom Edge Of The Postcard Clean

Although it is not always the case, many postal service providers, including USPS of the US, use the bottom edge for affixing labels. There is also the chance that postal service providers use the bottom edge for printing when they process the mailer. Hence, it is best to avoid writing or printing anything on the postcard’s bottom edge.

Address Format For Sending International Postcards To The US

Many businesses in the UK have international clients from all over the world. Hence, US addresses are common for the bulk international mail companies send. Furthermore, it will give you a broad idea of how to send a postcard from UK to USA. The address format for sending international postcards to the USA is as follows.

Recipient Name
Street Address (With the apartment/suite number)
City, State, ZIP code
USA (country name)

For US addresses, the postal code is called the ZIP code. Instead of an alphanumeric one we use in the UK, the US uses a numeric code. The ZIP code is often prone to more error than any other part of the postal mail address. Even getting a single digit wrong can cause your postcard to get returned.

Hence, most businesses prefer to use an advanced direct mail system like PostGrid for printing and delivering their international bulk mail. PostGrid uses an automated system for printing and delivering direct mail, ensuring no error in the postal code or the address.

What Is The Cost Of Sending An International Postcard?

The cost of sending postcards abroad via Royal Mail is the same as sending letters internationally. However, the rate of sending international mail changes depending on the mailing service your business uses. 

Some popular Royal Mail postal services companies send their business postcards as 1st and 2nd class mail. The postal service each company needs depends upon how fast they want the mail delivered and how much they are willing to pay for it. 

How Long Does It Take To Send A Postcard Internationally?

The delivery period for international postcards can vary depending on the mailer’s destination. For most European countries, it takes only three to five working days.

However, sending postcards anywhere else in the world can take anywhere from six to seven days. It is also worth noting that the Royal Mail provides a compensation cover-up worth up to £20 and free returns for undelivered items.

Why Use PostGrid To Automate Postcard Delivery?

Most businesses use an automated direct mail solution like PostGrid for sending a card internationally. There are numerous advantages of using an automated system like PostGrid for sending postcards. One of the most significant advantages of an automated system like PostGrid is its accuracy.

PostGrid ensures that all your international addresses are standardised and there is zero chance for an error. Hence, you can ensure that your postcards are printed with the correct address down to the numeric/alphanumeric postal code.

Additionally, service providers like PostGrid use quality printers and papers for your postcards. It ensures that the postal service can quickly sort and deliver your postcards. Hence, you can minimise the return rate of your direct mail and get maximum reach for your direct mail communications.

Perhaps the best thing about postcards is that they can be used by pretty much any industry vertical. For example, in the real estate industry, they can use postcards to pitch listed homes to their target audience, along with pictures of the property. PostGrid even offers specialised direct mail services for the real estate industry.

Conclusion

Sending postcards abroad, especially in bulk, is not easy, and there are a lot of challenges that modern marketers can’t overcome. Using an automated direct mail tool like PostGrid for sending international postcards can take the burden off businesses.

PostGrid is a holistic direct mail solution that takes care of everything related to international postcards. You can personalise your business postcards, print them as per the standards of postal authorities and deliver them. 

The automated system ensures zero error and maximum convenience for companies that send postcards internationally to their customers. Furthermore, PostGrid even gives you access to its template gallery to easily create postcards for your company.

Ready to Get Started?

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Automated Direct Mail: What is it and How it Works?

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Automated Direct Mail

Traditionally, direct mail has been viewed as time-consuming, cumbersome, expensive, untrackable, poorly targeted, and manual. However, modern direct mail is none of that. Automated direct mail removes these unpleasant factors and replaces them with modern features like automated printing and mailing, real-time tracking, accessible campaign insights, and so much more.

Let us have a quick look at some statistics that show how direct mail is profitable.

• 87% of people are influenced to purchase something online
• 75% of businesses that use direct mail marketing agree that this marketing medium offers a positive ROI

These results are possible only through the modern way of conducting direct mail campaigns, and there is no other way of doing so than using direct mail automation.

