Bulk postage rates for high-volume mailing

When you want to send out large volumes of direct marketing material to a broad audience at the lowest possible cost, a bulk mailing campaign is the way to go.

Before pressing ahead with this approach, it’s worth thinking about some of the finer details of sending mail in bulk.

In this blog, we take a look at:

How bulk postage rates work
The factors that determine these rates
How you can save money on bulk postage
The potential benefits of bulk mailing services for your business

Understanding bulk postage rates

Bulk postage rates are the costs you pay to send out large quantities of direct mail.

The main incentive for businesses to distribute mail in bulk is to secure discounts on postage. In order to qualify for these lower rates, you need to send at least 4,000 standard letter tariff items, or 1,000 large letter tariff items, in one go.

Another requirement for bulk mail cost reductions is pre-sorting. This ensures that all of the items you’re sending have been fully checked, grouped and prepared for efficient distribution before being handed over to your delivery provider.

Factors influencing bulk postage costs

The bulk postage rates you pay to have your direct mail delivered depend on factors including:

Volume: The more pieces of mail you send, the more you pay for postage. However, it’s worth remembering that larger mailouts also offer more scope for discounts, helping to reduce your postage rate per item.
Size and weight: Larger, heavier items such as brochures and catalogues cost more to send than leaflets and postcards.
Speed of delivery: You could save money by opting for standard or second-class postage over next-day or special delivery.
Location: Sending items internationally will increase your costs, and you could also find yourself paying more to reach recipients in remote or hard-to-access locations.
Packaging and labelling: Deliveries must be properly packaged and labelled for your direct mail campaigns to qualify for bulk postage rates. Items that don’t meet certain criteria – such as having sturdy packaging, legible labels and return addresses – could be rejected.

How we can help you save money on postage

The costs involved in posting your marketing materials can account for more than half the total budget of your direct mail campaign.

That’s why it’s always worth pursuing every postage discount that might be available to you. An experienced mailing house partner like The Mailing People can be a huge help in this area.

We can point you towards various opportunities to save money on both domestic and international postage for advertising and business mail. That might include qualifying for Mailmark discounts and using pre-sorting to cut franking rates by up to 30%.

What’s more, we can use our established relationships with delivery suppliers to help you secure low costs as standard.

As well as highlighting opportunities for you to save money on postage, we can help you make efficient use of your budget for print, fulfilment and delivery through data cleansing. This helps you to avoid issues such as duplicates, invalid postcodes and sending to addresses registered with the Mailing Preference Service.

The benefits of bulk mail services

The biggest advantages of using bulk mail services to help get your message across to your audience include:

Speed and efficiency: A specialist service can help you complete some of the legwork involved in bulk mailing – such as pre-sorting and labelling – as quickly and smoothly as possible.
Broader reach: Sending mail in bulk means you can reach a large audience at a lower cost. With an experienced partner on-side, you can ensure your distribution list is accurate and you’re focusing your efforts on relevant contacts.
Segmentation and personalisation: The pre-sorting phase of the process gives you an opportunity to segment your mailing list and target specific geographical areas and demographics with tailored messaging.
Scalability: Bulk mailing services can grow and develop in line with your business and its needs. As long as you meet the minimum volume limits, you can start small and steadily scale your campaigns up and down as you see fit.