How to Address An Envelope UK

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A Comprehensive Guide on How to Address An Envelope UK Royal Mail Correctly

Did you ever wonder how the Post Office manages your mail items? Think of it as a highly-regulated and central system that helps Royal Mail deliver your mail to the correct recipients! But is there a way you can help the postal employees deliver on time?

The answer is yes! You can do your bit to help them get your items to the destination without issues by using the prescribed address format.

Sounds easy-peasy? However, in reality, there are a series of Royal Mail address format rules you must follow. And this blog covers these guidelines to enable you to send your mail items affordably, speedily, and efficiently!

Let’s begin!

How to Address an Envelope UK?

Do you add the sauce first to the pizza base or the toppings? Of course, the sauce comes first, right? It’s a no-brainer!

Even a postal address needs you to layer the different elements in a well-defined order.

You may think how hard it is to write the correct address on an envelope or package! However, remember that Royal Mail returns hundreds of thousands of items to senders because of incorrect addressing. Hence, you must follow the prescribed address format to ensure that the Post Office delivers your mail accurately.

There are several elements within an address, and they are:

Premise Elements

They help the carrier deliver mail to the correct location within a premise. For example, suppose you want to mail to an industrial area with several wings. In such cases, it may get complicated to find the intended recipient. Thus, Royal Mail urges customers to mention at least one premise element to reduce delivery failures.

Here are some premise elements you can use for your UK address format and their examples:

• Organisation’s name (if applicable): ABC Pvt. Ltd.
• Sub-building: Wing G
• Building name: Tulip House
• Building number: A 50 The Flower Valley

You don’t need to add all these elements to your address on letter UK even if you have them all. Insert the premise details below the Mailer Defined Information (MDI), recipient’s name, and designation (while mailing to a commercial address).

Thoroughfare Elements

Next, you must include a thoroughfare to help postal workers get to the destination premises. It reduces unnecessary delivery delays and leaves no room for address format misinterpretation.

Royal Mail has made it optional to add the thoroughfare details below the premise elements in your letter address format UK. But, it is better to add this additional data for better deliverability, and here’s an example:

• Dependent thoroughfare: 1st Street
• Thoroughfare: Stanley Avenue

If you have the name of the dependent thoroughfare, you can skip mentioning the primary street.

Locality Elements

You should at least include one locality element while writing address on envelope UK. It could be a post town or locality where the Royal Mail workers can redirect your mail items for delivery. Always write the first characters of your post town in capital letters, like Milton Keynes, Hedge End, etc.

You may also add the county name with the post town on the second last line of your Royal Mail address format. But don’t leave more than two character spaces between these two elements.

Here are a few more combinations you may use:

• Add the county name and postcode on the same line with one or two character spaces between them.
• Add the postcode and post town on the same line with one or two spaces—provided the post town comes first.

Postcode

The next element in your UK envelope address format is the postcode that ranges between five to seven numbers. They are alphanumeric and help Royal Mail decide the delivery routes accurately.

Always insert the postcode in capital letters on the last line of your address format. Add one or two spaces between the outward and inward codes.

The outward code represents the post town or some internal district, whereas the inward code helps identify the street. See an example below:

• Post town: Abergele
• Postcode: LL22 7AA

So, here’s the full-fledged address format example you needed:

Olivia Fernsby

Junior Account Manager

Welfare Group of Industries

North Wing

504 Griffith Road

Llanddulas

Abergele 

LL22 8ET

Find below another example of the London address format:

Steffie Sallow

17 Portobello Road

London

SW1A 1AA

Please note: Don’t add “Great Britain,” “London,” or “United Kingdom” if you are mailing from the UK.

PostGrid’s address verification API can help you standardise and validate your addresses in seconds. Thus, you don’t need to remember these address format guidelines whenever you want to mail something. Also, you can skip wasting hours and days of your staff’s precious time in checking whether the addresses are deliverable.

Punctuation Instructions

Now that you know how to write address on envelope UK, you must also understand how to punctuate your addresses.

Not surprisingly, you need to add the correct punctuation for the Royal Mail processing equipment to read your addresses precisely! Otherwise, the machines may pick up an invalid or incorrect location and cause faulty delivery or lost mail.

Thus, follow these punctuation rules in your address format to avoid such problems:

• You may add punctuation marks to addresses on Barcoded mailings or which don’t enjoy other such machineable discounts.
• Royal Mail restricts the use of underline formatting for any address element.
• You can use non-alphanumeric symbols and punctuation for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) mailings if they appear in their corresponding PAF* records.
• Alternatively, the Royal Mail address format allows you to eliminate all punctuation marks, even if they appear in the PAF. 
• Senders can add graphical symbols and punctuation to the MDI or other addressee elements.

Editor’s Note: If you don’t want to follow the UK envelope format punctuation rules, you can stick with no punctuation and block letters throughout your addresses. This trick can help you save a lot of trouble differentiating between address data and adding the correct marks or symbols.

*PAF stands for Postcode Address File. It is a Royal Mail address database having nearly 28 million UK addresses with 1.8 million postcodes and 1.4 million commercial addresses. Royal Mail constantly updates this data to maintain validity and accuracy.

How to Format British Forces Post Office (BFPO) Addresses?

BFPO addresses have a different Royal Mail address format than the other UK addresses. The most commonly-used layout has four lines and includes the following aspects:

Service Number, Rank, Recipient’s name 

Regiment or Unit

Location or Operation name (if applicable)

BFPO Number

Ensure that you don’t add the county or post town. Also, skip writing the destination country as part of your address on letter UK.

Furthermore, Royal Mail asks you to avoid using AIR MAIL stickers for BFPO mailings and seal the edges of your items with adhesive tape.

