How much does is cost to send a letter?

Tuesday, 19th August 2014

Categories: Analysis

Many companies and organisations when considering the cost of undertaking a mailing focus on the cost of postage. That’s fine but it’s only part of the overall cost.

Others recognise that in order to post you have to have envelopes and paper for letters or flyers. So now we have postage and materials to consider.

There are some who factor in the costs of running the grumpy franking machine, the ink alone can add 1p to the cost of each mailing let alone the rental fee and the additional costs of service and top up admin charges! So now we have the postage, materials, and the associated costs of franking.

Then there are the well informed who build in the cost of labour. It can hours to set up and print even a modest mailing and the very best person can only stuff 100 envelopes an hour.  It can then take another hour or so to frank the mail or even longer to stick on stamps, and then you have to take the mail to the Post Office or pay to have it collected.  So now we have the postage, the materials, franking or stamp costs, and the labour costs to make it all happen.

You could then add in the cost of having to pay for postage in advance because you have to buy credit for the franking machine or stamps, and pay for all the stock of envelopes and other materials. Then you should add in the costs of running your printers!

Mailing is a lot more than just postage. This is why companies of all sizes should consider what the “actual” costs are associated with transactional and promotional mailings. In many cases it is possible to make significant savings by outsourcing elements of postal communications, and at the same time release staff to do more value added work. 

Author: Gamze Bilgili