Your Complete Guide
From letter sizes to optimising your mailing. Here are all your postage options in one place.
Why use Eight Days for your postage?
Postage is often the most expensive part of a print campaign. And it can make or break your decision on what to print and distribute. While digital campaigns reduce your outgoings, printing and mailing can still be cost-effective. We’ll work with you to produce mailings that qualify for postage discounts and cheaper rates, so your budget stretches further and your product really makes a splash.
Cost savings
We’ll help reduce the price of postage without compromising on quality
Partnerships
As trusted Royal Mail and Citipost partners, we can secure additional discounts
Expert advice
Ask away! There’s very little we don’t know about mailing and distribution
Efficiency
From print through to posting, our in-house fulfilment service makes the whole process smoother
Flexible formats
Direct mail, leaflet distribution, multi-channel marketing…whatever your project, we can make it happen
How to optimise your postage
Whether you have high volumes, need a fast turnaround or want to reach international customers, we can help you mail your project in a way that works for you.
We’ll start by looking at:
- Your data – By running a data cleanse and profiling customers, your engagement rates will rise
- Your postage format – Some artwork and mailer sizes are more cost-efficient than others
- Machinability – Make your post easier to process and the mailing price will drop
- Recyclability – Improve customer experience and make your mail eligible for postal discounts
- Delivery times – Choose the best day for your mailer to land to enjoy optimal engagement
Read our blog on optimising postage
“As a customer, you don’t have to worry about what’s happening in the postage world. That’s what we’ll do for you
Graham Thomas
Sales and Marketing Manager
Eight Days A Week Print Solutions
There are other ways to improve your mailing too:
- Use a downstream access provider (DSA)
Citipost and Whistl collect mail from us and feed it back into the Royal Mail postal service further down the line, making for speedier, cheaper delivery. - International mailings
We can offer advice on customs and VAT charges to help get your mail anywhere in the world, as smoothly as possible. - Special classes
Charity or not-for-profit? Maximise your budget by claiming back VAT – or see if you qualify for alternative mailing rates. - JICMAIL
This is the industry body for direct mail. By opting to feed into their national statistics, you’ll be better placed to improve future mailings. - Sustainable mail
In the past, including FSC and recycling logos on printed materials made you eligible for postal discounts. These days, sustainable print optimises the customer experience. - Best practice
All mailings should include an option to unsubscribe. Removing disengaged audience members will gradually increase your response rate and ROI.
Postage offers and incentives
As a Royal Mail Premier Partner, we’ll be among the first to know about new postal discounts and cost-efficient mailing opportunities. Royal Mail postage options and incentives change over time but our expert team will be able to advise on current schemes you may be eligible for.
Talk to us about postage discounts
What are my postage options?
When it comes to mailing and distribution, the choice can seem overwhelming. The main types of mailings that commercial businesses and charitable organisations opt for are:
Business Mail
Business mail refers to post sent by businesses to their customers to communicate important information and boost customer experience. It might include bills and invoices, customer service messages and notifications, or appointment letters.
Advertising Mail
Advertising mailings promote products or services that are for sale or share charitable requests for donations. Royal Mail needs to approve and licence advertising mail before it’s issued.
Advanced Mail
Advanced mail is printed with a licence number and barcode or with a printed postage impression that contains a barcode. Items are priced on volume, determined by Royal Mail’s sorting machines.
Mail sorting
Mail sorting involves sorting data to make post more machineable and easier for the postal carrier – be that Royal Mail or another supplier – to deliver. By using mail sorting, customers benefit from postal discounts and faster delivery.
What is Mailsort?
Mailsort is a cost-saving initiative that offers discounts for preparing mail before it’s shared with the final distributor. This may involve analysing address data and grouping a mailing by geographical destination or postage class so that it’s partially sorted before it goes to the Royal Mail sorting office.
As a Royal Mail Premier Partner and a member of the Royal Mail Strategic Mailing Partnership, our team will find the best way forward and make recommendations that deliver cost savings.
Unsorted vs sorted mail
The smaller the volume of your mailout, the less likely it is that it’ll need sorting before sending.
Sorted mail
Sorting mail can reduce the cost of large postage volumes (over 4,000 letters) and may include:
- Mailmark
- Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- Non-machineable mail.
Unsorted mail
The price of unsorted mail is determined by:
- The number of items to be sent
- The weight of the item
- The format of the item
- How quickly it needs delivering.
Partially Addressed Mail
If you’re looking to attract new customers, Partially Addressed Mail can be a great option. It involves using a partial address to communicate with a household rather than an individual. Letters may be directed towards ‘The occupier’ or a ‘homeowner’, depending on your message.
What is Mailmark®?
Royal Mail Mailmark® barcodes are encoded with unique information about each piece of mail, such as the postage service being used, supply chain participants and address details.
Mailmark® offers a number of benefits:
- Transparency – so you know where the mail is in the network
- Timing and tracking – so you know when it’s likely to arrive
- Tools for reporting – analyse volume and delivery stats to improve performance.
Postage sizes
The format of your mailing will affect postage costs. Postage formats vary in size and weight. If we can help you to fit your mailer into a specific postal category, you may be able to take advantage of cost reductions.
The standard sizes of Advertising and Business mail are:
| Weight | Max. length | Max. width | Max. depth | |
| Letter | Up to 100g | 240mm | 165mm | 5mm |
| Large letter | Up to 750g | 353mm | 250mm | 25mm |
| Large letter (machine readable) | Up to 750g | 345mm | 245mm | 10mm |
Royal Mail
While we use a variety of postal suppliers to distribute your marketing materials, Royal Mail is one of our preferred partners. As Premier Partners, we’ll help to make your mailing eligible for Royal Mail postage discounts.
How to get a Royal Mail business account
If you already have an existing Royal Mail Business Account, we can use it to send mail on your behalf.
Set up an Online Business Account
Alternatively, we can post your campaign out from our account on your behalf, to save time and make the process more efficient.
Ask for help with your mailing
Royal Mail delivery times
Wondering how long first class or second class post takes to arrive? Or what about International delivery or Royal Mail’s Economy delivery service? Here’s what you can expect:
| Suitable for | Delivery aim | |
| Royal Mail 1st Class | Letters and parcels up to 20kg | 1 day / Next day delivery |
| Royal Mail 2nd Class | Letters and parcels up to 20kg | 2-3 days |
| Royal Mail Economy | 4 working days | |
| International Standard | Up to 2kg | 3-5 days |
Looking for trackable mail, Special Delivery or Recorded Delivery? Get in touch to discuss your options.
Royal Mail strikes
Royal Mail strike days and industrial action can have a marked impact on postage and distribution, leading to delays. In the event of a postal strike, we will help to minimise disruption and keep services running as normally as possible to help you get your communications into the hands of your customers smoothly and swiftly.