So what is automated direct mail? It is nothing but switching to the online and automated way of handling direct mail, where you don’t have to do anything manually.

An automated direct mail API like PostGrid can integrate with your CRM or a marketing tool to help you print and mail directly from there. It can help you draft, print, and ship in an automated way altogether without wastage of time and effort.

Direct mail automation allows marketers to save time they would otherwise spend on transmitting information into usable spreadsheets, contacting printers, comparing quotes, hiring a designer, managing logistics, or guessing and analyzing campaign results manually.

Businesses need a marketing medium that can be tracked and measured. Direct mail automation allows your direct mail marketing efforts to be targeted, well-crafted, relevant, and automated.

Features of Automated Direct Mail

1. Address Verification and Data Management

PostGrid’s direct mail API can help you autocomplete, standardize, correct, validate, and verify addresses. No more guesswork or sending mail to the wrong addresses.

Traditionally, there are very limited options to collect addresses and check whether they are deliverable. Your employees probably have to call up every customer and cross-check the address to see whether it is correct. But, this process can be extremely time-consuming and hectic. Moreover, with modern solutions being easily available, manually doing these things makes no point.

Automated direct mail can help you verify all your addresses instantly and offers peace of mind that your mail items will be rightly delivered. Moreover, it enables you to manage your data efficiently and build new mailing lists. Targeting and mailing lists segmentation is also possible through PostGrid’s print and mail automation API.

2. Scalable Solutions

On-demand and bulk printing and mailing are both possible with the help of direct mail automation. PostGrid’s API is scalable and can grow with your growing needs. It is an ever-expanding solution for all your direct mail marketing requirements, which means that you can add an unlimited number of locations, users, templates, campaigns, mailing lists, integrated campaigns, messages, designs, and contacts.

Furthermore, it has the ability to process thousands of API calls in one go, without any slowdowns or crashes. Hence, you can rely on an automated direct mail solution to accommodate your print and mail needs to any extent.

3. Campaign Reports and Analytics

Determining your campaign budget and ROI needs some considerations and a lot of planning. However, you need some statistics and details that can act as a base to make such considerations.

Direct mail automation enables you to access your campaign analytics which contains all facts, numbers, and other details that you need to know. It also gives you insights into various things and tells you what works and what doesn’t work. You can collect all this information and make reports that act as an informatory and advisory base to make informed decisions about your upcoming campaigns.

4. Integration

An automated direct mail API can seamlessly integrate with your CRM, accounting software, human resource management software, and more platforms that you use for managing your daily operations. By integrating them, you allow quick import and export of data and avoid manual input of information. For example, you don’t need to enter all your customers’ names and addresses for conducting a direct mail campaign.

The API allows you to import the details from your CRM and automatically uses the information for designing your direct mail campaigns. Similarly, for sending paychecks to your employees, you don’t have to enter employee details all over again. Simply integrate and start mailing.

5. Variable Data Printing

Variable data printing is more than a feature. It is the need of the hour. Basically, it allows you to print different colours, texts, links, and graphics on every mail item. The basic format remains the same, but certain elements keep changing.

For example, if you are sending out invoices to your clients, it is obvious that you aren’t going to send the same invoice to everyone. The date, bill amount, client name, and payment terms are all different in every invoice. Variable data printing allows companies to print personalized mail items without undergoing any cumbersome methods. You can even personalize your postcards, letters, cheques, and other documents easily. Direct mail automation makes variable data printing possible and simplifies personalization.

Businesses can add personalized URLs, coupon codes, and other trackable features that are unique for every customer. Such personalization makes the customer feel special and makes it easy for you to track responses and engagements.

6. Omni-Channel Marketing

Omni-channel marketing is when you combine several marketing campaigns, for instance, combining direct mail campaigns with social media marketing or email advertising. These campaigns work in unison to reach out to a wider audience and yield better results. They work in an integrated manner to showcase your brand consistently across several marketing channels.

