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‘Frankly, get it sorted!’
21st August 2006, marked what some coined as the ‘biggest changes to Royal Mail since the introduction of the Penny Black’ - the introduction of ‘Pricing In Proportion’ (PIP)…
As of 21st August, mail is now priced according to both weight AND size.
All businesses will have received a size guide and pricing matrix from Royal Mail* and I’m sure many have quizzed themselves repeatedly on whether a letter is still a letter…or is it a large letter, or even a parcel…?
So, what do the changes really mean and can you achieve lower postal charges without compromising the design? Well, where we can all apply some smart thinking is when it comes to future reprints or redesigns of existing marketing material such as A4 leaflets, flyers and brochures...
The ins and outs…
Cutting through this information overload, let’s get it sorted and compare some commonly posted items, based on 1st class mail from a business franking account…
An A4 Newsletter (unfolded), 4 printed pages on 200gsm paper (total weight approx 30gsm – falling within the 0-100gsm band).
| 1st Class WAS – 31p each |
1st Class NOW – 41p each |
So, the approximate cost to mail an A4 quarterly newsletter x1,000 units, four times per annum…
| 1st Class WAS - £1,240 per year |
1st Class NOW - £1,640 per year |
That’s an increase of £400 per year… noting a simple switch to 2nd class mail for the same item (at 33p each), could alone result in a saving of £320.
OR… why not consider a simple format change to A5, reducing the cost to just 30p each (1st class) or 21p (2nd class) and a potential saving of £440 or £800 over the course of the year.
Note: If your database or mail-shot was, say x20,000 units per year, then postage costs also scale quite dramatically.
It’s not all bad news…
The postal charges are complicated furthermore with the widening of the weight brackets…the upshot being that heavier items may in fact reduce in cost…
For example, Bulletpoint Design (our sister company) have a heavyweight company brochure, and the cost to post each brochure again, from a 1st class franking account has actually reduced…
A4 brochure, 44 printed pages on 200gsm paper (total weight approx 330gsm).
| 1st Class WAS - £1.25 per item |
1st Class NOW – 85p per item |
That’s a saving of 40p per item, with no changes to the format!
So, to anyone on the mailing list, we will now be more than happy to post them a copy…and to all our clients who have previously requested a brochure, look out for it arriving any time now - after 21st August!
Let’s wrap it up…
We know that ‘one size doesn’t fit all’ and as such, Bulletprint strive to provide solutions for our clients that utilise effective production techniques to maximise your budgets. This could involve changing formats from A4 to A5 and judging the weight of the finished article in advance. Noting, common sense also prevails at Bulletprint, we now fold all A4 invoices in half and post them in a C5 envelope – branded of course! And if we do a lot of invoicing, we might send them 2nd class!!
Using effective design and print will allow you to stand out from the crowd, but just make sure you don’t price yourself out of your own proportion…!
*For further info or to request a size guide visit www.royalmail.com/size
For bulletprinted branded envelopes please click here
If you are thinking about new formats or redesigning your marketing material please visit www.bulletpointdesign.co.uk |
 
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