Text rather than post
The postal service has been in disarray these past few weeks. Millions of items have been “lost” as a result, costing you money. Think of all that wasted paper too - is there another, greener, less costly way to send some of your post?
Counting the cost
More than half of the UK’s SMEs rely on Royal Mail to send over 80% of their business post, so it’s easy to see why the strike action made October a nightmare for anyone trying to run a business. For small businesses the costs were between £500 and £5,000, according to a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses. What’s more, four out of ten said they could lose trade and a similar number felt that their business reputation could be damaged.
Complete waste
It’s highly likely that post you’ve sent, or been sent, has been lost in this melee creating hundreds of tonnes of extra paper waste. It’s also cost you more in terms of re-sending items so it’s double the paper, envelopes etc. Is there another way of sending some of your post, especially given all the technology around? A way that is cheaper and greener too?
Tip 1. Don’t just think about the post you send, but also the post you receive. Many financial transactions can now be done online. This will save paper and allow you to keep a closer eye on your accounts.
Tip 2. Some utility companies offer you a small discount if you opt for paperless statements.
Go electronic
Some information legally needs to be sent by post (e.g. certain contracts etc.). However, there’s a large amount of business mail that consists of reminders, offers, follow-ups or marketing. Mostly, this type of communication could easily be handled by e-mail or text message. For example, as a small business, customer retention is very important to you and one of the ways to achieve this is being at the forefront of your customer’s mind. What better way than sending a text or an e-mail? Everything from your newsletter to order confirmations can be sent electronically, side-stepping Royal Mail and the inherent cost.
Tip 1. You can generally send two types of e-mail - HTML or Text. HTML e-mails are the fancy ones with images, colours and even links to videos. Some companies allow you to send out HTML e-mails through them for free (see The next step).
Tip 2. Before you start sending e-mails or texts to your customers, make sure you get their permission first; otherwise you will be spamming them. There’s also some legal stuff to check. However, you don’t have to be a designer or a techie to create a great looking HTML e-mail; http://www.mailchimp.com provides free e-mail templates.
What you’ll save
Naturally, it depends on how much post you send. But let’s look at texting. A text message service provider - http://www.telemarketer.co.uk - claims that the average cost of sending 1,000 one-page letters is £500. Of those 1,000, the average response is 2.5%, which means you’re paying £20 per response. Sending a text not only potentially quadruples the response rate, but is also much cheaper - 1,000 texts will cost you around £38 (3.8p per text). Scaling that up to larger mail-outs and the savings are in the tens of thousands, as follows:
| Option | Volume | Cost | Saving |
| 1,000 | £500 | ||
| Text | 1,000 | £38 | £462 |
| 5,000 | £2,500 | ||
| Text | 5,000 | £190 | £2,310 |
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