Category: Mailing

If you are waiting for a parcel that has been sent by courier or even certain services within the Royal Mail then you will probably receive a tracking number from the sender. This allows you to log on to their website or call them up and track where your parcel is.

All couriers have different tracking methods. Some will only give you limited information as to when it has left the depot etc whereas others will tell you what time you can expect your parcel and even the name of the driver.

This is a great service for business sending and receiving mail as it means that they can not only give their customers accurate information regarding deliveries but can also see when supplies they have ordered should arrive.

Tracking is usually quite curate but often is only updated when the delivery driver or depot inputs the details, although this is becoming more automated when parcels are scanned in and out.

With the recent controversial sell off of Royal Mail, there have been questions about the future of the firm. While the sharp rise in its share price following the sale suggest a bright future for the firm, the numerous other delivery firms around could spell trouble. While royal mail is bound to deliver mail anywhere in the country for the same price, the other firms out there have no such constriction.

Royal Mail’s key strength is a strong, trusted brand and it’s well established infrastructure. While other delivery firms may be able to pick and choose where they deliver to (some smaller firms only operate in urban areas), the Royal Mail’s commitment to deliver everywhere in the country could actually be a strength. The loss of Royal Mail would be a blow for people in rural and outlying areas, but if it can stay competitive and keep a nationwide presence it should continue to thrive.

With the beauty of the internet and email it is quite easy to do away with a lot of paperwork. For some businesses, taking the step from posting out documents and using faxes etc to sending everything electronically is a daunting process and therefore it often gets pushed to the back.

There may be quite a high initial set up cost to upgrade or add in additional functionality to your current systems to allow you to do this but often once the hard part is over you will see the benefits instantly. You will also need to contact all your customers to explain the new systems you are putting in place and how it will affect them and you will have to be prepared for a few hiccups in the initial period until everyone knows how it all works.

These systems will save you a lot of money in the future and no longer will you have to worry about things getting lost in the post as with email it is normally able to be tracked and you can store copies of everything on a server (which can also be backed up) making it very secure.

If you have a company that obtains email addresses from people wishing to either register to receive news or product updates to being informed when their car is due for a service, then by law, you must give them option to opt out or unsubscribe.

When emailing people initially, you need to be able to prove that they are aware of what they are signing up to and have agreed for you to contact them. Any data you collect from your visitors can also not be sold on to a third party without their consent.

All emails that are sent out need to have a unsubscribe option on to allow people to remove themselves from the list. This ideally should be linked up to your contacts list so that they are automatically removed and will receive no further messages.

Some companies ask the user to tell them why they are leaving. Although this information may be useful you also may find that a lot of people do not want to take the time to complete this or may even chose the first option that you present to them just to complete the unsubscribe process.

If you use email mail shots as part of your marketing strategy you should consider the time that the email is sent. I have a few (rather large) companies that chose to send emails out at 4am in the morning! This is extremely annoying and has, at times, caused me to unsubscribe to any future mailings. This is not what you want and therefore it is very important to consider this when it comes to the mail out scheduling.
Many systems will give you feed back of what time a mail out is opened and this information can be vital to future marketing. Depending on who your recipient is and what type of product or service you are marketing can have a strong influence on popular opening times, for example, a mail out that is aimed at other businesses rather than an individual will probably best being sent out during normal working hours.