Additional Royal Mail Address Format Guidelines You Must Follow

Below, we have enlisted the most crucial requirements to keep in mind while writing address on envelope UK:

• Only mention one delivery address on your envelope or parcel. If there is a forwarding address, Royal Mail automatically takes care of it.
• The MDI should not consist of more than 64 characters. Also, it should only take one line above the mailing address.
• The font size of your addresses must either match the return address or be broader. It helps Royal Mail distinguish between the two addresses effectively.
• Avoid using bold and italic fonts for your letter address format UK.
• Try using one of the Royal Mail-preferred fonts, like Arial, Geneva, Verdana, Tunga, Lucida Console, Courier, etc. Moreover, they should be within the 10 to 12-point size range.
• You cannot use some of these recommended fonts for Business Mail (Advanced) and Response Services. Thus, read the relevant user guides for specific products before preparing your items and writing address on envelope UK.
• Please ensure that your address appears on the mail item as a block. Avoid spreading out the elements to avoid confusion.
• Don’t use more than one line for the exact address elements. For instance, the words ‘Princess Street’ should be on the same line.
• You can shift between different fonts and point sizes for varied address elements.
• There should be vertical gaps of 0.255 mm or more between every line of the address format. Also, the character pitch must only be 10 to 12 characters every 25.44 mm.
• The spacing between two words must be more than 5 mm.
• Refrain from leaving blank lines within your address format.
• Try writing or printing your delivery addresses in black or other dark colours. There should be adequate contrast between the envelope and text colours.
• Avoid splashing ink around or over your addresses. Furthermore, ensure your text isn’t blurry or deformed, or incomplete. Thus, it is better to print addresses than write them on parcels or envelopes.

The Royal Mail Address Format for Return Addresses

You may choose not to provide a return address to Royal Mail. It means you won’t get any mail returns, and the Post Office would probably discard them. Therefore, it can result in losses and wastage.

But, if you add a return address, you can follow the guidelines we discussed above. However, there are some other things you should consider, like:

• Only use block letters for your return address format.
• Use left formatting for the entire address.
• You can only use Letter Gothic or Lucida Console fonts for return addresses.
• Print them in either English or Welsh if the PAF has the address record in the same language.
• Add the phrase “Return Address” on the first line to distinguish the address clearly from the mailing details.
• Don’t mention any UK countries or counties within the return address format.
• Print the return address in the title case, except for the postcodes (which always appear in the upper case).
• Print the postcode on the last line of the UK address format or the same line as the post town.

Royal Mail has changed the layout of an envelope recently. You can now place the return address on the centre of the flap or the top-left corner of the item’s front cover.

Here’s an example of a return address:

JOSEPH LOGHTY

Lifecare Services PVT LTD

Anderson Close

Dorcan 

Swindon 

SN3 5TQ 

Why Is It Crucial to Use the Correct Address Format for Mailing Items?

Apart from deliverability, there are many reasons for prioritising the use of a correct Royal Mail address format, and they are:

Improved Customer Satisfaction

We are sure you must have received several customers’ calls over delivery delays at some point! But did you try digging into why there are delays in the mailing process? Though the issue is from the Post Office’s end sometimes, you cannot overlook how poorly formatted addresses can affect your order processing.

Royal Mail can’t guarantee accurate delivery on time if you do not use the prescribed UK envelope format. Hence, the postal employees would have to sort your items by hand, wasting time and manual effort. These delays can anger your customers and tarnish your brand reputation.

More Mailing Discounts

The Post Office offers several shipping discounts on presorting and bulk mailing. But, you must know how to address an envelope UK Royal Mail correctly to avail of these benefits.

You can use automated address verification software or API like PostGrid to prepare your mail pieces and add valid addresses. The process is simple, time-efficient, and affordable. Also, you don’t need technical expertise to integrate our API into your CRM and start validating addresses in a few minutes.

Fewer Mail Returns

Imagine printing personalised marketing items for your customers only for the Post Office to return them. You can either reship these items and spend on postage once more or discard them. In either case, it hampers your growth and restricts you from marketing your brand. Thus, not following the Royal Mail address format can lead to severe campaign failures.

How Can PostGrid’s Address Verification Services Help You Mail Efficiently?

You may have thousands of customer entries in your database already! But are they correct and helpful? Can you launch a well-designed marketing campaign using this data? Probably, not!

Perhaps, you didn’t standardise your records according to the UK envelope format. Also, you didn’t update your mailing lists from time to time.

The truth is that—data management and using the proper letter address format UK is far from easy… You must access the Royal Mail PAF to check whether your addresses are deliverable. Also, you need to compare your database with the National Change of Address (NCOA) file as millions of people move yearly.

Hence, it can be hard to learn how to write an address on a letter and follow it religiously! Luckily, it is when PostGrid comes in. Our address verification services are PAF-certified and help you make your delivery addresses mail-ready.

But that’s not it! We also help you filter out outdated entries to save you from investing in sending mail to them. More of our features include international address verification, bulk processing, autocomplete, fuzzy matching, etc.

Thus, you don’t need to think twice about using the Royal Mail address format because PostGrid has you covered. Also, our affordable pricing plans make PostGrid the first choice for address verification and direct mailing services for thousands of clients.

“Address verification is very tricky. You must combine several resources to get it right! Some addresses are under construction, while some are vacant. And it is impossible to tell which addresses are apt for mailing. We worried about these things for too long before we started using PostGrid. Now, we simply upload the addresses we want to check, and PostGrid returns accurate results in the blink of an eye.”

“PostGrid’s address verification services help us access a cleansed database. So, whenever we want to launch a campaign or even make an operational decision, we rely on PostGrid.”

These are some reviews from our long-term clients who believe in PostGrid’s advanced address verification capabilities. You can also request a demo now to see how to employ the correct address format for your mailing lists without doing anything manually.

To Summarise

Addressing a letter is not hard, but doing it right is! Remember, Royal Mail deals with billions of mail items almost daily. Hence, you cannot expect the Post Office to go out of its way to fix an error in your UK envelope format. 

It is your job to rectify the mistakes and understand how to address an envelope UK. Also, don’t forget to follow the simple things, like using legible handwriting and leaving enough margin areas. Try being as neat as possible and helping the postal workers deliver your mail without problems! 

