Embrace the Future of Communication: A Comprehensive Guide to Hybrid Mail Solutions

Covid-19 and the consequent furloughing brought a new challenge to the business world—getting more done with less staff. Competition to get the best possible Return on Investment and ensure high efficiency has intensified too. To keep up, you must reach an ever-increasing number of customers with minimal resources. Although, thankfully, things have now moved on from furloughing we’re still seeing an ever-increasing demand from our clients for Hybrid Mail Solutions.

Enter hybrid mail, a perfect blend of traditional direct mailing and digitised automation services. The new mailing solution can reduce human error and staff involvement in a revolutionary way so that you can divert resources to more value-adding core tasks.

Today, we’ll learn everything you need to know about hybrid mail, also known as print and post mail.

You’ll learn how Pitney Bowes, your perfect business digitisation partner, can ease your journey toward implementing hybrid mail for your business

What is hybrid mail?

Hybrid mail redefines the way businesses send postal mail to their clients. The technology blends the traditional way of sending mail and a modern emailing system perfectly so that you can deliver hardcopy of correspondence and documents to your clients effortlessly.

Hybrid mail can be a significant step toward your organisation’s digital transformation. You’ll need a hybrid mail service provider to act as an intermediary and handle the mail printing and delivery process in the backend.

How does hybrid mail work?

In a nutshell, a mailing service provider will facilitate mail printing and doorstep delivery on behalf of your business. You’ll have to create and upload the mail you want to print and send to the designated portal.

The best part is that you won’t have to spend any time and resources or invest in printing equipment to do the job.

How to send your first hybrid mail?

Sending your first hybrid mail is easy when you have a reliable partner like Pitney Bowes to assist you. Let’s walk through it in four simple steps:

Step 1: Choose a provider

Pick a partner to manage the process before sending postal mail and documents to your clients from the comfort of your workplace or house. Pitney Bowes is the UK's leading business automation, mail and shipment services provider.

You’ll receive the login details to access your online digital post account. The self-service portal lets you manage your postage online throughout every stage.

Step 2: Create and upload the document

Like creating an online post, you can generate the letter you want to send. Pitney Bowes offers various personalisation and custom branding options through easy-to-use templates.

Step 3: Send to print

After creating and uploading the letter or document, hit the print button on the portal. The Pitney Bowes team will take it from there.

Step 4: Track and deliver

Pitney Bowes will print your letters or materials, put them in an envelope and forward them to Royal Mail.

How does hybrid mail benefit your business?

As a business owner or senior manager, you’ll need to know the ROI and benefits that hybrid, print, and post mail can bring your business. Let’s run through the most significant ones:

Simplification of the mailing process

Sending letters and documents manually involves a series of steps. It requires time and involvement to send mail, from drafting letters to printing them in appropriate formats until delivery.

With electronic and hybrid mail, the process is as simple as sending an email yet as effective as sending postal mail. As a result, you’ll achieve:

  • Less staff involvement
  • More streamlined automation
  • Consistent and high-quality printing.

Cost savings

Hybrid mailing does not require any upfront investment. There are several other ways you’ll save money, such as:

  • Fewer hours spent preparing andsending mails
  • Fewer errors when you post aletter online       
  • Cost savings from bulk sendingof letters and documents     
  • Lower postage cost       
  • Zero wasted paper costs

Convenient access to data

You can always look back and track the audit trail of your mailing system. There’s no need to navigate to a separate website to track the postage status.

Instead, you can always find updated delivery and printing statuses from the service portal.

Facilitating hybrid work

Traditional workplaces have evolved rapidly in recent years.

More and more businesses are adopting a hybrid working environment where employees can work from the office, home, or elsewhere. With this new mailing system, you can send hundreds of campaign letters from your home desktop and save time. There's no reason to visit the post office.

That’s not all. You can seamlessly pick up where you left off the next day, like having a mail manager working in the background 24/7.

What are the costs of implementing hybrid mail?

Let's see how partnering with Pitney Bowes can positively impact your bottom line compared to sending mail directly.

  • No setup cost: You can start with a monthly subscription fee with Pitney Bowes and scale up or down as needed.
  • Preferential postage: You can enjoy preferential postage rates starting from 44p per letter and get a 2-3 day delivery service.
  • Print and post: The printing and postage costs  can start from 50p per letter. You can also request next day physical delivery service to improve efficiency for your outbound mail.

Now let’s calculate your cost savings of having the digital mailroom using a case study for your company. We'll use Pitney Bowes’ cost-saving calculator to determine the cost efficiencies. E.g. If you send 1000 mail items a month. Your potential cost savings per annum is £1800.00 on postage alone.

Top 3 reasons to outsource your mail and print needs

Mailroom outsourcing comes with a host of benefits. Here are the top three reasons to consider this strategic move and speed up your digital transformation:

  • Quick scaling: Whether you need to rampup or reduce your mailing needs, outsourcing allows for quick and easy scaling, catering to your fluctuating business demands.
  • Various document types: You can sendletters and printed documents to your clients. It can be a short note, a transactional mail, a cancellation notice, or anything else, including invoices.
  • Uninterrupted service: Your business remains immune to potential internal disruptions and server outages with a hot-swappable mail centre.

How does Pitney Bowes make a difference?

Choosing the right technical partner is the most critical step in your hybrid mail adoption journey. For many years, Pitney Bowes has been a trusted name in the printing supplies, franking machines, and office automation industry.

In addition to the competitive postage rates and transparent postage cost calculator, you’ll get industry-grade digital security backed by Amazon Web Services. We'll also provide real-time service updates within the mail solution portal.

The rich expertise and unparalleled customer service will ensure your mail reaches its destination, regardless of how far-flung it might be. Request a custom quote from Pitney Bowes today and embrace the future of customer communications.