5 Simple Steps to Cut Mailing Costs

Mailroom efficiencies that can pay for themselves!

For small businesses that rely on the mailroom to distribute statements and invoices or send out marketing materials, it is crucial that your mailroom be a super-efficient communication center. That is why successful small business owners and managers are always looking for ways to improve mailroom efficiencies while cutting mailroom costs—luckily these two things can go hand-in-hand!

With these five simple steps your business is on its way to cutting mailing costs and automating your processes, so you have a highly organized mailroom that is an asset to your company.

1. Meter Your Mail!

Postage accounts for the majority of mailing costs and offers the greatest opportunity to save. The simplest way to cut mailing costs, no matter the volume of mail, is by swapping out those stamps for a meter. Modern businesses don’t have time to sit and manually stamp each individual letter. They make their mailroom more efficient by stamping in bulk with a meter and avoiding trips to the post office and over-stamping. Meter users also get discounts on the mail they send, 9 percent on every First-Class letter and up to 40 percent on Priority Mail.

Tip Do a quick audit of your mailing with our full list of meter discounts. Give yourself 1 point out of 10 for every discount you are implementing in your mailroom and across your business.

2. Go Paperless

Millions of customers in the U.S. still prefer to have their invoices, statements and other documents physically mailed to their addresses. This can be a daunting multi-step operation for any small business: printing, folding, stuffing, addressing, and mailing. That is where mail services come in. Mail services outsource your mail processing by simply linking with your ERP or business application to get those invoices, statements or any other documents out in less than 24 hours, all offsite. No more supplies, trips to the post office, folding and stuffing. This can add valuable time back to your business.  

Tip Want to give mail services a try without all the pressure? Start with a seasonal or recurring marketing mailer and track the benefits across departments. Challenge your teams to determine time and budget saved!

3. Mail Scanning=Efficient Mailing

Using a folder inserter to scan and stuff your documents can speed up your mailing and reduce human error. It is a labor-efficient way to secure your mail and ensure that each document is going to the right customer. This technology can also sort print jobs and combine multiple letters to the same address in a single envelope, making this technology a great tool for a wide range of industries from healthcare to insurance and law.

Tip Send a quick survey out to your teams and ask them to share their weekly time on this task. Then determine how quickly you can recoup your savings!

4. Good Riddance to Bad Data

Seriously, small businesses can waste thousands of dollars on bad data. Just check out this Harvard Business Review article on bad data. It often costs 10x as much to make corrections and complete the work. By removing data that is incorrect, incomplete, improperly formatted or duplicated, your business can function more efficiently. You can save up to $25 per mail piece by eliminating returned mail and parcels. That means you avoid wasted mailing costs and address correction fees, boost marketing response rates and revenues, and enhance cash flow and customer satisfaction all stemming from good, clean data.

Tip Ask a small group in your office to track how many mail items out of 100 have errors. Then multiply each by $25!

5. Keep track of your postal spend

Understanding and tracking when and where your business is spending on postage can be key to determining how to become more efficient. Companies that track their spend effectively are able to identify departments that should be using bulk mailing or collating documents or pre-sorting to reduce postage costs and improve efficiencies. Tracking postage spends can be combined with a postage meter where chargebacks can be entered leading to quick and easy tracking.

Tip Share your quarterly postal spend with your employees but leave the data anonymous. See if employees can correctly match spend to each department. Then crowdsource ideas for becoming more efficient. Ask your staff to brainstorm everyday efficiencies they can champion, like using flat rate boxes and reusing bubble wrap and other packing materials.

How Quadient Provide Cost-Cutting Mailroom Efficiencies

Quadient strives to make mailing as an asset for your business, not an expense. We’ve done this by perfecting the process of preparing, sending and receiving mail for maximum efficiency, so that it pays for itself. Find out how meters, mail services, and folding and inserting equipment and software can benefit your business. Send us an email or call 1.800.Quadient to speak to a specialist.