PostGrid’s address verification API and software help you cross-confirm any number of addresses simultaneously. The integrations allow you to check address validity at every point of your daily operations. Thus, you can use PostGrid for marketing, finance, compliance, and other purposes. 

Sign up now to know more about PostGrid’s automated solutions to help you send items with the correct Royal Mail address format!

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Variable Data Printing Services

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How to Use Variable Data Printing to Improve Marketing Campaigns?

Did you ever open your door and see a flyer on the knob? If yes, how much time did you spend with it before dismissing or throwing it away? We are sure not much! And the reason is that one significant aspect is absent in traditional printing—the ability to keep the reader hooked!

Direct mail marketing strategies are always highly-successful if you implement them rightly. And one crucial element you need to consider is variable data printing.

It is a digital printing method to help you personalise your marketing items to better resonate with your audience.

In this blog, let us discuss variable data printing in more depth and learn how it can benefit your marketing campaigns!

What is Variable Data Printing?

It enables the insertion of variable data into a print run. These variations may apply to individual mail items or specific batches.

You may have already used the mail merge feature to personalise your recipients’ names and addresses. Earlier, personalisation was limited to only adding a few variables, while the visual design was the same for all items.

Luckily, variable data printing services like PostGrid offer more advanced technology to customise your printed materials. You may add as many variables as you want without putting in any effort.

You can grab your audience’s attention using variable colours, images, and texts. It allows you to create unique marketing items that appeal to prospective and existing customers.

Let us consider our earlier example to understand variable data printing better. If the flyer on your doorknob had your name, you would have spent more time with it. Perhaps, you may have saved and shared it with your family and friends. And there would be better chances that you used the coupon to make a purchase.

The same thing happens in a large-scale marketing campaign. Instead of shipping the same marketing postcard or marketing letter to prospects, use variable data printing to send items unique to every individual.

In a study, 90% of marketers stated that personalisation has a measurable positive influence on their promotional efforts. Thus, variable data print solutions help you add value to your campaigns and increase engagement.

There are many benefits of employing variable data printing, like:

• Higher returns: The face cost of personalised printing may be expensive but only on a marginal level. It is well worth paying a little extra and guaranteeing your campaign’s success than sending generic mailers and hoping to hear from prospects.
• Stand out from the crowd: Using variable data printing, you can send eye-catching mailers that sets you apart from the competition. Whether or not you use personalisation decides if your items would be a part of the ‘save’ or junk mail pile.
• Unlimited options: Once you start customising your marketing materials, you get numerous options to experiment with your campaigns, like adding dedicated phone numbers and coupons.

Examples of Variable Data Printing Opportunities

This printing technique opens a new world of marketing opportunities for businesses. They can use variable data printing services for promoting events, making announcements, advertising new products, retaining customers, etc.

Below are some examples you can use for reference:

• Printing address labels: Typically, address labels consist of variable data—the delivery addresses of your recipients. Thankfully, variable data printing capabilities can insert a unique address to every mailer for your direct mail marketing campaign. Thus, you don’t need to spend tons of hours preparing labels manually.
• QR code printing: QR code marketing is gaining immense popularity because of its responsiveness and high ROI. Using PostGrid’s variable data print solutions, you can print custom QR codes that allow you to track respondents. Similarly, you may add discounts or voucher codes to record your campaign’s performance.
• PURLs: Personalised URLs let you track every response to individual customers, and variable data printing helps add them to your mailers. However, as said above, people dislike typing links, so make them short and sweet. For example, www.postgrid.co.uk/anthony-brown/. Using the recipients’ names in your links is the best way to get their attention and persuade them to respond.

Variable Data Printing and Marketing Strategies

Direct mail produces an average response rate of 11.6%. But, you must ensure that you use tailored content to suit the recipient’s needs. You can do much more than adding the person’s first name in the greeting or using a personalised signature to maximise profits and expand your brand publicity.

Here are some ideas on how to incorporate variable data printing into your marketing programs:

• You could use customer data regarding the items they viewed on your website. Or you can print related products to induce sales. If the recipient already has the product on their mind, a tailored offer can help you convert them.
• Collect data from various sources, like social media, telemarketing, past invoices, CRM, etc., to compile effective variable databases. It enables you to understand customer preferences better and offer them what they need.
• Use variable data printing services to send shopping cart abandonment reminders. Sending these personalised reminders may help you convince customers to return to their carts and finish the transaction. Remember to add a link or QR code to redirect them to their online accounts on your website, speeding up the procedure.
• Companies can also benefit from variable data printing by adding custom maps to their mailers. These maps help display the nearest store’s address where customers can visit and buy products at a discount.

Employing Variable Data Printing Services for Transactional Tasks

Another advantage of variable data printing is that you can also use it for transactional mailing. Transactional print and mail don’t come under marketing. But, these tasks form an essential part of a company’s operational activities.

Hence, you need it to communicate with customers smoothly and establish trustworthy business relationships.

Transactional mail includes:

• Sending onboarding letters to customers
• Thanking them for their business
• Sending collection letters, invoices, cheques, and bills
• Confirming orders or payments
• Notifying employees of a policy change
• Mailing legal and tax documents, etc.

You require efficient variable data print solutions like PostGrid to prepare such documents without doing anything yourselves.

How Can PostGrid’s Print and Mail Services Help You With Variable Data Printing?

Our print and mail API helps you from start to end in launching a direct marketing campaign. Also, PostGrid offers variable data printing for numerous items, like:

• Postcards
• Brochures
• Newsletters and surveys
• Welcome packs
• Corporate mail items
• Special offers and coupons
• Envelopes and labels
• Marketing letters
• Thank-you cards
• Flyers, etc.

Our boutique solutions help you plan personalised campaigns fueled with variable data printing. You can integrate our direct mail API into your CRM and design appealing mailers with our pre-built templates. The integrations help you fetch customer data in no time to auto-fill content for printing on your marketing materials.

