Category: Mailing

Being a postman or women is a public service and requires dedication and a high level of responsibility. You will be required to ensure the post reaches the correct house at the correct time as some letters are guaranteed for delivery by a certain time of the day.

Historically postman and women used to have to do their postal rounds very early in the morning, often whilst the rest of us sleep but nowadays rounds don’t often start till around 8-9am.

Although you may not start your round until then you will have to go to the sorting office before you start your round to collect the mail that needs to be delivered that day which can be being up and out for 6am.

Most post men/women have the same area that they deliver to, Monday to Saturday. You may occasionally get asked to cover other shifts or to swap with someone else. You need dedication, patience and social skills as it’s all about public service. Sometimes you may have to work beyond your actual finishing time to get the job done but the quicker you can deliver the quicker you can finish and then take the rest of the day for yourself.

Direct marketing can have many benefits and some companies swear by it. Direct marketing can be done a number of different ways and is a way of contacting or communicating with your target audience. You need to find a form of direct marketing hat works for your business and gives you a high return on investment.

Direct marketing allows you to communicate with the potential buyer direct and can help you build up a comprehensive database.

Postcards are a popular type of direct marketing because they are cheaper to mail than letters. They can be easily printed and you don’t even need an envelope. A postcard can be designed to be very bright and colourful or have big bold text on the one side, and the smaller print or the details on the other. You can personalise postcards too and even have a variety of designs to send out to your customers. During summer you may wish to theme your postcodes with a beach setting or picnic scene.  

Always try and include at least one benefit or advantage to the customer in the heading so that they have a good reason to want to read on.

Many of us now do online shopping for food, clothing and gifts/gadgets. You may be tempted by low prices online but it is important to check the delivery costs as these can sometimes bump up the price to more than you would pay if buying from the shop.  

You need to have a look at whether the retailer offers free delivery for orders over a certain amount. If the item you are ordering is not far off the minimum price for free delivery you may be better to buy an additional item to push the price up a bit. This can mean that you essentially get a free item as you would of had to pay the same price with the delivery charge.

It is always worth checking online for voucher codes as often you can find one for free delivery for  huge number of retailers. It is also worth asking family and friends if they wish to purchase anything as together you may be eligible for free delivery.

If you do your online shopping online you can often buy a delivery pass which will cover you for a certain amount of deliveries in a year and can often save you quite a bit of money.

If you are going on holiday then you may wish to seed loved ones at home a postcard. Traditionally lots of people used to send post cards when they were away on holiday to share with friends and family back home what they have been doing. This was often done as mobile phones were not around as much and the cost of calling home from a pay phone was usually quite high. Now a days many people use texts, WhatsApp or calls from their mobiles to share their holiday experiences but receiving a postcard is often still a nice touch.

If you are holidaying abroad then your postcard will probably take a little longer to arrive and you may find that you are home before the postcard. You need to try and send your postcard within the first few days of arriving and ideally by first class airmail.

Another thing that some people do is buy postcards but don’t send them. You can then have high quality photos of the area you stayed in which can be nice to use in a holiday album of to give to other members of the family.

Postcards vary in price but you can usually pick one up for around 30- 50 pence.

If you regularly need to post parcels to customers it is important to ensure you find a good, reliable company to handle the deliveries for you. Even if you use a third party delivery company like Hermes or DPD, your customers will still rate you based on the service of the delivery company. As your business is the one they placed the order with, any issues regarding delivery and you will be the first people they get in touch with.

You will obviously want to save as much as possible on delivery especially if sending out large numbers of parcels but you should also consider the service they offer and their reputation. Reading plenty of reviews for the company and trailing their services is a must before committing to a long term contract with them.

Don’t be afraid to bargain with them on prices, especially if you can guarantee a minimum number of packages every week / month.

When selecting the delivery company you wish to use, have a look what services they offer you and also your customers, such as tracking, free returns, next day delivery etc, and collection from a local place. Being able to tell your customers that certain services such as tracking and next day delivery is available, can really help to attract more business and may give you an advantage over other businesses offering the same or similar products.