Here we provide some of the ways to reduce your postal costs through using a mailing house. Postage/mailing follows the print and mail fulfilment stages, both of which offer their own savings potentials too. The over-arching objective is always to save money without reducing or compromising quality and delivery timescales, all of this is possible through a mailing house.
Elimination of data errors
Working with a mailing house provides a great opportunity to improve the quality of data to be used for mailings. Prior to any campaign the mailing house will screen all data through sophisticated software applications, which will check the validity of data.
A process called data normalisation will ensure that fields which follow a certain format are validated, e.g. title complies with one of the options (e.g. “Mr” / “Mrs”, etc.), date field follows DD/MM/YYYY format, postcode is valid and telephone numbers are formatted correctly, etc.
As well as improving the accuracy of data through normalisation, a mailing house will identify and remove duplicated records, deceased records and also remove goneaways.
All of the above will reduce postal costs through improved accuracy of mailings and are also likely to increase campaign response rates too. See our guide to data management in direct marketing for more details.
Mail sorting for big discounts
Mail sorting is a sortation method where mail is sorted into the required order by carriers. UK mailing houses will typically be able to use incentives such as the Royal Mail’s Mailmark to obtain discounts for mailings. Discounts can also be obtained for mailings internationally through using savings plans of international postal providers.
Data accuracy (discussed above) is an essential requirement to maximising the available discounts from mail sorting. Inaccurate data (called “residue data) reduces the available discounts from mail sorting. An industry yardstick is 90% postcode accuracy; this level of accuracy will lead to maximisation of postal discounts.
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Bulk mailing discounts
For organisations using bulk mailing services attractive discounts are available. Mailing houses work closely with a variety of mail carriers and negotiate the best prices based on an individual campaign. It’s likely the best carrier will vary from one campaign to another based on the unique characteristics of each campaign and also deals available from carriers at the time.
Organisations can leave all the hard work to mailing houses that will typically approach recognised mail services such as Royal Mail as well as a range of DSA’s (Down Stream Access Providers) for each campaign.
Why not contact us here at bakergoodchild to discuss bulk mail discounts available and also the volumes required to be eligible for bulk mail discounts?
Consumables savings
Due to the bulk buying capabilities of a mailing house it will be cheaper for an organisation to pay one fee for a mailing solution rather than buy consumables such as print cartridges, paper, stationery, envelopes, etc. themselves. Savings in consumables costs are passed back to the customer through the overall price agreed.
Reduced / eliminated postal equipment costs
Organisations outsourcing postal services will be able to avoid much outlay on postal equipment. Items such as franking machines, mailboxes, mail carts, postal scales, etc. may no longer be needed (it depends on the proportion of mailings, which are outsourced).
Postroom
Related with the reduced need for equipment is either a partial or total elimination of an organisations mailing room. This has an obvious benefit of saving accommodation space, which can be redeployed for other purposes. Other savings include staff costs reduction and their associated training and power savings, etc.
Call bakergoodchild for postal discounts
So now you understand more about the available postal savings through working with a mailing house, why not call us here at bakergoodchild on 0800 612 1972? We can help organisations across all sectors to attain all of the cost savings above as well as savings on print and fulfilment processes too.
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