PostGrid’s clients primarily use our services for customer acquisition and retention. However, they also employ our automated solutions to build valuable customer-company bonds and increase brand awareness. Here’s one of our client conversations that depict how PostGrid works:

The CEO of a retail company wanted to employ variable data printing to increase the number of RSVPs for an upcoming product launch. He thought of offering a discount for customers who book orders during the event. The company inquired if we could help them mail 5,000 personalised event invitations on short notice.

One of PostGrid’s dedicated account managers reached out to the client and explained the process in detail over a demo. They highlighted how our dedicated -business day SLA is ideal for launching such speedy campaigns effortlessly. Also, our variable data printing services help clients:

• Create, print, and mail appealing and eye-catching items
• Insert unique content to make readers feel special and push them to respond
• Add upfront CTAs and offers to guide them on what to do next
• Track individual and total campaign responses
• Access analytics and detailed reports to determine results, etc.

The best part is that our variable data print solutions are diverse to fit the requirements of all industries, including healthcare, financial services, insurance, etc. Furthermore, you can avail of our automation services at affordable rates with access to a 24 x 7 customer support team to help you.

Talk to our sales team now to learn how you can take advantage of variable data printing using PostGrid!

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How to Write Strong Letter For Outstanding Payment

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How to Write Letter for Reminder for Payment to Reduce Outstanding Dues?

Imagine a situation where a client stops replying to your emails after being in constant touch with you earlier. They owe you a few hundred pounds for buying products from you, but they are not ready to release the payment for the same.

Unfortunately, all businesses face such scenarios often where clients start ghosting them when an invoice becomes due. Thus, you may need to send a well-written letter for reminder for payment to them, urging them to pay.

Piled-up payments are a grave problem in the UK. And you must have an overdue invoice reminder template handy to deal with such clients. 82% of SMEs currently have huge outstanding dues, and every firm has £62,957 stuck in debt. Also, 17% of businesses scrapped their due invoices suspecting that their debtors have no money to pay them.

Businesses should curate several debt recovery strategies to keep their cash flow running smoothly. One of these strategies is to send a strong letter for outstanding payment to clients now and then. It helps you remind them of their bills and give them the push they need to honour their dues.

Let us focus on how to write a payment reminder letter in this blog with some standard tips to help you. We have also included some templates you can refer to for drafting such messages!

How Does Writing a Past Due Invoice Letter Make a Difference?

Before you consider sending a letter to clients, you may have already tried the following methods:

• Calling the client several times to get an update
• Texting them, asking when they intend to complete the payment
• Getting their account representatives to contact them informally
• Emailing them the invoice a few times

Sending a formal past due payment letter helps create urgency. It tells the clients that this is their last chance to pay before they take legal action. Most customers don’t want to pay additional interest or legal costs. Thus, they might finally give in and release your payment.

In short, an overdue payment letter is your best shot at getting paid. Moreover, it sets a deadline for clients to pay, so you don’t need to wait months to see if your letter works.

Remember, these steps are for those debtors who constantly make excuses and ghost you to save themselves from making a payment. However, some clients genuinely might have forgotten to pay. Hence, sending a polite reminder of overdue payment is all you need to do to get paid within a few hours or days.

How to Write a Letter for Overdue Payment?

Always use a professional format to write a letter to clients. Also, don’t forget to include all the necessary details, like

• Your company’s name and address
• Your name (the representative who was in touch with the client since the beginning of your association)
• The client’s company name and concerned person’s name
• The date you send out your letter for reminder for payment
• Invoice number and date
• Payment terms
• Days overdue
• Payment options
• Interest (if applicable)
• Your contact information

And here is how you format your payment reminder letter:

Letterhead

It is advisable to print your letters on your formal letterhead to make them look professional and firm. Ensure that it consists of your brand logo, company name, and contact information to increase impact.

Also, letterheads help you avoid writing a return address before you start writing your letter.

Date

Write the date when you send the payment reminder letter either via email or mail, not the date when you draft it.

Delivery Address

Insert the correct mailing address with the recipient’s full name. You don’t want the postal workers to return your letter to you because of minor mistakes. Thus, it makes sense to use an address verification API like PostGrid to verify that your addresses are precise and deliverable.

Subject

Try to include the term ‘Reminder of Overdue Payment’ in the subject line. It boosts the seriousness of your message and gives it a more formal look.

Salutation

Start your past due invoice letter with a salutation, like ‘Dear Mr./Ms. ABC.’ Always use the person’s preferred name in the salutation.

Introductory Paragraph

Mention all the crucial details in your first paragraph, like the amount they owe you, invoice date, number of overdue days, etc. Tell them that you need to bring this information to their immediate attention.

Elaborate On Other Things

You can talk about other aspects of the invoice in the second paragraph of your overdue payment letter. Repeat the payment terms mentioned in the bill and inform them of the methods they can use to pay you.

Issue a Gentle Warning

If you only need to send a reminder of overdue payment, it is best to skip this section. But, you can warn your clients that you will take legal action if they don’t reply to your past letters continuously.

Closing

Close your letter with a thank you and express that you are waiting for their reply.

Enclosures

Attach a copy of the bill with your letter for reminder for payment for your client’s reference.

Things to Remember While Drafting an Appealing Invoice Payment Reminder Letter

The above elements are the basics of writing a letter to clients with outstanding payment accounts. Below, we have enlisted some pointers you can consider to make your messages more effective:

Use a Polite Yet Firm Tone

Refrain from using foul language in your payment reminder letter. It creates a poor impression and tarnishes your reputation. Instead, opt for polite language that gets your message across to the client in the best way possible.

Also, use words that display firmness. Avoid using the phrase ‘requesting you to’ in your second or third overdue payment letter.

Give Clients a Deadline

It is essential to create urgency and mention a deadline for your customers. Furthermore, it helps to convince the client to make the payment at the earliest without wasting any more time. At the same time, it also gives them a chance to arrange for it in case they had forgotten about your bill.

