Royal Mail has announced an average price increase of around 25% across many of its business mail services, affecting both essential business communications and marketing mail.
For businesses, charities, NHS organisations, local authorities and professional service firms that regularly send letters, this will inevitably increase mailing costs. Whether you’re sending invoices, appointment reminders, planning consultation notices, policy documents or promotional campaigns, the impact on your annual budget could be significant.
The announcement has understandably left many organisations asking:
- How much is Royal Mail increasing postage by?
- How much is business postage now?
- How can I reduce postage costs?
- Is there a cheaper alternative to franking?
- What’s the cheapest way to send bulk letters?
- How do businesses save money on direct mail?
- Can I reduce the cost of mailing thousands of letters?
The good news is that while you can’t control Royal Mail’s pricing, you can control how much your organisation spends overall.
In fact, many businesses are already paying considerably more than they need to because they’re printing, preparing and posting mail in the most expensive way possible.
This guide explains how organisations across the UK are reducing mailing costs, improving efficiency and continuing to use one of the UK’s most effective communication channels despite rising postage prices.
Why the Royal Mail price increase matters
For many businesses, post remains an essential part of day-to-day operations.
Unlike digital communications, certain letters simply cannot be replaced by email, while many marketing campaigns continue to achieve excellent response rates through direct mail.
The latest Royal Mail price increase affects organisations sending:
- Bills and statements
- Policy documents
- NHS appointment reminders
- Healthcare communications
- Marketing campaigns
- Sales promotions
- Open day invitations
- Seminar invitations
- Charity fundraising appeals
- Planning consultation notices
- Road closure notifications
- Parish council communications
- Customer newsletters
- Financial services correspondence
If you send thousands of letters every year, even a modest increase per item can add thousands of pounds to your annual mailing budget.
However, the postage itself is often only part of the overall cost.
The biggest mistake businesses make
Many organisations still manage their mailing process entirely in-house because that’s simply how it’s always been done.
Letters are printed on office printers, employees spend valuable time folding documents, inserting them into envelopes, applying postage through a franking machine and preparing everything for collection.
On the surface this appears cost effective.
Unfortunately, the true cost is often hidden.
When businesses calculate the real cost of every mailing, they frequently discover they have overlooked expenses such as printer maintenance, toner, paper, envelopes, staff wages, office storage, machine servicing and administration.
In many cases, these hidden costs exceed the actual postage itself.
A smarter way to send business mail
Rather than managing several suppliers and internal processes, many organisations now outsource their mailing requirements to a specialist mailing house.
Selectabase has been helping businesses, charities, NHS providers and local authorities with print and post services for almost 30 years.
Instead of purchasing stationery separately, printing documents internally and arranging postage yourself, everything is managed under one roof.
Letters are professionally printed using commercial production equipment, personalised where required, enclosed into premium envelopes and entered directly into Royal Mail’s bulk mailing network.
The result is a faster, simpler and often considerably cheaper mailing process.
In fact, fully managed print and post campaigns – including premium print, stationery, fulfilment and 2nd Class postage – can start from as little as just 49p + VAT per mailing, subject to mailing specification, content and overall volume.
For many organisations, that’s significantly less than producing and posting mail internally.
How can Selectabase offer such competitive prices?
One of the most common questions businesses ask is how a mailing house can sometimes be cheaper than doing everything themselves.
The answer lies in volume.
Every week, Selectabase processes exceptionally large quantities of mail on behalf of customers throughout the UK.
Because thousands of individual mailing campaigns are combined, clients benefit from the same Royal Mail bulk mailing discounts that would normally only be available to organisations sending very large volumes of mail.
In other words, smaller businesses are able to piggyback on these substantial postal discounts without needing to produce tens of thousands of letters themselves.
Combined with commercial printing equipment, efficient production processes and experienced mailing professionals, this creates economies of scale that are extremely difficult for individual businesses to replicate.
In-House Mailing vs Using a Specialist Mailing House
At first glance, printing and posting letters internally can appear to be the cheapest option. However, once you take into account staff time, printer maintenance, paper, envelopes, franking costs, equipment servicing and administration, the true cost per mailing is often much higher than expected.
By outsourcing to a specialist mailing house such as Selectabase, businesses can frequently reduce their overall mailing costs while also freeing up valuable staff time to focus on more productive work.
| Feature | Managing Mail In-House | Using a Specialist Mailing House (Selectabase Ltd) |
| Postage Costs | Standard business postage or franking rates | Access to Royal Mail bulk mailing discounts through high-volume mailing runs |
| Printing | Office printers with toner, maintenance and servicing costs | Commercial high-speed digital printing included |
| Paper & Envelopes | Purchased separately and stored on-site | Premium stationery supplied as part of the service |
| Staff Time | Employees print, fold, insert and prepare every mailing | Fully managed by experienced mailing professionals |
| Franking Machine | Rental, servicing and postage top-ups required | Not required |
| Data Cleansing | Often overlooked or completed manually | Optional NCOA, deceased and address validation checks before mailing |
| Personalisation | Labour intensive for larger campaigns | Variable data printing for every letter |
| Bulk Mail Discounts | Usually unavailable | Available through Selectabase’s combined weekly mailing volumes |
| Project Management | Managed internally | Dedicated mailing specialists oversee every campaign |
| Invoices | Multiple suppliers | One invoice covering print, stationery, fulfilment and postage |
| Scalability | Time consuming as volumes increase | Efficient from hundreds to hundreds of thousands of mailings |
| Overall Value | Hidden costs often make mailings more expensive | Lower overall costs while saving significant time |
Hidden costs many businesses forget to include
When comparing mailing costs, it’s important to look beyond the price of a stamp or franked impression.