If a person misses your email, your direct mail can help get their attention and vice versa. Moreover, if a person views your advertisement on social media and receives a personalized letter from you on the same day or week, getting a response becomes easy as they remember your brand well. Constantly advertising your brand across more than one channel is an effective strategy to capture more markets and boost up brand awareness drastically. Automated direct mail can help you conduct omnichannel marketing easily.

Types of Automated Direct Mail

1. Letters

Letters are the most personalized type of direct mail. You can change your entire text for every letter as per the needs of your customers. Letters offer companies a chance to establish a one-to-one connection with their audience. You can opt for single-page, dual-page, or multiple-page letters depending on your content and required space.

Direct mail automation can help you with the letter templates and enable you to choose from different letter sizes. Oversize envelopes are known to perform well. Again, with direct mail automation, you can design professional and personalized letters in oversize dimensions.

2. Self-Mailers

Self-mailers are basically letters that can be folded into an envelope. They don’t require a separate envelope and can do the function on their own. Hence, you can save the money spent on envelopes, and people don’t have to tear open anything to view your mail, which boosts up open rates. You can make use of unique folds like roll fold, z-fold, booklet fold, or the multi-panel gatefold. These types of folds are attractive and make your customer pay more attention to your self-mailers. Automated direct mail can help you design and send out attention-grabbing self-mailers in no time. Include a perforated coupon or return card as part of the self-mailer design to persuade customers to reply.

3. Postcards

Postcards are cost-effective, eye-catching, pleasing, and capable of driving conversions. Even after being the cheapest option, many large corporations use postcards for their direct mail marketing campaigns. It is because postcards create a nostalgic feeling among people and mark the beginning of a special bond between a brand and its customers.

Sending postcards with beautiful background images can induce people to store them or probably attach them to their refrigerators. Postcards communicate your message in simple words and perhaps offer the most exposure compared to other direct mail types. Some popular sizes include:

• A5 postcards
• A6 postcards
• 148 mm x 25 5mm postcards

4. Bills or Invoices

Invoices are timely documents that need to be delivered to your clients on time. A payment collection system can work smoothly and efficiently only by having a proper invoice print and mail solution in place. If your company sends invoices after weeks of a transaction, getting a payment against your invoice can likely be tricky. Similarly, you might also have to send follow-up letters and duplicate invoices as payment reminders – only then will your company’s revenue stream flow continuously. PostGrid’s print and mail solutions can help you send invoices on time without you having to do anything manually.

5. Statements

Banks send bank statements to their customers, hospitals send medical reports or statements to their patients, and retail businesses send transaction statements to their clients. In short, all businesses of all sectors need to mail statements to their customers or clients. Drafting, printing, and mailing statements is not a one-time job. Companies need to do these tasks on a regular basis, and having an automated direct mail solution in place can come in handy.

PostGrid’s direct mail automation API can help you draft statements speedily and effortlessly. You can then get them printed and mailed altogether with a few clicks. You can track your statements in real-time and see them moving through the postal organization’s system. This way, you are better informed about your mail’s whereabouts and can make any follow-ups accordingly.

6. Cheques

Gone are the days when writing cheques had to be old-fashioned. In the olden days, companies waited for their banks to mail them chequebooks. They entered amounts, signatures, and client details into cheques manually, stuffed them into envelopes, sealed them, affixed postage, and took them to a nearby post office. Yes, some companies still go by this traditional method which is extremely time-consuming and boring. It can affect the morale of your employees and also lead to certain mistakes.

Automated direct mail allows you to autofill cheques with the correct details pulled from your CRM. The printing and mailing are done in an automated manner, so naturally, you don’t have to worry about any inventory stocking. Sending cheques as direct mail can save time, effort, and money. Plus, it allows accurate and safe mailing.

Benefits of Using Direct Mail Automation

Why use direct mail automation? If you still aren’t convinced that direct mail automation can do wonders for your company, read the benefits below and know what you can do with it.

1. Build Brand Image

Mouth publicity is really impactful, and you can create a spark with your well-designed and accurate direct mail campaigns – which is now possible due to marketing automation. Maintaining your brand reputation is likely to result in better responses and increased sales. Furthermore, you get an edge over your competitors by connecting emotionally with people and having a personal bond with them. Prospects are likely to favour your brand over others if they have seen, felt, and heard about your brand first-hand.