Sign the Letter 

Instead of sending the past due invoice letter on behalf of the company, let your representative write it using their name. Also, let them use their signature at the end. It is an excellent way to leverage the relationship between your sales staff and your clients.

Add Interest to Your Reminder of Overdue Payment

You are legible to add interest to your invoice amount when the client fails to pay for it within the specified time. This interest allows you to recover debts at the current market prices—to reduce the impact of the loss caused by late payments. Also, it pushes the customer to pay faster to avoid paying much more than their bill amount.

Don’t Add Too Much Data

Try to draft a strong letter for outstanding payment that is informative and result-driving. It should not open new lines for debate between you and your clients. Therefore, avoid getting into the details and write a simple message. They can reply to your letter if they want to cite reasons for non-payment. 

Talk About Court Costs

Remind your debtors that they might need to cover the court costs if you initiate a legal proceeding against them. Also, subtly remind them how these things can hurt their brand image. Of course, you should resort to these methods only if this is your third or fourth payment reminder letter. 

Encourage the Company to Contact You

Ask your client to contact you regarding the payment status. Tell them that they can reach you via several options. Being open to queries and sparking a two-way conversation might help you preserve your relationship with the company. 

Keep Adding the Number of Overdue Days

Every letter for reminder for payment you send should include the number of days since the client failed to pay. Remember to add the days each time you send a different letter to them.

When Should You Send a Past Due Invoice Letter? (+ Templates)

Try to send out these letters at a gap not exceeding two weeks to see results. Push your clients to prioritise your concerns and settle your dues at the earliest.

Reminder 1: Two to five days after your invoice becomes overdue

It is your first reminder of overdue payment to your clients who probably intend to pay but missed the date. Nevertheless, it is the ideal time to reach out and inform them they missed a payment. There are high chances that most clients settle your dues after they get this letter, so be gentle. Note that this letter should only serve as a reminder and not talk about further action.

Here’s how you can draft your first letter for reminder for payment:

Alexandra Jones

York Developments Inc.

91 Downing ST

London

SW1A 2AA

Date: 25th July 2022

To,

George Smith

7 Whitehall

London

SW1A 2ET

Subject: Payment Reminder Letter

Dear Mr George,

This is to inform you that your invoice #52807 is not overdue by five days. Its due date was 20th July 2022, and we have failed to receive any payment from your side. The total amount pending is £845.

If there are any queries or concerns from your end, please connect with us using the contact details given below. We would be grateful if you could release the payment by not later than 30th July 2022.

We look forward to getting a reply from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

[Signature]

Enclosures: Invoice #52807

Reminder 2: Two to three weeks after your invoice becomes overdue

When you don’t get a reply even after days of sending your first reminder, it is time to pen down another past due payment letter. By now, you can be sure that the client is deliberately dodging your messages. Yet, there are possibilities that the concerned person is out of the office—for a trade event, business conference, or personal leave.

This overdue payment letter may help you grab their attention and get paid or at least get a response. Here’s a template:

[Letterhead]

25th July 2022

Robert Clapton

Tribrid Entertainment Ltd.

2 Nottingham Rd

Abergwesyn

LD5 6LT

Subject: Reminder of Overdue Payment

Dear Mr Clapton,

We write this letter to bring to your attention that your past invoices are still outstanding. Further to our earlier correspondence dated 8th July 2022, we have still received no response from your company.

Here are the details of your overdue bills:

Invoice Number	Date	Due Date	Amount	Days Overdue
107	01/05/2022	01/07/2022	£520	24 days
205	17/05/2022	04/07/2022	£1,240.20	21 days

We would be thankful to receive the payment for the said bills latest by next week. Or we would be obliged to add interest @5% according to our company policies. Please give us a call or reply to this letter should you have any queries.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Regards,

Tom Miller

[Signature]

No. of enclosures: 2 (Invoice no. 107 and 205).

Reminder 3: After one to two months of an invoice being overdue

Your third letter for reminder for payment should talk of you taking further steps if the client doesn’t pay the invoice as soon as possible. Inform them that you intend to pass on their invoices to a debt collection agency and charge a higher interest rate.

Find below the invoice payment reminder template:

Winnie Moss

Highteck Pvt. Ltd.

099 Southlands Rd

Pontefract

WF8 5TW

Date: 25th July 2022

To,

John Harris

34 Broomfield PL

Stone

HP17 9QW

Dear Mr John,

This payment reminder letter is to notify you that your bill no. 982 is still outstanding. The due date was two months, and we tried to contact you several times over this period. However, we didn’t get any reply from you yet. We have attached the invoice copy for your perusal.

We have already added interest of £400 @8% to your account. Please remit the total amount of $1,560 to our account by 30th July 2022, or we will have to transfer your invoices to a debt collector. We will also have to take further legal action if you fail to settle your dues by the specified date. Please note that we need to add the court costs to your invoice with interest.

We look forward to hearing from you. 

Kind regards,

[Signature]

If it is too much work for you to personalise such a letter for reminder for payment, try using PostGrid’s print and mail API. It can help you use variable data printing and create such mail items effortlessly.

One of our customers from Westminster wanted to send nearly five hundred such reminders to their clients every month. Also, they required an automated solution to mail invoices on time to their clients to receive their payments without any issues.

They got in touch with us last year, and PostGrid presented a two-in-one solution to their requirements. Now, they send almost 5,000 mailings monthly consisting of customer statements, invoices, receipts, and overdue payment letter envelopes. Also, they can track all their mailings on their system via our API integration. This integration lets them fetch client details in their CRM and send mail items to them directly.

Also, PostGrid offers several pre-built letter templates to help you draft your messages without using extensive graphic design tools.

How to Send an Overdue Payment Letter?

There are two primary options to send past-due invoices and letters- email and direct mail. Both are helpful for communicating your message to your clients, but which is more effective?

