Saving on mailing costs
Thousands of SMEs overspend on mailing costs. By following simple, smart mailing practices, every small business can take the dollars off the envelope and onto the bottom line. Streamlining your mailstream can save both time and money.
With a slowing economy, consumer sentiment dropping and an uncertain year ahead, businesses are increasingly looking for ways to cut costs and ride out tough financial times. SMEs that have not looked to their postage costs and implemented smart mail practices are losing out on a potential pool of more than $3billion in savings, a figure that would go a long way to ensuring the future of many operations.
Opportunities to save on postage are often overlooked. Recently released figures demonstrate that the 3,500 SMEs that work with Pitney Bowes Australia’s solutions (with between one and 99 employees) to implement smart mail practices through using licensed postage meters and mailing solutions are saving, on average, $1,500 annually.
How postage discounts work
Australia Post offers discounts to customers that help them with their automation. Correctly addressed, barcoded and metered mail is handled with maximum speed and efficiency benefitting both Australia Post and the customer. The discounts offered are significant to any business, but particularly small businesses, where cashflow is crucial. The average cost saving across all postage discount breaks for small letters (up to 250g) for a business is 20.5 percent. For the 3,500 SMEs in the know, this adds up to almost $5.2 million annually.
These postal discounts offer a unique benefit to businesses – they are a viable cost-saving option for the sole operator right through to the largest enterprise. Implementing the systems and technology needed to gain the savings available to SMBs is quick, simple and affordable.
Initiatives include: consolidating mail processes, barcoding and validating addresses, using postage meters and reducing the size of envelopes or using standard business envelopes where possible. For the sole operator this would mean renting a postage meter, a small, standalone piece of equipment, not much larger than a desktop printer and automatically applying postage to your own mail. The monthly payments on renting an entry-level machine can be as low as $36 dollars and can be factored into a business plan, which greatly assists budgeting, forecasting and cashflow.
Pitney Bowes finances its own equipment directly so it is able to be far more flexible in the financing arrangements it makes. Paperwork is minimal and straightforward, completed quickly and with as much ease as possible.
Time and cost efficiencies
There are many other benefits to small businesses that implement smart practices. Metering your own mail saves time gathering up all the items to be mailed, getting to the post office, waiting in lines, and missing valuable calls enabling you to focus on your actual business. Metered mail can be simply posted in the local post box and looks more professional to the recipient, as you can incorporate your own logo into the stamp that is applied to the envelope.
Additionally, using a postage meter means that you will be kept abreast of any changes in mail rates and making sure that you are receiving the maximum discounts available. Meters are security protected with pin numbers and spending can be tracked to individuals or departments enabling you to keep track of your postage expenses.
Benefits of direct mail
Mail is an important part of how companies market their services to customers and is a proven part of their overall communications strategy. Australian business is increasingly realising the benefits of employing direct mail, in tandem with electronic messaging technologies, to improve the effectiveness of its customer communications. In 2007/2008, Australia Post recorded a 9.4 percent increase in the volume of direct mail it delivered.
When talking about direct mail, it is important to clarify that we are talking about mail that is addressed to an individual and is relevant to the recipient. Australian pharmacy brand Amcal recently celebrated the second anniversary of its customer loyalty program, Amcal Club. In a recent direct mail campaign targeting 200,000 loyalty club members, Amcal pharmacies recorded an increase in sales of 36 percent that can be directly attributed to those members mailed during the promotion. Amcal stated that outside mainstream media, direct mail is certainly the quickest way to reach its consumers.
According to Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) research, 89 percent of people who receive personally addressed mail actually read it. This presents a strong case when you consider that opening an item of mail is only the beginning of the interaction between that form of communication and the recipient.
Recent independent Australia Post-sponsored research revealed personalised mail was still the most preferred way of receiving communication from businesses with which customers had an existing relationship. Mail is still the only medium companies can use to interact with all five senses, and is one of the only ways marketers can physically interact with the market. Mail can be very powerful when managed in a strategic way.
Postage discounts and smart mail practices are not something only accessible by large businesses. A sole operator working from a spare room right through to a larger business are equally able to access savings and improve the appearance, function and effectiveness of their business communications through very simple steps. Smart mail practices do not cost a small fortune to set up, are straightforward and easy to implement and run, and are completely flexible and accountable.
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- 30 ways to cut business costs
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- Online banking: Saving your business time and money
- Cutting business costs without hurting the bottom line
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Good article about cost saving in mails.