Sending Regular Letters? Why Your Mailing Deserves a Second Pair of Eyes
Payment letters, statements, reminders and renewals go out every month, often without anyone checking whether they are working as hard as they should. Here are the problems we see most, and how our Campaign Confidence Review fixes them before your next mailing goes out.
Key takeaways
- Regular letters are easy to forget about, until one goes out wrong, late or to the same person twice.
- Small problems repeat every month. 5% duplicates on a monthly 10,000-letter mailing can waste over £3,000 a year.
- Our Campaign Confidence Review checks your data, letter, format, how it gets opened and how you measure it.
- We then recommend one route and can run the whole mailing for you, from data to doormat.
If your business sends letters every week or every month, you probably don't think about them much. They go out, customers receive them, and the next batch comes round.
After more than 25 years in mailing, I can tell you that is exactly where problems hide. Businesses spend time choosing a printer and comparing postage prices, but far less time checking whether the mailing itself is set up to work. And because the same letters go out again and again, any problem gets repeated every single time.
1Why regular letters go wrong
Your customers expect your letters to be right, and they expect them on time. When they aren't, it is your team that takes the phone calls. These are the worries we hear again and again from businesses sending regular mail:
“We needed more flex and better cost management.”
That is how one client described their reason for leaving a previous supplier with very stringent processes and high costs. It is the most common thing we hear.
2The hidden cost of repeating mistakes
With a one-off mailing, a mistake costs you once. With regular letters, it costs you every month until someone spots it.
The cost of 5% duplicates on a monthly mailing of 10,000 letters. That is 500 letters a month printed and posted twice, at an average of 51p each including print, enclosing and postage: £255 a month, every month.
Duplicates are only one example. A letter that isn't clear creates calls into your team. A letter that looks like junk mail gets left unopened, and payments or appointments are missed. An envelope that isn't the right size slows everything down. None of these show up on an invoice, but they all cost you.
The simple rule: fix it once, before the next mailing, and the saving repeats every month after.
3The Campaign Confidence Review
That is why we introduced the Campaign Confidence Review. Before your next mailing goes into production, we look at the five things that decide whether your letters do their job.
Many suppliers simply print what they are sent. We would rather understand what each letter is for. Once we know, we recommend the one route we would take, rather than handing you a list of technical options to decide between.
I would much rather ask “What are you trying to achieve?” than “What do you want us to print?” Then we work backwards from there.
If you decide to go ahead, your dedicated account manager runs the whole mailing for you:
One team. One point of contact. One recommended route.
4How your mailing runs with us
Good regular mail is a process you stop worrying about. Here is our standard timeline. We always work back from the date your letters need to land.
- DAY1Data in
You send us your data and artwork
We check the file for duplicates and gaps before anything is printed.
- DAY2Proofs
You approve your proofs
Usually signed off the same day or the next. Nothing prints until you are happy.
- DAYS3–4Production
Printed, personalised and enclosed
Letters go into C5 envelopes. We supply the envelopes, so print and mailing are handled by one supplier.
- DAY5Posted
Handed to Royal Mail
Your mailing is on its way.
- +2–3✓On the mat
Your customers have your letter
Standard service is 5 to 8 days start to finish. Need it sooner? Express runs 3 to 5 days.
5What changes when you switch
Here is how the worries clients bring to us compare with how we handle their regular mail.
Royal Mail postage discounts apply to mailings of over 4,000 items. We are ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified, Cyber Essentials certified, ICO registered and members of the DMA and BPIF.
6What our clients say
When we ask clients why they chose us, the answer is rarely about machines. It is about trust. One told us “coming and visiting face to face was a big factor”, and described “genuine and trustworthy people in Dave and Vanessa.” Another said their mail “runs like clockwork, great value, highly responsive, and if there's an error it's rectified fast.”
Simon Reynolds, Managing Director of Patient Plan Direct, has trusted us with his regular correspondence:
“A great service and great value. Above all, just a good, honest and hard working couple to deal with alongside their wider team.”
7Your regular mailing checklist
- Data checked for duplicates and gone-aways
- File clean and in the right format
- Letter clear on what the customer needs to do
- Envelope and format right for your customers
- Envelope recognised, not mistaken for junk
- A clear measure of what a good result looks like
- Proofs signed off before print
- Landing date set and production planned back from it
- A named person to call if anything changes
8FAQs
What is the Campaign Confidence Review?
It is a review of your regular mailing before your next batch goes into production. We check your data, your letter, your format, how it gets opened and how you measure results, then recommend the route we would take. If you go ahead, your account manager can run the whole mailing for you.
What is transactional mail?
Transactional mail is the regular, personalised correspondence a business sends its customers, such as payment letters, statements, appointment reminders, plan updates and renewal notices. You send us the data and we print, enclose and post it for you.
I already have a supplier. Is the review still worth it?
Yes. It is a chance to check your current set-up with fresh eyes. Even small fixes, like removing duplicates or making a letter clearer, repeat their saving every month.
How quickly can my letters go out?
Our standard service takes 5 to 8 days from receiving your data to delivery, and our express service takes 3 to 5 days. Tell us when your letters need to land and we will work back from there.
How do you keep customer data safe?
We are ISO 27001 certified for information security, Cyber Essentials certified and registered with the ICO. Data is checked before production and you approve proofs before anything is printed.
Do I need to supply envelopes?
No. We supply the envelopes, as they need to be a specific size to run on our enclosing machines. That keeps print and mailing with one supplier.
Is it cheaper for larger mailings?
Royal Mail postage discounts apply to mailings of over 4,000 items, which can make a real difference to the cost per letter. We will always recommend the most sensible route for your volumes.
Get your next mailing checked first
Tell us what you send, how often and when it needs to land. We will review it and recommend the route we would take, before your next batch goes out.
Review My Campaign