Direct mail gets a response rate of 9%. Also, it is more attention-grabbing and memorable than emails. Also, it is more persuasive than emails to get people to complete the CTA. Thus, the answer is- it is better to send your reminder of overdue payment via offline mail than email. You could combine both channels to form an integrated debt collection strategy.

The more platforms you can connect with clients having outstanding accounts, the better your chances of recovering the debt.

PostGrid’s print and mail services enable you to include custom QR codes and pURLs to your letters to track responses. You can print a QR code on your envelope and ask the client to scan it and pay you online instantly. It increases the influence of your past-due invoice letter and facilitates quick payments.

Automate Printing and Mailing Letter for Reminder for Payment With PostGrid

PostGrid serves various industries, including healthcare, financial services, real estate, etc. Our direct mailing services are spread globally and help you send your mail items to anywhere in the UK and the world.

You can integrate our API into your CRM and place orders whenever needed. However, we recently got a query from a top-tier client about triggered campaigns. Also, they were concerned about simultaneously tracking hundreds and thousands of overdue payment letter envelopes.

All we needed to answer their questions was one coffee meeting. Our sales staff is thrilled to meet up with clients at a place of their liking to present all the life-altering solutions they need for their business to grow. Do you want to get on a phone call with us? Call us straight up! Want to get a demo? Sign up, and we will get in touch with you in no time.

Coming back to the meeting- here are the points we discussed regarding sending past due payment letters:

• Campaign triggers: You can use our direct mail automation software to launch triggered campaigns on specific dates. Also, you may set other triggers like invoice generation, customer query, overdue invoice, etc., to automatically send a past due payment invoice letter to clients.
• Mail tracking: Login into your PostGrid account and navigate the dashboard to see the real-time status of your sent items. There is no need to enter hundreds of tracking numbers on Royal Mail’s website to know if your clients received the letter for reminder for payment.
• Monitoring: You may check your campaign reports and measure the performance with only a few clicks. PostGrid offers a streamlined experience to plan, launch, and monitor campaigns under one roof.
• No maximum limits: We offer several membership plans to our clients, depending on their budget and needs. There are no maximum or minimum mailing caps to restrict you.

We also discussed other aspects of an overdue payment letter, like design, client’s address data, postage options, etc.

To Conclude

It is a must for almost every company to draft and send a reminder of overdue payments to their clients. They need to ensure that their debts do not exceed their revenue. These letters are an excellent and economical way to communicate with clients and ask them to pay. 

You can use the invoice payment reminder template in this blog or refer to it to create a message that best suits you. The goal is to remind clients about your invoice constantly and persuade them to settle the dues soon. 

PostGrid can help you throughout the process and cut costs by more than half. Also, you can save a lot of time and effort by letting us do everything online for you. 

Talk to our sales now, and let us talk about how you can send a payment reminder letter to clients smoothly and increase your revenue!

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The post How to Write Strong Letter For Outstanding Payment appeared first on PostGrid UK.

source https://www.postgrid.co.uk/tips-to-write-overdue-invoice-letter/

source https://postgridunitedkingdom.blogspot.com/2022/08/how-to-write-strong-letter-for.html

source https://suzannefcox.tumblr.com/post/692781887576522752

Direct Marketing: What, Why, How and Examples

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What Is Direct Marketing And How To Implement It Effectively For Your Business?

Marketing was never easy for business organisations; over the years, it has only become more complex and challenging. Every day there is a new marketing trend hitting the market. And due to internet access, influencer marketing, etc., smaller companies are splitting the target market into smaller pieces.

At this point, a company’s best approach to staying ahead of the game is to make marketing more personal. And not many marketing strategies work in forming an emotional connection with the customers than direct marketing.

Direct campaigns involve sending personalised messages to the target audience to get the desired response. More importantly, it works on the principle of human relations and sees the customer as a person rather than a target.

It is why direct marketing strategies like direct mail are fast gaining popularity. According to a report by the DMA (Data And Marketing Association)

“87% have been influenced by direct mail to make online purchases.”

And remember, direct mail is just one of the many direct marketing examples. Below we elaborate on direct campaigns, their different examples, and how you can use them to grow your business.

What is Direct Marketing?

Direct marketing is a promotional strategy that allows you to present your company’s products and services directly to the target audience. In other words, direct marketing enables you to cut out the advertising middleman and market your products or services.

It is also worth noting that direct marketing is a highly targeted approach. Finding a high potential target audience is also a part of a direct campaign. Hence, direct marketing tends to have a higher conversion rate than non-targeted marketing strategies.

For instance, a healthcare organisation can target a senior/retirement community with flyers for its arthritis awareness program.

“The DMA research shows a 9% average response rate for direct mail campaigns.” – Data And Marketing Association (DMA)

However, direct mail is just one of the many direct campaigns you can use for your business. But we will explain more about that later. First, let’s look at what makes direct marketing a good fit for your marketing needs.

Reach Your Customers Faster

One of the best things about direct and digital marketing efforts is that they can immediately reach the target audience. For example, take the case of email marketing campaigns nowadays. You can send hundreds and thousands of emails to your target audience with a button.

Highly Efficient Promotion Strategy

Another reason you should use direct marketing is because of how efficient it is as a promotion strategy. With other non-targeted marketing campaigns, you are practically shooting in the dark, hoping to hit your luck. But with a targeted direct campaign, things are a whole lot different.

Direct campaigns target customers who are genuinely interested in your product or service. As a result, your direct marketing campaigns always yield maximum efficiency for your marketing messages. Regular lists are unrefined and can’t efficiently attract the attention of your ideal customers. And as a result, standard non-targeted campaigns often fail to create a connection with the target audience.

Highly Customisable

Targeting the right audience for your direct marketing campaigns is only half the battle. It would be best if you also had customisation to ensure you get the desired results for the direct campaigns. And this is what our Account Manager had to say when a leading insurance provider from California wanted to know how customisation can make a difference to their direct campaigns.

