Category Archives: Mailing

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Royal Mail Announce Early Price Increase

An earlier than expected price increase has been announced by Royal Mail, which will take effect in July 2024. The rate changes impact the Letter and Large Letter, both pre-sorted and unsorted, services. The new rates will be effective from the 1st July however this effectively means a last posting date of 26th June for all DSA (Downstream Access – i.e. The Delivery Group, Whistl etc) or 28th June for Royal Mail dispatches.

Royal mail have made this decision due to the substantial decline in letter volumes from 20 billion in 2004/05 to 7 billion in 2022/23 over which time the industry has seen significant changes and continued year on year cost pressures across all carrier networks.


Royal Mail are working hard on several initiatives to improve efficiency and reduce postage costs and we would encourage you to discuss your postal options with us to ensure that you are maximising all the savings available to you. If you have any questions or concerns regarding how this may affect you, we would be happy to discuss this in further detail over the coming weeks.

Cavalier Mailing always endeavour to keep our prices at a sustainable level and one of the best ways of achieving this is to speak to us as we may be able to unlock further savings on your postal rates. 

As a company we continue to work hard to develop our product range in order to offer a wider range of services to our valued clients, which help to meet all your mailing needs within the UK and Internationally. We are always happy to discuss your projects and advise on whether you are achieving value for money and whether we can offer alternative solutions for you.

Lastly, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to working with you throughout 2024

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Latest Update From The Royal Mail On The International Cyber Incident – WC 23/01/2023

Following the recent international cyber incident, we can confirm that we’ve made further progress in exporting an increasing number of items to a growing number of international destinations. We are using alternative solutions and systems, which have not been affected by the cyber incident.

Our focus has been on despatching the export parcels and letters which were in our network before the cyber incident. We’ve also been successfully despatching standard export letters since we reinstated those services for customers on 18 January.

As a result of this progress and the growing capability of our alternative export solutions, we can now announce that we will be resuming our International Tracked & Signed as well as International Signed services to all destinations for business account customers and customers buying postage online. This includes parcel, large letter and letter formats of these services. Online shipping solutions will be enabled to allow customers to select these services, print labels and send items from today (Thursday 26 January).

Delivery of International Tracked & Signed and International Signed items posted from today (Thursday 26 January) may take slightly longer than usual and you may notice different tracking information as items leave the UK.

We continue to ask customers not to submit any new Tracked or Standard/Economy export parcels into our network just yet. We’re aiming to provide further updates on these services in the coming days.

Import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays. Domestic services are unaffected.

Once again, we would like to apologise to you for the disruption this incident is causing. We’re continuing to work around the clock to reinstate all remaining services for export letters and parcels as quickly as we can.

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Royal Mail to start delivering your parcels on a SUNDAY.

Royal Mail is to start delivering parcels on a SUNDAY, to compete with giants DPD and Hermes in the weekend online shopping space.

Now, any retailer or online seller will be able to use the Royal Mail Tracked24 service, which will provide a next day delivery service for orders made on the Saturday before. As of yesterday (Sunday 29th May 2022), the Sunday delivery service was made available to 12,000 major online retailers after a piolet with 75 large ecommerce sites.

Royal Mail’s chief commercial officer Nick Landon said the postal business “is transforming to make sure we deliver” what customers need, both “now and in the future”. “We all know how convenient it is to order something online that will arrive the next day. It frees up time with the family, in the garden, or enjoying your favourite sport. Now you can do the same when ordering from thousands of smaller online retailers using our Tracked24 service, seven days a week.”

Mr Landon added that the Sunday delivery plan so far did not include letters, however he would not rule that out for the future if there was a demand for it.

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Considerations for your Direct Mail Campaign

According to the DMA, flats have the best response rates at 6.6%, followed by postcards at  5.7% and letters at 4.3%. However, you should consider all formats to see which one is the best fit for your campaign. What ever you decide to do, if done correctly direct mail is a targeted way of gaining new customers and retaining existing ones.  They can help with both branding and delivering a direct return on your investment.

PLANNING YOUR DIRECT MAIL CAMPAIGN

The Planning Stage

  • What is my budget?
  • What demographic do I want to reach?
  • How many potential customers do I want to mail?
  • When is the best time to mail, is now the right time?
  • What locations do I want to reach?
  • What mechanism do I want to use (envelopes, postcards, one piece mailer, unwrapped brochure)?
  • How do I make sure my direct mail campaign is cost effective and delivers a return on my investment?
  • How do I manage the response?