2. Re-Engage Old Customers

Customer retention is equally important as acquiring new customers. You need to keep in touch with your old customers and persuade them to continue using your products and services. New customers may bring you business, but old customers bring you reputation and stability, along with the business.

Move onto the next level of gaining customer loyalty with automated direct mail. By integrating an automation API into your marketing tool, you can send the right type of mail to the relevant audience at the right time. Regularly sending direct mail to your prospects and customers according to their life stages can induce them to buy your products or services and remember and talk about your brand. You can even run customer reward programs through direct mail easily using automation.

3. Facilitate Ongoing Revenue Flow

If you send a postcard at the right time, like during the last week of your customer’s subscription plan – there are high chances that your customer or subscriber will renew the plan for yet another year. It is called taking advantage of an opportunity or an event to create a flow of ongoing income. Direct mail marketing is the best way to bring this plan to life.

Using automation, you can set up reminders, and the API can enable you to send direct mail at regular intervals without your intervention. Hence, you don’t have to plan and send direct mail every now and then. Just feed in the dates, draft a relevant mail item and leave it on the API to get it printed and mailed on the right date.

4. Eliminate Manual Intervention

How much time do your employees spend in loading and unloading papers in the printer, stuffing letters in envelopes, sealing them, sticking address labels, affixing postage stamps, and taking them to the post office? As said before, all these steps are involved in printing and mailing envelopes or anything else like invoices and cheques. We haven’t even included many other steps like purchasing ink cartridges, calculating postage, and making space in your office to store all your direct mail pieces.

Bearing these things in mind, any company would like to get rid of all these manual steps and switch to the smart way of doing things. Automated direct mail campaigns do not demand hours of your time or effort. You simply need to make some selections and launch a campaign – all using a few minutes of your time and a few clicks. Your mail items will be printed and mailed through Royal Post in just two days.

5. Track Mail in Real-Time

Tracking is a very useful feature of automated direct mail, and it has more than one benefit. It enables you to know about your direct mail items’ progress, which in turn allows you to follow up at the right time. For example, your company plans an omnichannel marketing campaign wherein email alerts are supposed to be sent to every customer immediately after receiving your direct mail. In such a case, real-time tracking is a blessing. You don’t have to keep wondering whether your mail has reached the recipient.

Furthermore, you don’t even have to manually enter long tracking numbers on the Royal Mail’s website every time you want to track your mail. Just go on the API dashboard and see all your mail pieces’ status in a single view.

6. Save on Designing Costs

Designing can be expensive as some designers even charge up to $100 per hour. Moreover, companies also pay a lot for making edits, and these steps can take up a lot of your precious time. There’s no spontaneousness in the manual mailing. Everything demands time and effort. Automated direct mail, on the other hand, is instant – if you want to make any changes like changing the tagline, you can simply open your direct mail artwork and make the edit yourself.

All of this is possible with PostGrid’s in-built templates that are professionally built to suit your marketing needs. There are many portrait and landscape templates available. You can select one that best suits your message and offer. Apparently, you save on design costs, make edits speedily, and form the base of an efficient and cost-effective campaign.

7. No More Lost or Delayed Deliveries

As discussed earlier, PostGrid’s print and mail API allows you to verify and validate addresses. Hence, you don’t have to worry about sending mail to the wrong people at the wrong addresses.

With PostGrid, all addresses are automatically standardized according to Royal Mail’s database – speeding up deliveries. Since the addresses are exactly as per the postal provider’s database, it is very easy for them to process, sort, and deliver. These things enable you to replace your incomplete, incorrect, and unverified data with the deliverable validated and verified mailing addresses that can be a valuable asset for your business.

8. Test and Measure

With the help of automated direct mail, you can design various types of direct mail speedily for testing. Make small batches of different direct mail items and send them out in order to test the effectiveness of each type. See what works best for your brand and use the same in your upcoming campaigns. Testing is essential; you should know what appeals to your audience and can gather more responses.