“Whenever you employ direct marketing to sell a product or service, you target a specific individual or company. And this applies to every industry and not just yours. You can’t win over a new customer without forming a personal relationship, and customisation can help you with this.”

Customisation enables you to address the customer directly. You can use customised messages, offers, products, etc. The more customised your direct marketing campaign, the more likely you will get the desired results. Thankfully, this customisation is easily implementable using various automation tools.

For example, you can use PostGrid’s direct mail tool to send customised marketing messages to your customers. It allows you to send customised postcards, brochures, leaflets, etc., to your customers with an automated solution.

Measure Your Marketing Efficiency

The efficiency of direct marketing campaigns is relatively easy to measure. You can track or measure the success of your direct campaigns by analysing different aspects of the campaign, such as

• The number of customers who responded
• The revenue earned
• The overall ROI or Return On Investment

Furthermore, direct and digital marketing is also perfect for finding out the spending capability of prospects on specific products/services. And that’s not automated solutions like PostGrid let you access advanced analytics and insights of your campaigns.

For example, you can use PostGrid to track your direct mail campaigns, including the deliverability of your mailers. You can also access analytics that figure out how to optimise your direct marketing campaigns.

Characteristics Of Direct Marketing

As you know, direct marketing strategies allow you to communicate a brand message directly to the target audience. But that is only the primary feature of direct campaigns. Below we discuss the other characteristics of direct drives. You can use these characteristics to identify a direct campaign from traditional marketing.

Targeting

Targeting is one of the easily noticeable characteristics of a direct marketing campaign. If you go ahead and mail everyone on your database, you will only spend more money for less ROI. You need a highly targeted list of eligible prospects for an efficient direct campaign.

However, you can make this relatively easy with the right tools. For example, you can use geocoding to identify geographical patterns or use address verification tools to identify demographic patterns. Or you could use PostGrid’s address verification tool that already comes with geocoding capability.

Database Segmentation

You’d know about customer segmentation if you are a marketer or closely working with the marketing team. Database segmentation is an integral part of direct marketing. It is where you divide your customer base into small categories or groups using a common characteristic they all have, such as

• Age
• Gender
• Occupation
• Location
• Interests
• Needs
• Income etc.

Categorising or segmenting your customer database like this allows you to pitch them with customised offers. You can cross these categories based on the product or service you want to sell. The only trick here is to ensure that whatever direct marketing idea you pitch is relevant to the target audience.

Tracking Responses

There is no way of knowing how well or how bad your marketing strategies perform unless you monitor them. Continuous or regular monitoring can determine which direct marketing strategy works best for your business.

Using online direct marketing channels allows your target audience to respond to your message quickly. In addition to that, you can monitor the entire marketing process through online channels. However, it is also worth noting that the open rate for online channels is subpar compared to offline channels like direct mail.

Or you can make the best out of online and offline channels using an automated solution for offline communication channels like mail. For instance, you can provide a QR code or PURL in the mailer. It will allow the customer to access your website, landing page, or mobile app.

What Are The Benefits Of Direct Marketing?

Now that you know what is direct marketing, it is time for us to discuss why your business should use it. In other words, we must examine what can your business organisation gain from using a direct campaign. Here are some significant benefits of employing direct campaigns for your business.

Targeted Advertising

As we explained, targeting is one of the essential characteristics of direct marketing. Therefore, it is only natural that direct campaigns include targeted advertising. It involves sending customised marketing messages to your target audience.

When you focus on sending a marketing message to a specific person, your marketing message becomes significantly more effective. And keep in mind that targeted advertising also involves pitching the right product or service to the prospective customer.

Budget Marketing

No matter how many direct marketing examples you consider, you will always find one common thing in all of them. Every direct campaign focuses on a specific demographic. And when you have a well-defined target demographic, it becomes easier to set plausible sales targets and drive sales.

With more reliable data on your side, it is relatively easy to implement a more extensive direct marketing campaign, even on a low budget. Furthermore, using intelligent, direct mail tools like PostGrid allows you better track and optimise your expenses.

“In 2021, direct mail advertising spending in the United Kingdom reached close to 1.1 billion British pounds” – Statista.

One reason direct marketing is gaining popularity again, as the above stat suggests, is the availability of tools like PostGrid. Automated solutions like PostGrid play a significant role in ensuring effective and budget-friendly campaigns for your company.

Boost Sales To Existing and Lapsed Customers

It might surprise you to hear this, but the key to a successful marketing campaign is not always expanding your reach. More often than not, targeting your existing and lapsed customers is easier and much more effective, and direct marketing is perfect for this.

Remember, customers, are always ready to welcome businesses that can solve their problems or pain points. And they are only too glad to seek help from a brand that has helped them. With direct marketing, you can keep track of all your customer data, categorise them and create a well-thought campaign.

But, it is even better when re-establishing relationships with lapsed customers. There are several direct marketing examples to prove this. For example, you can send personalised postcards to your customers with attractive offers or discounts. And since you already know what product they are interested in, you can target them with an offer they can’t deny.

Boost Customer Loyalty

Targeting existing and lapsed customers also implies that you can improve your customer loyalty using direct marketing. It is an ideal choice for building and maintaining good relationships with your customers.

By sending a personalised marketing message and offer, you can show how your brand values its customers and business. You can generate a genuine connection with customers by combining direct marketing strategies with customer loyalty programs. Here are some methods you can use to boost customer loyalty.

• Giving exclusive offers, including discounts
• Sending a personalised birthday card
• Inviting customers to special events, including sales

Excellent Launching Pad For New Businesses

When launching a new business, product, service, or offer to your customers, there is no better launchpad than direct campaigns. Effective communication with your target audience brings more relevant traffic to your business across various channels.

Furthermore, using direct marketing in your customer acquisition program could spark a genuine reaction from the target. As we discussed above, direct campaigns can boost customer loyalty. And it can lead to generating brand advocates for your company.

