Postage Services

Making the right choice for your postage method.

As many of us are aware, the postage element is the largest cost of any direct mail campaign. This is where we can really help you save money.

To give you an example: A C5 mailing of 25,000 items each weighing under 100g, sending this standard 2nd class with Royal Mail would cost approx £13,500. JPS Print Consultants would be able to save you 35 pence per item which would equate to £4,750 – now that really is worth the saving.

More and more businesses are becoming aware of the vast choice of postal opportunities available to them, but are confused and unsure which is the best product for them. Postage is often the most expensive element of many marketing campaigns, so it is essential to maximise the savings available.

We still speak to many businesses that only know about Royal Mail standard 1st and 2nd class postal services, and they occupy a huge amount of time and resources each month manually inserting items into envelopes, sticking on postage stamps and taking the mail to the post office.

We are saving money for a new client (that sent out 4000 letters per month) on the cost of the envelopes (due to our bulk purchasing power), no printer toner costs, staff time and resources … and the best part is the huge saving on postage from £9,120–25,920. That’s approximately £16,800 per year, not to mention the extra time they now have on their hands for concentrating on other things.

No mailing is too small or too large. Whether you have a mailing of 100 or 1million items, JPS Print Consultants constantly seek the best postal tariffs from Royal Mail, Onepost, UK mail and other DSA (downstream access providers). Our aim is to always work with clients on their projects to obtain the cheapest and most efficient postage costs. A carefully planned mailing can save you up to 50% against the cost of a normal stamp.

Royal mail door-to-door is a service that allows you to maximise the number of people you send your mail piece to for the cheapest unit cost. This service allows you to communicate with potential clients without having to buy an address database or spending money on postage.

Door to door offers:

• A range of different targeting options
• Flexibility of sending out anything from postcards, leaflets to catalogues
• A unit cost as low as 6p per item

JPS Print Consultants are here to advise and help you decide which method of communication works best for your business and each particular marketing campaign that you undertake.

Standard first class post with Royal Mail is a fast and efficient method of communicating with your clients, it is a next day service (including Saturdays), with our Royal mail business account we can save you money on a standard 1st class stamp.

Standard second class post is an option that offers a much better value for mailings that don’t need to arrive the next day. With a little careful forward planning or when time isn’t of the essence, a mailing sent with second class post will save you a lot of money, with our Royal mail business account we can save you money on a standard 2nd class stamp.

With second class mailings, we can also seek further savings for you for larger mailings that meet advertising mail specifications.

Downstream access providers such as UK Mail, Secured Mail and One Post all compete with a service that takes just 1 more day to be delivered offering substantial discounts.

JPS print Consultants will always seek the best tariff for your particular mailing.

Business mail is mail that does not sell or generate a response or a donation. Its purpose is not based on a high return on investment, but seen as a necessity within the processes of your business; the postage discounts are much less significant than using Advertising mail. Where possible, it is always advisable to sell or advertise something as part of the communication process which will enable you to take advantage of greater postage discounts.

Wherever possible your direct mail should be a communication method for making money and not a cost.

JPS Print Consultants will always help you achieve the best possible postage tariffs for all of your mailings.

Advertising mail is the service which offers the greatest postage savings for larger volumes of mail. With a carefully planned mailing, we really can save you a lot of money. However, there are certain criteria that needs to be addressed:

• You must mail a minimum of 1000 items of a large size letter (larger than A5) or 4000 items of letter size item (up to C5)
• You must be selling or advertising something within your communication
• Your mailing pack must be approved as meeting the specifications set by Royal Mail for advertising mail

There is a choice of various postal providers such as One Post, UK Mail, Secured mail and Royal Mail: don’t worry – JPS Print Consultants will always recommend which operator to use ensuring you get the greatest discounts possible.

You have the choice of 1st, 2nd or economy class delivery (up to 5 days), building in a couple of extra days into your schedule will enable you to save more money.

Other ways of reducing the costs further are:

• Sortation vs non sortation, and the cost savings sortation provides. Your data must be of good enough quality to pass the Royal Mail PAF file with 90% accuracy
• The choice of font and the inclusion of barcodes all help to reduce costs further still
• If your pack qualifies for sustainable mail, depending on the materials used, this can also lower the postage costs for you even further.

This may all sound confusing and complicated but JPS Print Consultants are specialists in this field and can advise and guide you throughout the whole process making sure you save the maximum amount of money on every item of mail you send out.

Low-sort tariffs can be applied to items sent in envelopes and anything that is sealed on all edges.

Pre-sorting your mail to postcode destinations will result in big savings, JPS Print Consultants can sort your mail before sending it in order to reduce the cost of your postage bill. The savings start when you send 4,000 A5 size letters or 1,000 A4s in a single mailing.

The method of sorting depends on each mailing and what is best for your particular campaign. JPS Print Consultants will calculate and recommend whichever of the Low Sort methods save you the most:

• OCR: Mail is printed with addresses in a machine-readable font
• Barcode: Mail is printed with a 4-state barcode that contains the postcode and DPS
• Mailmark barcode: Mail is printed with a Mailmark barcode and a machine-readable font

By using a combination of Low Sort and other available discounts, we may be able to reduce the price of your mailing down to as low as 19p per letter. Not just once, but every time.

Certain mailing items fail to meet the Low sort criteria, so they would be sent High sort. This would be for items such as polywrapped mailings or fonts that are not machine readable. For instance you may wish to use a font that looks like handwriting because it increases responses. You can still save on postage charges with High sort, but less so than with Low Sort.

By ensuring compliance with Royal Mail’s High Sort sorting standards (90% address machine-readable accuracy), and using a combination of High Sort and other available discounts, we may be able to reduce the price of your mailing down to as low as 21.8p per letter.

Contact us now for more information and a quote – you have nothing to lose and could save a lot of money.