OMG - Good bye to Royal Mail !

[rouseytastic]

Not in an age when you can send an e-mail for free. For parcels, some courier firms are already cheaper than the post.

Of course you can send 'an' email for free but there are cost implications for sending a marketing campaign via email to multiple recipients.

Obviously

 

[fork me]

Of course you can send 'an' email for free but there are cost implications for sending a marketing campaign via email to multiple recipients.

Obviously

Not huge cost implications though. I run our rugby club mailing list, that's got over 200 recipients and is still free. I know the same isn't true when you're mailing thousands or even millions, but the costs will be way less than mail prices.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Of course you can send 'an' email for free but there are cost implications for sending a marketing campaign via email to multiple recipients.

Obviously

Agreed you have to pay for an email campaign but with services such as Constant Contact you get click through stats and much more for considerably less than the cost of sending a paper flyer - Royal Mail missed a trick years ago and should have entered the market for delivery of services via email.

 

[Vicar!]

Doubtless Ticketmaster will raise postage prices by £5.00 to compensate.

 

[fly high]

Could the Royal Mail be brought out ? possibly by someone like Deutsche Post who also own DHL ...just wondering like

that has already been mooted by the government & now we the tax payer have taken over responsibility for all existing Royal Mail pensions more & more likely to happen

 

[Hillian1]

Agreed you have to pay for an email campaign but with services such as Constant Contact you get click through stats and much more for considerably less than the cost of sending a paper flyer - Royal Mail missed a trick years ago and should have entered the market for delivery of services via email.

Interesting fact:

You are 10 times more likely to open and read a letter sent through the post than you are to read an e-mail.
After opening and reading the mail item you are 20 times more likely to pass it on to the relevant person in your organisation than forward an e-mail.

Direct mail works if targeted correctly.

But I am biased, I work in mailing.

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Interesting fact:

You are 10 times more likely to open and read a letter sent through the post than you are to read an e-mail.
After opening and reading the mail item you are 20 times more likely to pass it on to the relevant person in your organisation than forward an e-mail.

Direct mail works if targeted correctly.

But I am biased, I work in mailing.

As you say targeting is the key to any campaign - direct or email.

Personally, I never read marketing emails or direct mail that comes to me for work. I'll occasionally read marketing emails sent to my personal account. That wad the postman puts through the door ( and is inside the leader ) goes straight to the recycling bin.

 

[Cullip4]

you can just buy books of first class stamps before they go up, they just have 1st on them and will still be valid after the price increase!

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

At this rate I might have to buy a computer and some internet. Apparently you can send things electronically for nothing. What will they think of next ??

I wouldn't bother, it'll never catch on.

 

[rouseytastic]

Not huge cost implications though. I run our rugby club mailing list, that's got over 200 recipients and is still free. I know the same isn't true when you're mailing thousands or even millions, but the costs will be way less than mail prices.

True regarding costs but success rates for email campaigns depend largely on whether the recipient is expecting the email. If not they will almost certainly be 'spammed'. This is where Direct Mail wins as a mailing piece has a much longer life span than an email. A targeted Direct Mail piece i mean not Door Drop etc

 

[Chris_Highwind]

You could always go and post the letter that needs to go all the way across the country yourself!

 

[APACHE]

All the postmen who use NSC know where RM is heading and it's not a future in delivering letters. The RM is being readed for privatisation and the big firms want it for the service to move parcels and packets around the country using it's modern hubs and the new way the postmen are working on delivery.Once the RM is broken up then you'll see an increase in the price you pay for the delivery of not only letters but packets and parcels, the goverment has poured millions into RM to update the sorting hubs now the private boys will get it at a knockdown price. It'll be private but I bet you it won't be cheaper or better.

 

[fataddick]

If anyone has a bit of money knocking around, they could do far worse than buy a load (by which I mean tens of thousands) of books of 12 second class stamps before the end of April. They cost £4.32 a book, but go up to £6.00 a book on April 30th. You could sell them at £5.00-£5.50 a book and clean up. Even shops that sell the stamp books only make 3% profit on them, so they'd be biting your hand off to, along with people in pubs, etc. I reckon you could make a couple of hundred quid a week profit until you run out of stamps. It's no doubt illegal, but you can bet some suit types are already onto it. Face it, if you knew shares in a certain company were guaranteed to rise 39% in value on one particular day (and stay at that level for at least a year), you'd surely fill your boots? This is exactly the same.

 

[Storer 68]

Interesting fact:

You are 10 times more likely to open and read a letter sent through the post than you are to read an e-mail.
After opening and reading the mail item you are 20 times more likely to pass it on to the relevant person in your organisation than forward an e-mail.

Direct mail works if targeted correctly.
.

the correct target is the bin I am throwing my screwed up bit of direct marketing into!

 

[BensGrandad]

I always answer any letters that have to be sent immediately I receive them and send them 2nd class. The reason for this is that (a) When asking at the PO about the delivery of a letter I was told that RM do not guarantee next day delivery for 1st class stamps but are usually delivered within 3 days. To guarantee next day delivery would cost £1.25. (b) a postman told me that irrespective of when a post box is emptied the mail is only taken to Salfords from Burgess Hill and Haywards Heath at 2.00pm each day. So if emptied at 2.00pm it is kept in the depot until 2.00pm next day.

 

[CliveWalkerWingWizard]

There is a huge hike in small packet costs things under a few hundred grams are most affected, and a huge increase in small packets overseas. This is going to kill a large number of small internet businesses, that work on turnover rather than large profits. These are exactly the kinds of business which the government should be supporting.

 

[Lady Gull]

We have been using E-Contracts in our business for well over a year now and and it works well - in fact I can't remember the last time I bought stamps - I will by a few books for birthday cards and stuff - is there a time limit though that you have to use them up?

 

[ferring seagull]

I am sure that I am no different from many, I have got to the stage of using Royal Mail as infrequently as possible. That, in the main, tends to be an ever decreasing number of Christmas Cards sent second class, but for the rest of the year, little other than when absolute essential.

For me, if something can be achieved via e mail then well and good but, if not, I will 'resort' to Royal Mail only if absolutely necessary.

As pointed out by another poster, the price differential between sending a letter by Royal Mail and the cost of sending a package by any one of a huge number of delivery companies is rapidly decreasing.

It is not rocket science, just see R.M. fading away mainly due to the posturing of a trade union, like so many others whose hierarchy are so remote from reality, that they cannot see beyond their own 'Union' pensions.

Me, a former Unison member !

 

[Westdene Seagull]

All the postmen who use NSC know where RM is heading and it's not a future in delivering letters. The RM is being readed for privatisation and the big firms want it for the service to move parcels and packets around the country using it's modern hubs and the new way the postmen are working on delivery.Once the RM is broken up then you'll see an increase in the price you pay for the delivery of not only letters but packets and parcels, the goverment has poured millions into RM to update the sorting hubs now the private boys will get it at a knockdown price. It'll be private but I bet you it won't be cheaper or better.

Interestingly an analyst on the news suggested there was no reason for RM not to be very profitable - 70% of it's cost are staff and the recent pay rises have effectively crippled it. He also suggest the union based work practises had contributed to it not making a profit. It would appear selling it off is the only way to make the organisation profitable.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

that has already been mooted by the government & now we the tax payer have taken over responsibility for all existing Royal Mail pensions more & more likely to happen

The RM pension scheme was transferred into the Government Exchequer's coffers last week. The £9bn deficit in the scheme which has worried potential purchasers is no longer a factor and can be forgotten for the next 20 odd years. There hasn't been much publicity though about the £27bn of assets that Mr Osborne now has his sticky fingers on.