Royal Mail has made it easier than ever to start a mail campaign with their network of highly regarded Mail Made Easy experts.

MarketReach was launched in 2015 to promote the effectiveness of mail and improved ROI for companies such as Hive, Ikea and Kit Kat.

A resounding 87% of recipients went to their newsagents to claim a free Kit Kat [1]

Sharp Cat is proud to be one of Royal Mail’s trusted partners with established credentials, on standby with all the support you’ll need such as robust data security, high quality print and fast mailing.

What Can a Mail Made Easy Partner Do for You?

Choosing a Mail Made Easy partner can help you with the mailing process by finding the right target audience, developing your designs to drive response, delivering your campaign and reporting on the results.

Covering catalogues, direct mail or door drops, Mail Made Easy can help you with the entire campaign or a small part of the process.

Mail Made Easy can also help with integrating existing marketing activity with direct mail. Having each platform of communication build on the previous one, to maintain continuity plus break up the expected routine of some marketing campaigns.

Why Does Mail Cut Through the Noise?

In our digital world, it’s never been easier to target customers. However, we receive up to 10,000 marketing messages a day[2], so it’s never been harder to cut through the noise and stand out as a brand.  With 51% of emails being deleted within 2 seconds[3], brands must demonstrate that they value their customers. Sending a tangible piece of mail that your customer must physically interact with is more likely to grab their attention.

The physicality of mail is the perfect opportunity for your customers to feel valued and is memorable too; 80% of people say then can remember mail advertising sent to them in the last 4 weeks[5].

How Do Mail & E-Mail Complement Each Other?

Email is quick, easy to read, informative and can be responded to instantly. It’s most appropriate for quick messages such as order confirmation or acknowledging an enquiry. People recognise its informal feel, making it perfect for following up on enquiries, requests and offers.

Mail can immerse the customer and hold attention for a lot longer. This makes mail suited to communications to contemplate for a while, such as catalogues or brochures.

The main challenge brands face is evolving a transactional relationship into a strong, loyal, personal relationship. Use mail to take the time to tell customers more about the brand, products and services on offer.

The crucial differentiator between mail and e-mail is how mail can make us feel valued.

We believe that attention to detail at the beginning of a mailing makes for success at the end. Our comprehensive mail services give you all the support needed for a strong mailing campaign.

 With a reputation for high-standard mail services, we welcome fast turnaround mailings, always meet tight deadlines and welcome your call.

[1] KitKat: D&AD, 2012

[2] American Marketing Association, 2018.

[3] Litmus Email Analytics, 2013

[4] Royal Mail MarketReach, 2014.

[5] TGI, Kantar Media, 2014.

[6] Royal Mail MarketReach, 2014.

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At Sharp Cat, we aim to deliver more for your money to ensure you are getting the best value mailings. Following our last article, where we highlighted just a few of the perks that can make your campaign worthwhile, we still have some unique services that you need to know about before choosing your mailing house!

Account Managers

Have you ever found it troublesome to get in contact with your supplier? As standard, every client receives 2 Account Managers so you will always have someone to communicate with throughout your mailing.

Double the Account Managers also means double the expertise; with continuous communication, they’re available to provide their insights through every step of your project to help you reach your marketing objective.

Mail Opt Out & Returns Handling

A cluttered office means a cluttered mind! Don’t let returned mailings affect your productivity when we can provide a painless return handling process that is GDPR complaint and maintains good customer relations – all without you lifting a finger!

Simply opt-in to return management and we will handle undeliverable or returned mail. We supply monthly updates where you can see what has been sent back and the reason for return.

Pallet Recycling Scheme

Sharp Cat operates a unique recycling scheme offering delivery pallets to the community. Repurposing everyday items gives you a unique piece of furniture that can be sized to fit any nook or cranny, so you’ll finish with something that’s tailored to you.

Sharp Cat has a wealth of print and mail information to share plus a variety of added value services. To find out how we can tailor your campaigns to meet your marketing needs, email mail@sharpcat.co.uk or give us a call on 0333 772 0946.

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Address only mail is good for advertisers prospecting to new customers. It’s also ideal for geographically based mailings such as consultations. A good example of one of these mailings is HS2 high-speed rail where communities have been contacted about structural proposals. Address only mail enables companies to carry out geographically targeted direct mail marketing without the use of personal data. It does this by addressing households using geo-demographics at postcode level (c.15 households).

Sharp Cat provides address only data that covers the whole of the UK via Geolist. Geolist works with Royal Mail PAF, Ordnance Survey and the ONS to provide household and business addresses without Personal Data. This mail is addressed to a household or a business instead of to individual people.

Royal Mail refers to address only Geolist data as ‘partially addressed mail’.

Royal Mail has carried out some testing on address only mail at a lower postal price than Advertising Mail. The result found is that for marketing purposes the ROI is just slightly higher than sending mail to addresses with personal names. Because of this Royal Mail is launching the trial of Royal Mail Partially Addressed Mail™. This has a price benefit of up to 4p per item discount as well as the usual Advertising Mail discount.

This new price started 8 November 2018 and a year-long trial is planned.

What are the rules for Partially Addressed Mail with the lower Royal Mail pricing?

To produce a Partially Addressed Mail posting, clients can use PAF data. They must exclude all personal data (i.e. Roberts’ household) and must mail complete postcodes (e.g. all of the addresses within EX5 7AW). Geolist  There is a minimum posting requirement of 10,000 items.

geolist.co.uk meets all of the requirements of partially addressed mail.

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To be GDPR compliant, your company must identify which of the six legal bases for processing data you are using. The six lawful bases for processing data are as follows:

(a) Consent of the data subject;

(b) Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with the data subject, or to take steps to enter into a contract;

(c) Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation;

(d) Processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of a data subject or another person;

(e) Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller; and/or

(f) Necessary for the purposes of legitimate interests pursued by the controller or a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests, rights or freedoms of the data subject.

Failure to have the necessary legal ground to process an individual’s data could result in legal action.

The ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) issued an assessment to help you decide if your business really needs to process data and if you are actually able to. The assessment is broken down into a three-part test:

Purpose test: are you pursuing legitimate interests?
Necessity test: is the processing necessary for that purpose?
Balancing test: do the individual’s interests override the legitimate interests?
This assessment ensures that you only data you definitely need is processed, and that the use for that data is completely legitimate.

For direct mail marketing, you will not actually need the initial consent from consumers to advertise to them. However, they still of course have option to opt out if they no longer wish to receive your advertisements or they no longer wish for their information to be used for direct marketing. When advertising to them, you must check how consumers wish to be contacted, and always give them the opportunity to opt out, and make it easy for them to do so. You must also ask for the permission for you to share their information with other companies.

Before the 25th of May hits, please ensure you are fully adhering to these new regulations set by the ICO. Ensure all you customers know exactly how and why their data is being processed and that they can opt out at any point. By studying the GDPR and following it very carefully, you can ensure your business can still thrive and can avoid getting into any legal action with regards to data protection.

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