Guide to Direct Mail

Posted in: Guides

How to supply your direct mail data to ensure jobs run as efficiently as possible whilst keeping data handling costs to a minimum.

  1. Data required for direct mail must be clearly identified as UK, EU, Rest of World (ROW) to ensure correct postage rate and logos are applied.
  2. Within excel ensure the fields are compiled correctly, so the Company Name field only contains the company name, Address line 1 only contains the 1st line of the address etc. This will speed up the sorting process, and consequently make the pricing that bit cheaper.
  3. Please use upper and lower case correctly, especially if mail merge letters are required as how it is supplied will be how it is printed.
  4. Ensure the postcode is configured correctly;
  • SK12 1YJ is correct and acceptable to Royal Mail
  • SK121YJ is not correct and not acceptable to Royal Mail
  • sk12 1yj is not correct and not acceptable to Royal Mail
  1. For successful delivery please use a Company Name if the address is a business address. Royal Mail need this for successful delivery. If a street is miles long and the Company name isn’t on the envelope it might be tempting for the postman to stick an ‘incomplete address’ sticker on it, resulting in your mailing not reaching the required destination.
  2. Don’t duplicate fields to fill up the address, remember what you see in the address is what the recipient will see.
  3. Make sure your country fields are correct for overseas addresses.
  4. Counties are not recognised by Royal Mail and do not need to be included in any data files.
  5. Try and remove the duplicate records, we use Address line 1 and Postcode to remove duplication, however we need these fields to be consistently correct. It can be embarrassing for the recipient to receive the same mailer multiple times on the same day not to mention the unnecessary postage costs.

As always, our experienced account handlers are always on hand to help out – and will happily advise on the best method to supply your data to avoid extra cost.

If you need any advise please head to the Direct Mail page on our website (https://www.galloways.co.uk/our-services/direct-mail/)

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