Messaging

Be to the Point – You have about eight seconds to grab the attention of the person looking through their mail.

Keep It Simple – Be to the point and get you unique selling points across, long wordy paragraphs tend not to work as well.

Add Bold Artwork – Use relevant images to get your message across, consider your price point when deciding what to us.

Consider your Offer – From unique voucher codes and discounts, to loyalty schemes, or it may be you want to sell on the quality or uniqueness of your product or service. What ever you decide, this should be carefully considered and come across consistently in  your messaging.

Find Ways To Stand Out- Your prospects and customers are looking for unique pieces in the mail and there are some really fun and creative ways to engage your audience.

Consider using the following elements:

  • Postcards
  • Brochures
  • Letters
  • One piece mailers
  • Vouchers
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Royal Mail Door Drops

TARGETED REACH GETS RESULTS

Door drops can be a cost-effective way to get your leaflets, flyers and brochures directly into customers’ hands.

Did you know that around 80% of the UK’s top advertisers use door drops*? Its a fact that 73% are opened, read, filed or set aside for later.*

You can use door drops to get your message into almost 30 million relevant homes across the UK, without using personal data eliviating the fear that sometimes surrounds GDPR

Prices for door drop distribution have been frozen for 2020 so you can reach new customers and keep costs down.

Ask Cavalier Mailing about the benfits of Royal Mail Door Drops

*DMA Door guide 2018

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Partially Addressed Envleope

Royal Mail Partially Addressed Mail™

Trial of the Royal Mail Partially Addressed Mail

We are very pleased to launch the trial of the Royal Mail Partially Addressed Mail™ service. Royal Mail are aiming to start accepting customer postings from as early as 8 November 2018 and are introducing the service with a great introductory offer of up to 4p per item discount off the advertising price.

Royal Mail have tested the service with a small number of customers. In doing so they compared the return on investment (ROI) achieved when sending advertising mail to targeted addresses with that achieved when sending mail to targeted individuals. Initial results show that once you take into account the lower price of purchasing data and postage, the ROI is just slightly lower when sending mail to targeted addresses. They believe the ROI can improve through testing and learning.

What is Partially Addressed Mail?

Partially Addressed Mail is for advertisers prospecting to new customers. It enables targeted mail marketing without the use of personal data about recipients. It does so, by targeting households using geo-demographics at postcode level (c.15 households). Instead of addressing a mailing item to an individual prospective customer, the mail item will be addressed to the household. Customers need to exclude existing customers from the Partially Addressed Mail posting and ensure that the mailing items contain no personal information. This is very important. To produce a Partially Addressed Mail posting, customers may use PAF data, excluding all personal data (i.e. Roberts’ household) and any single household postcodes, and a geo-demographic solution (for example, CAMEO or MOSAIC).

How does it compare with fully addressed Advertising Mail?

The new service has the following features compared to Advertising Mail:

  • Lower postage costs – We appreciate that when using Partially Addressed, response rates may not be as high as advertisers would receive from personalized, cold list mailings. Therefore, we have set the prices of the Partially Addressed Mail service lower than the Advertising Mail service. It is 4p per item less for letters and 2p per item less for large letters.
  • Significantly reduced data costs – As you do not need to purchase personal data, you can typically save up to 5-10p/item on average over a cold list mailing.
  • Estimated 30% more reach – For the same budget spend, you can communicate with 30% more households in one mailing than with a personalised, cold list mailing.
  • Minimum 10,000 items per mailing and requirement to mail all households within each targeted postcode removing personal addresses, existing customers and suppressed customers.

If you are interested in this product or would like to discuss other postage options please fill out the form on the right or call us now on 01603 720303

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Royal Mail 2018 Christmas Stamp

2018 Christmas Digital Stamp

Did you know that you can pre-print colour stamps* on your envelopes?

If you want your mail-pieces to stand out from the crowd then you can change the ‘standard’ PPI to a ‘stamp-like indicia’.  You may have already received an envelope with one and not even realised that it wasn’t a real stamp!

The 2nd class stamp (blue) is one option but we can also now offer a 2018 2nd Class Christmas stamp image as an image option for use on from 5th November 2018 until the end of January 2019.