Besides this, direct marketing strategies also help you adapt and respond to market demands. But that’s not all. You can use direct campaigns for the following purposes.

• Boost sales of specific products or services
• Renew sales
• Boost customer retention
• Clearance sale for discontinued stock
• Ence follow up on promotional offers

Excellent Product Performance Measurement

Another great advantage of direct marketing is that it is perfect for measuring product performance. It lets you find out the demand for specific products or services. But more importantly, it allows marketers to

• Expand their reach to new markets
• Evaluate sales results
• Measure the effectiveness of their marketing strategies

As a result, marketers can quickly modify their campaigns and ensure success. Ideally, a marketer should monitor various aspects of the direct marketing campaign and analyse the results. The information you get from the analysis is crucial in improving your future marketing efforts.

What Are The Best Direct Marketing Techniques Or Channels?

There are numerous techniques or channels you can use for your direct campaigns. Choosing a medium more apt for your unique marketing needs would be best. Several businesses even go for an approach where they use multiple direct marketing channels.

Below, we list some of the best direct marketing examples you can consider using for your company.

Direct Mail

Many business organisations gave up on their direct mail marketing campaigns long ago. And most new companies never tried to use direct mail because everyone uses digital marketing channels. So, then why are we still talking about direct mail marketing?

The truth is that direct mail is one of the best direct marketing techniques you can use for your company. It has an excellent open and response rate. Furthermore, since everyone is busy with their online marketing campaigns, it is significantly easier to get noticed by the target audience.

“32% of managers say they always open their mail, and 30% say they open it if it looks relevant.” – DMIS Response Rates Survey.

If that’s not enough, you can automate the direct marketing process using a direct mail tool like PostGrid. We have helped numerous clients from different industry verticals set up an automated mailing system. You can connect PostGrid with your CRM for easy and accurate bulk mail personalisation. Listen to what one of our clients had to say about their experience working with us.

“We have been using PostGrid for a few months. It works with our CRM, the software interface, efficiency, automation, and integration with no issues” – CTO.

Email Marketing

Another ideal example of direct marketing is targeted emails. In many ways, direct mail and email marketing are very similar. Of course, email marketing is significantly faster, and practically everyone on the internet has an email id. Hence, it is an ideal marketing channel or at least, in theory.

The only downside of email marketing is that it is so widely popular. As you know, everyone has at least one email ID overflowing with unread subscription mail. It is one of the reasons why email marketing has a significantly lower open and response rate compared to direct mail.

Email marketing is one of the best direct marketing examples and a preferred choice for numerous companies. In addition, you can find several email automation tools like Mailchimp to optimise your email marketing.

Social Media Marketing

A fundamental principle in every marketing effort is to go to where your target audience is. Today, that place is social media. Social media marketing is even more enticing because people tend to flaunt their tastes and preferences online. In other words, targeting your direct marketing campaign was never as easy as it is now.

Social media marketing enables you to build a community for your brand and develop customer relationships. But that’s not the primary reason for employing social media direct marketing for your business. The primary reason for using social media is its ability to target audiences accurately.

Take Facebook (Meta), for example. It offers you advanced direct marketing capabilities that help you reach high-potential targets. You can even categorise prospective customers into groups using data like age, gender, etc.

SMS Marketing

SMS marketing is another famous example of direct marketing you can employ for your business organisation. It involves you sending permission-based text messages to the target audience. You can see several similarities between SMS and email marketing.

But one might argue that SMS messages are much more accessible since the user always has their phone. Hence you can use SMS to send all kinds of critical notifications, reminders, etc. Here are some direct marketing messages you send to your customers using SMS.

• Updates
• Promos
• Discount offers
• Event Invitations
• Sales notification
• And more.

It is also worth mentioning that SMS marketing is quick and cost-effective. Besides that, you only need the customer’s phone number to contact them. However, the biggest drawback is that direct marketing only supports text content, and you cannot utilise the power of images in your campaign.

Telemarketing

Telemarketing is one of the classic direct marketing examples for your business. In telemarketing, you can call your prospective customers over the phone and convince them to buy your product or service.

A standard telemarketing campaign involves multiple sales representatives reaching out to potential customers. On the other hand, you can outsource the telemarketing services to a third party, which is often the more convenient option.

The most significant advantage of telemarketing is convincing the target audience to take the desired action. In other words, you can sell a product or service to a prospect even if they do not feel they need it. This convincing power of telemarketing is why it remains one of the best direct marketing examples.

Leaflet Marketing

This list of best direct marketing examples is incomplete without leaflet marketing. Leaflet marketing is perfect for small businesses as it offers a simple and affordable way for businesses to reach out to their customers.

To make things more interesting, you also have special Royal Mail services like Door to Door, specifically designed to send leaflets. It means you can send marketing leaflets at a significantly lower price. But if you want to optimise your expenses holistically, you may consider using an automated direct mail tool.

Other Direct Marketing

The direct marketing examples you see above are only some of the methods used in direct campaigns. Apart from the ones listed above, you can also try the following techniques for your business:

• Direct selling
• Catalogues
• Push notification marketing
• And more.

Conclusion

Business organisations are turning towards direct marketing to convey their marketing messages effectively. But it is easier said than done without the right tools, especially offline marketing channels like direct mail.

Advanced direct mail tools like PostGrid make direct marketing easier for companies. It provides full automation and even includes the complete customisation of your marketing mailers. Similar solutions are also available for all types of direct campaigns.

Hence, business organisations must make it a point to analyse, assess, and find out the best tools for direct marketing. Only with the help of tools like PostGrid can you run cost-effective direct campaigns with zero unwanted delays.

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The post Direct Marketing: What, Why, How and Examples appeared first on PostGrid UK.

source https://www.postgrid.co.uk/direct-marketing/

source https://postgridunitedkingdom.blogspot.com/2022/08/direct-marketing-what-why-how-and.html

source https://suzannefcox.tumblr.com/post/692415741851467776