In order to achieve maximum mailsort discounts, each record must be sorted into one of 1400 'selection areas'. Once printed and stuffed, each letter must then be sorted into bags destined for the corresponding selection area.

Sophisticated software is necessary to sort the records, to produce all the printed reports, produce the Royal Mail Mailsort bag labels and to maintain sortation throughout the job. It is also possible to output the sorted data on disk or by email for you to use yourself. Your mailing house will liase with Royal Mail on any account or posting issues. Mailsort 700 CBC is available as well as DPS file coding if required.

Choosing the correct Royal Mail Mailsort service
Mailsort 1400 is suitable for mailings of 4000 or more. There are three Mailsort 1400 service levels.

Mailsort 1 is ideal for the most time sensitive of mailings. This service offers next day delivery and a discount of up to 14.4% off standard first class post.

Mailsort 2 is a 2 - 3 day service offering a discount of up to 13% off normal second class post.

Mailsort 3 is by far the most economic method of posting. With discounts of up to 24.6% off normal second class post, this service is ideal for non-urgent mailings with a delivery time of up to 7 days.

Royal Mail Postage Discounts up to 25%
Please remember that all Royal Mail Mailsort service is limited to mailings of 4000 or more letters or 1000 packets (C4 counts as a packet). Royal Mail Mailsort postage discounts achieved will vary from mailing to mailing. The eventual discount will depend on the following factors:

1. The size of the mailing
The larger your mailing, the higher the discount you are likely to earn. A 4000 mailing using Mailsort 1400 class 3 would usually earn discount of around 15%. Whereas a mailing of 30,000 plus would be 22-24%.

2. The distribution of the mailing
If the 4000 mailing is all going to the same town, you are very likely to earn maximum discounts on your mailing, whatever the size. Just a few letters to a wide range of sortation areas will earn a considerably lower discount.

3. The quality of your data
If there are a lot of addresses with missing postcodes or mis-spelled address elements, these records will not be incuded in the mailsort sortation. This means that you will earn no discount on these records which will then severely effect your overall discount. It is essential that the quality of the data is assessed prior to Mailsort being used, with the address data cleaned using the Royal Mail Postal Address File (Royal Mail PAF) being a minimum requirement.

Royal Mail Mailsort 700 CBC
Mailsort 700 CBC works in much the same way as Mailsort 1400 with two added advantages. Using Mailsort 700 CBC will earn you an additional 2% Royal Mail postage discount. The second advantage is particularly useful to catalogue marketers. The Mailsort 700 CBC service offers a standard price right up to 100g. This can result in massive savings if your catalogue and inserts weigh more than 60g!

The following extra limitations apply if using Royal Mail Mailsort 700 CBC:

Items must not exceed 100g
Items must be no larger than 240mm x 165mm.
The minimum posting is 10,000 letters.
Items must be able to bend (no pens or CDs can be mailed).
Items must be less than 5mm thick.
Items must not be polywrapped.

The Royal Mail website offers further downloadable information on using Royal Mail Mailsort.

Centreprint Print & Mail are accredited Mailsort 700 producers and are able to ensure that your mailing piece meets the limitations shown above.They will offer advice on the best postal service for your mailing and advise on how to keep your mailing costs as low as possible.

Thank you for reading this article, which, hopefully has proved useful to you. If you would like further advice on any specific aspect of leaflet production or direct mail, please feel free to contact us.

Please feel free to reproduce this article elsewhere if you wish, as long as all links remain intact.

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