To use a Digital Stamp design on your mailings you must use Mailmark.

If this is of interest to you or you have any questions then get in touch with the team at Cavalier Mailing

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Save Money on Postage Fees by Using Direct Mail

Save money

Ever since Royal Mail lost the monopoly on the postal system, stamp prices have been affected; in quantity, size, shape, content of material, quality of data and geographical spread. In 2012, the prices for postage got more expensive when VAT was introduced into the overall cost. It now takes 4 working days for a regular letter to be delivered, with a minimum payment that amounts to 64p plus VAT, depending on the contents of the letter itself.

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10 Effective Direct Mail Marketing Approaches

Direct mail

The direct mail game has long changed and it’s now time for advertisers and marketers to be more creative, innovative and sincere in their mailing strategies and campaigns.

Here are 10 solid tips that can make your direct mail campaign beneficial to both sides – you and the consumers!

#1: Know What is Useful for You and the Recipients

Look at your mail; recognise the elements that you like and dislike and then realign and reorganise them in a way that will be favourable and attractive to the customer – and beneficial to the business as well.

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6 Useful Types of Direct Mail and Their Benefits

6 types of direct mail

Businesses who tailor their direct mail campaigns specifically for each purpose, addressing it to a relevant target audience, will save money on mailing costs and guarantee favourable returns.

You too can be successful in your direct mail strategies. Take a look at our list of useful direct mail pieces and their benefits:

Postcards

Postcards are one of the clearest and most effective messaging tools you can use for a variety of products and services. Aside from being economical, postcards are proven to effectively generate leads.

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Top Reasons Why Consumers Choose Direct Mail over Email

consumers choose direct mail img

With the non-stop barrage of irrelevant and unwanted emails, many people are now abandoning their online accounts for good. In fact, a recent research by the Direct Marketing Association revealed that 19 million active email accounts in the UK are reportedly no longer in use.

A lot of consumers have made the switch BACK to direct mail and here are just a few of the reasons why:

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Recommended Last Mailing Dates 2017

Royal Mail 

Royal Mail (direct) has confirm the following dates:

  • Saturday 17 December (Sorted) Economy
  • Tuesday 20 December 2nd Class Royal Mail (Sorted or Unsorted)
  • Wednesday 21 December 1st Class (Sorted or Unsorted)
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4 Direct Mail Edges that lead to Increased ROI

DM ROI img 1

Today, more pieces of direct mail are being opened compared to 2013. This is based on recent research conducted by Wilmington Millennium, which revealed that a staggering 500 million pieces of direct mail (DM) are now being opened and read – adding an additional £1.6 billion to the channel’s ROI.

Interesting Advantage

Printed direct mail possesses a noteworthy advantage over digital mail marketing as it is carefully developed, specifically targeted, tangible and reasonably unique – creating a favourable response from the recipient. Add to the equation the rise of new printing methods and techniques that make for a truly stand out message and voila!

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4 Advantages of Direct Mail Over Email

4 ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT MAIL OVER EMAIL

Although technology has changed the direct marketing landscape, direct mail continues to make even stronger marketing connections – with enhancements made possible by web technology, etc.

Inbox-Sensitive

Whether we are talking about the physical or electronic inbox, just how capable are you of reading all the mail you receive? Personal inboxes are chock-a-block with personal communication, updates, offers, news and others but do you really have the energy or the time to go through it all?

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Direct Mail Strategies: Know your Recipients!

Know your Recipients IMG

Businesses are very aware that direct mailing is still alive and kicking but what keeps it active? The answer lies with the very people that receive and respond to direct mail!

Let us explore your recipients and their potential viewpoint – from what they feel, to how they end up on mailing lists and all the in-betweens:

Potential Buyers

The direct mail list displays people’s profiles such as their age, civil status, number of children and education – everything that is relevant to their purchasing capabilities.

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Improving Royal Mail Performance

Postage Price increase 3rd January 2017

Royal Mail have released their access (wholesale service for Postal providers such as Citipost, Whistl, UK Mail) price increases for January 2017 and in line with their communication,  new rate cards will be issued to come into effect for anything handed over to Royal Mail from the 3rd January 2017 onwards.

