Sending Business Mail: Stamps, Franking, Pre-Paid Envelopes or Online Postage?

There is a wide range of ways that business mail can be sent via the Royal Mail. These ways include stamping your mail, franking your mail, buying pre-paid envelope or printing online postage labels. Sending business mail is critical for any business and it is important for businesses to understand the advantages and disadvantages of using each type.

Sending Business Mail

View the different ways you can send business mail in the UK with Royal Mail.

Stamps

Stamps are the traditional way of sending business mail. Everyone knows what a stamp is. You queue in the Post Office and once brought they are applied to your mail piece. They can be brought easily, however the price is the main problem with using them.

They are much more expensive to buy. If you only send a few items per year, then stamping is perfect for your business, but for businesses sending much larger volumes every day it can become costly. It can even be a waste of time when applying each stamp.

Pre-Paid Envelopes

Royal Mail sell pre-paid envelopes that do not require a stamp. This should save businesses time and money when sending business mail. Pre-paid envelopes does not give a postage discount but it does remove the time of applying stamps.

Royal Mail sells 100 1st class pre-paid envelopes for £72. Buying 100 envelopes and 1st class stamps from the Royal Mail would actually save you £1.60. Not only this, but pre-paid envelopes provide no flexibility.

Online Postage

Online postage allows you to send letters or parcels with Royal Mail’s easy-to-use online postage service. You can purchase postage online directly from your computer and print directly on the envelope. No upfront payment is required as you only pay when it is needed.

However, this method requires you to process every item separately which is highly inefficient. No discount is saved as the prices are the same as stamps.

Franking

The final method of sending business mail is franking. A franking machine allows you to print a franking impression and this is the stamp alternative. You print the postage yourself and the key difference here is that the franking machine does everything for you. Little human interaction is even needed.

Adding postage to the machine can occur 24/7 and the price of franking is by far cheaper than any other method. A franking machine can even be used to frank a company logo onto your mail, helping to expand your business name.

As you can see franking is a very beneficial method of sending business mail and it can benefit your business. View our range of franking machines here and receive a quick franking machine quote.