Carol Bentley

When sending out a mailshot should you use franked postmarks or live stamps? I’ve always maintained real stamps get a better response in most situations because the letter looks more personal - and I have proved it on many occasions for clients.

So I was intrigued to get a letter from Royal Mail - with a live stamp. Although I have to say the ‘first impression’ of a personal letter was rather spoilt by it being addressed to RM Direct Customer!

In the letter they were promoting their Christmas Stamps. It said:

“Imagine you have two letters in front of you. Which would you open first? The one with the postage stamp or the one with the printed postmark?”

They quoted independent research, carried out in the UK on their behalf by Quadrangle in February 2007, which reported:

“Anecdotal evidence suggests letters with stamps are perceived as having a positive, personal touch and are far more likely to be opened. And direct mail makes the recipient feel more valued than email or e-newsletters.”

I’d like to add my 2p worth to that, based on my own testing and experience…

Does It Work?

I carried out a test for a client, sending half a mailshot using a franked stamp and the other half with ordinary ’stick-on’ stamps. Result? The stamps brought in 18.5% more bookings (it was for a training course) which paid for the extra labour involved and brought in additional profit.

First or Second Class

Most direct mail is sent second class to keep costs to a minimum.

But - tell me, if you see a letter with a 2nd class stamp on it, how important or urgent do you think it is? If the letter inside is urging you to act before a deadline doesn’t that come over as a bit inconsistent with the subliminal message from the 2nd class stamp?

So does that mean you should send your letters 1st class? Could be hellishly expensive - especially if you’re sending out thousands of letters.

No - here’s my suggestion:

Check the actual postage price for your letter or package; for e.g. an ordinary 2nd class letter, at the moment, is 24p. Use denominated stamps to that value. Unfortunately Royal Mail do not help us by offering a 24p stamp, so you have to use multiple stamps. E.g. 10p & 14p.

People rarely check the value of stamps and what class postage rate they represent. So although the actual rate is for 2nd class, it won’t give that impression when it is received.

Getting Your Stamps

Did you know.. if you buy stamps to the value of £35 or more Royal Mail will deliver them to you next day free of charge?

It’s a great way of buying your stamps for smaller, in-house mailing campaigns without going to your local post office and depleting their stock. You can order online at www.royalmail.com

Outside the UK?

[This post is about UK mailing campaigns; I wonder if people in other countries get the same results? If you are a reader from outside the UK I’d love to know what you’ve discovered if you’ve ever tested franked mail against stamped mail. Use my blog contact form or leave a comment below to let me know - thanks].

~ Carol

P.S. Thanks to everyone who emailed to say these frequent blog posts are OK because the contents are useful. I’ll just take weekends off and the occasional day of holiday

Date: Friday, November 9th, 2007 at 10:00 am | Category: Business Resources, Marketing, Copywriting | RSS Feed: RSS 2.0 feed.
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