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Understanding Bulk Mailing Jargon

INFOGRAPHICS-cavalier-understanding-bulk-mailing-jargon

Bulk mailing is a brilliant marketing technique but it does include some mail specific terms that you might not be familiar with. Understanding how this can be quite confusing, we have come up with a simple terminology guideline to help you get started.

CBC

Short for Customer Bar Code – the barcode is an option in Royal Mail’s bulk mailing service that facilitates the sorting process; allowing it to pass quickly through the sorting machine.

Mail Sorting

This refers to mail management (sorting and processing), which is normally done by Royal Mail to help reduce postal costs.

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Whistl Logo

whistl (ing) a new tune – TNT Post rebrand

TNT Post have rebranded themselves to provide themselves with a distinct identity while they try to steal further market share from Royal Mail.  Whistl processes over 22% of all the UK’s mail. Each year they collect, sort, send and transport over 4 billion items of addressed mail, packets and parcels for businesses just like yours, as well as handling millions of pieces of unaddressed mail.

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Improving Royal Mail Performance

ROYAL MAIL BEATS QUALITY OF SERVICE TARGETS

Royal Mail beat its 93.0 per cent First Class mail target with 93.2 per cent of this mail delivered the next working day. It also exceeded its Second Class mail target of 98.5 per cent, delivering 98.9 per cent of this mail within three working days. Royal Mail has one of the highest service specifications of any major European country[1].

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Mailing Survey

Market Research – Mailing Facts

Direct Mail continues to be the preferred choice for brochures, catalogues, welcome packs and statements, whereas email is considered more appropriate for new, confirmations and promotional offers. A study carried out in 2007 (just prior to the launch of the first iPhone) provided very similar results to a more recent survey, proving that, for the right service, Direct Mail is still King despite the explosion in e-services.

Welcome Packs

62% preferred to receive mailed copies as opposed to only 23% who preferred email

Brochures and Catalogues

63% preferred to receive mailed copies as opposed to only 21% who preferred email

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Royal Mail Logo

Royal Mail to cut 1,600 managerial jobs

ROYAL Mail is facing the threat of industrial action just months after its controversial privatisation after unveiling “ruthless” plans to axe 1,600 jobs as part of a programme aimed at saving £50 million .

The UK’s newly-privatised universal postal service provider said today that the “vast majority” of the jobs lost will be among its operational and head office managers, avoiding impacts on frontline employees including delivery staff and said 300 new posts would also be created, leaving a net reduction of 1,300 roles.

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Royal Mail Size Template

Changes in Large Letter Services

Royal Mail is restructuring their Large Letter services to further reflect how people use mail. Advertising Mail Large Letters remain unchanged. However, the standard Large Letter service used for both transactional documents and goods fulfilment is being
divided into services aimed at these two applications. A Business Mail Large Letters service is being introduced for senders of transactional mail, magazines and other non-fulfilment uses and these rates are approximately 5% above the 2013/14 rates.

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PAF - Postal Address File

Revised Proposal on Postal Address File Licencing

Last summer, following extensive discussions with Government and its representatives, the Royal Mail published their proposal for simplifying PAF® licensing and set out substantial reforms to the licensing arrangements.

Having listened to the market’s feedback, sought expert advice from the PAF Advisory Board; independent representatives of PAF® users, including The Strategic Mailing Partnership™ board and the sub group Mail Presentation Advisory Group they have considered how best to develop their proposal.

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Royal Mail Logo

Royal Mail – Quality of Service

Royal Mail’s latest report reveals that it achieved its quality targets for First Class letters and parcels and was ahead of its Second Class target for this mail after the first three quarters of the 2013/14 financial year. Royal Mail has the highest service specification of any major European country (1)

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Royal Mail to change Printed Postage Impression – PPI

The design of the Royal Mail’s Printed Postage Impression (PPI) is changing by adding ‘Delivered by Royal Mail’ mark to the current PPI designs.

Why we are they doing this?
The Royal Mail believes it important that their employees role in delivering the mail to communities throughout the UK is fully recognised.

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Royal Mail now charge VAT

Royal Mail to charge VAT on all bulk services

Changes to the way in which the Royal Mail are regulated and how their services attract VAT are due to come into force from 2nd April 2012. Some of the information is still to be detailed but in a nutshell from April if you send mail using the Royal Mail Online Business Account (OBA) or using a docket book you will be charged VAT.

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