Mailing is such an important aspect of every business no matter what the size. These days, businesses have to send out so much mail that it can take up a huge amount of time and resources. Fortunately, there are some fantastic mailing options that modern businesses can utilize which reduces the time and money spent on sending out business correspondence. In order to help all businesses save money and slimline their mailing operations, this article is a guide to 3 mailing solutions for any sized business.
1. Traditional Mail
The most popular method for sending out business mail is through the traditional mail services like the Postal Service in the US or the Royal Mail in the UK. There are many benefits to sending mail through traditional mail services, including the ability to create a business account which allows you to send a large amount of mail each week and just be invoiced for it once a week or even once a month in some cases.
Everyone knows how to send and receive traditional forms of mail and so this is an option that doesn’t require any special business operations or procedures to be put in place. Bigger companies may have a specialized mail department while smaller businesses may just have one employee who is responsible for taking the mail to the post office each day. Sending business correspondence works exactly the same as sending personal mail.
The post office stamps the mail depending on its weight and its destination, the business pays for the stamps and mailing fees, and the mail is sent to the recipient. There are usually different delivery options such as express mail and recorded delivery for mail that needs to be delivered more quickly or that is particularly valuable.
2. Franked Mail
Whilst traditional mail is still the most popular mail solution for businesses, it does have some major drawbacks. First of all, visiting the post office every day to send out business correspondence can be extremely time consuming and that time could be used far more efficiently in other areas of your business. Furthermore, the cost of postage stamps and mailing fees can really start to add up, especially for businesses that need to send a lot of mail on a weekly or daily business. To avoid these problems and to help save money, more and more companies are turning to franking machines so that they can prepare and send their own mail without needing to pay for stamps or visit the post office.
Franking machines enable businesses to weigh their own mail and then issue a mail mark to the mail that works the same way as a postage stamp. The main mark is like a barcode and means that the business can then directly post their mail to the recipient. This can save businesses as much as 33% on the cost of sending their mail which can be a significant saving for businesses with a high volume of mail output.
3. Special Courier Delivery
The third commonly used postage solution is to use special courier delivery services such as UPS to deliver your business mail. Courier delivery tends to be far more expensive than other mail options and so it is not suitable for general everyday correspondence but is a vital option in special instances. With this option, a courier will come to your business and pick up your mail so that you don’t have to go to the post office or to a mailbox. A fee is based depending on the weight of the mail, the value of the contents, and where it is being sent, and then the courier service guarantees door to door delivery.
Usually, courier delivered mail must be signed for by the recipient which adds another level of security to the delivery process. Special courier delivery is mostly used for particularly valuable packages or important documents as it ensures that there is no possibility of the mail being stolen or misplaced during the delivery process. Courier services are also ideal for international mail as there will be a courier looking after your mail at every step of the process. This is really important as more mail gets lost on international delivery than domestic delivery.
Every business needs an effective and efficient mailing process and there are some great mailing options no matter the size of your business or the volume of mail that needs to be sent. Traditional mail is a great day to day option but there are significant savings to be made by businesses who invest in their own franking machine. For particularly important or valuable pieces of mail, it is always advisable to send them via courier services as they can guarantee that your mail arrives safely.