Simple testing techniques include adding different offers or different designs in your mail pieces. The test can therefore show you which particular offer induces people to complete the desired CTA. You can include expedited shipping vs. free shipping, free trial vs. 20% discount, or free gift card vs. store credit. There are many different types of offers that you can include for testing.

Similarly, you can plan two different campaigns simultaneously. For instance, you print and mail postcards to a random group of people. On the other side, you print and mail out letters to another random group of people. This way, you can check whether postcards work for you or letters. You can also add other variations like pairing with social media campaigns, sending back-to-back direct mail over a few weeks, and more. Once the testing campaigns are completed, you can track the performance of every campaign to compare results. Be sure to include trackable features in all your direct mail items like pURLs and dedicated phone numbers. Direct mail automation can assist you in doing all these things without any worry.

Industries That Benefit From Automated Direct Mail

1. Healthcare

All healthcare institutions have to manage and deal with many medical documents like invoices, diagnostic test results, medical statements, consent forms, progress notes, patient instructions, prescriptions, and more. It is not easy to handle the printing and mailing of all these documents on-time to their respective patients. Hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare institutions have to keep up with their primary operations and cannot afford to spend so much time on such tasks. An easy way out? Use an automated direct mail API. It can help them draft all the documents quickly and order for them to get printed and mailed.

2. Finance

Banks and other financial institutions also mail out credit card bills, banking statements, policy changes, and other such letters and documents to their customers. Using an automated direct mail API like PostGrid, they can send out these timely documents accurately and efficiently, without any delays or troubles.

3. Non-Profit Organizations

As we already know, nonprofit and charitable organizations need contributions and help from donors and volunteers. They require these things on a continual basis, which is why direct mail marketing becomes a must. Direct mail helps them connect with people and calls them out to help the needy. Since they need to conduct direct mail marketing campaigns frequently, direct mail automation is smart. It enables them to focus on other areas of their work while handling the print and mail jobs.

4. Ecommerce

E-commerce businesses operate online, which makes people think that they advertise only on online platforms. In reality, many eCommerce websites use direct mail to reach out to their customers, induce them to complete checkouts, or simply connect with new customers and induce them to visit their website and purchase something. Direct mail is absolutely capable of driving online traffic. Therefore, eCommerce businesses also use this medium regularly. Automated direct mail can help them to design various types of direct mail items and connect with their offline audience.

5. Restaurants

From medium-sized food joints to huge chains of restaurants, direct mail is effective. Food joints can send out small, pretty postcards with their menu on the back, whereas large restaurants can go for something more creative and eye-catching. Restaurants can send out mail pieces with new dish launches, discounts, special holiday offers, dates of non-operation, new branch openings, and more. Automated direct mail can help them print phenomenal mail pieces that inform and advertise both at the same time.

6. Educational Institutions

Schools, colleges, and universities send out student reports, admission forms, policy notices, prospectus, and more such documents to students and their parents. Print and mail is part of their regular job, which is one of the main reasons why automated direct mail can benefit them greatly. They can save a lot of time and money while also having an efficient print and mail system in operation.

7. Others

Public relation companies, magazine publishers, gyms, social clubs, real estate, and many other businesses can use automated direct mail to send out marketing postcards, letters, and other transactional and compliance documents. All medium and large-scale companies who use direct mail advertising as part of their marketing activities can benefit from automated direct mail.

Automated direct mail integrates with your marketing tools or software programs to help you print and mail in an automated manner. There is no manual intervention or inventory stocking needed. You don’t have to purchase a printer or look for a designer. With in-built templates, outsourced printing, and speedy mailing – companies can really look forward to conducting direct mail campaigns effortlessly. Test, track, measure performance, compare results; direct mail automation makes these complicated tasks simple and easy to accomplish.

PostGrid’s direct mail automation API can help you integrate with your marketing tool and easily send postcards, letters, and cheques.

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The post Automated Direct Mail: What is it and How it Works? appeared first on PostGrid UK.

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