The true cost of producing mail internally often includes:
- Printer purchase or lease costs
- Toner and ink cartridges
- Paper and premium stationery
- Envelopes
- Printer servicing and maintenance
- Franking machine rental
- Franking machine servicing
- Royal Mail postage top-ups
- Electricity
- Staff salaries and preparation time
- Office storage space
- Quality checking
- Envelope inserting
- Time spent dealing with returned mail
Individually these costs may appear relatively small, but together they can significantly increase the cost of every mailing.
Don’t waste money sending letters to the wrong addresses
One of the biggest hidden costs in direct mail isn’t actually postage.
It’s poor quality data.
Every letter sent to somebody who has moved home, passed away or has an invalid address still incurs the full cost of printing, paper, envelopes, fulfilment and postage.
Across larger campaigns, this wasted expenditure can quickly amount to thousands of pounds.
Before mailing your own customer database, Selectabase can help validate and clean your records by checking them against recognised suppression and validation files, including the National Change of Address (NCOA) register, deceased suppression files and other address verification services.
Removing outdated records helps reduce wasted postage, improve delivery rates and minimise complaints.
Better targeting means better results
If you’re purchasing new marketing data for each campaign, selecting the right audience is just as important as the mailing itself.
The cheapest mailing isn’t necessarily the one with the lowest postage cost.
It’s the one that reaches the right people first time.
Selectabase supplies fully GDPR-compliant business and consumer mailing data that enables organisations to target highly relevant audiences.
Consumer mailing lists can be targeted using:
- Postcode
- Radius
- Town or county
- Age
- Household income
- Property value
- Home ownership
- Affluence
- Households with children
- Lifestyle profiling
- And many other demographic characteristics
Business mailing lists can be refined by:
- Postcode
- Radius
- County
- Industry (SIC code)
- Employee size
- Turnover
- Number of trading sites
- Company age
- Company type
- And many other business characteristics
Better targeting reduces wasted mail, lowers postage costs and improves campaign performance.
A real-world example
Imagine a company sending 5,000 customer letters every month.
Following Royal Mail’s latest price increase, management assumes there is nothing they can do except increase the mailing budget.
However, after asking Selectabase to review the process, they discover the business is paying separately for office printing, toner, paper, envelopes, staff time, franking equipment and postage.
By moving to a fully managed print and post service, accessing Royal Mail bulk mailing discounts and removing invalid addresses before printing, much of the increase can often be offset.
In some cases, businesses actually reduce their overall mailing costs despite Royal Mail charging more for postage.
Every organisation is different, but that’s exactly why it’s worth requesting an independent quotation.
Why direct mail is still one of the UK’s most effective marketing channels
Despite the continued growth of digital marketing, direct mail remains one of the most trusted and effective ways to communicate with customers.
Unlike emails, which may be filtered into spam folders or ignored altogether, a professionally produced letter is physically delivered into the recipient’s hands.
For sectors such as healthcare, financial services, local government, charities, education and professional services, printed communication often achieves higher engagement because it feels more personal, more credible and much harder to ignore.
When combined with accurate GDPR-compliant targeting and high-quality print, direct mail continues to deliver an excellent return on investment.
The key isn’t to stop mailing because postage prices have increased.
The key is to mail smarter.
Who can benefit?
Selectabase supports organisations across virtually every sector, including:
- NHS providers
- Healthcare companies
- Hearing clinics
- Financial advisers
- Insurance companies
- Estate agents
- Solicitors
- Accountants
- Local authorities
- Parish councils
- Housing associations
- Utility companies
- Charities
- Schools, colleges and universities
- Manufacturers
- Retailers
- Professional services
Whether you’re sending a few hundred letters or several hundred thousand each year, reviewing your mailing process could reveal substantial savings.
Why choose Selectabase?
Selectabase is a UK mailing house specialising in:
- Bulk print and post
- Direct mail fulfilment
- Business mailing lists
- Consumer mailing lists
- Data cleansing
- NCOA checking
- GDPR-compliant mailing data
- Personalised mailings
- Variable data printing
- Royal Mail bulk postage
- Campaign fulfilment
Whether you’re promoting a sale, inviting customers to an event, sending statutory consultation notices or mailing appointment reminders, Selectabase can combine every element into one simple managed service and one straightforward invoice.
Request your free postage saving review
With Royal Mail’s latest price increase affecting organisations across the UK, there has never been a better time to review your mailing costs.
Even if you’ve worked with the same supplier for years, obtaining a second quotation could identify significant savings over the next 12 months.
If you’re curious to see how much you could save by switching suppliers, speak to Selectabase today.
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: 01304 383838
Our team will happily provide a free, no-obligation quotation, compare your existing mailing costs and explain where savings may be available.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much is Royal Mail increasing business postage by?
Royal Mail has announced an average increase of around 25% across many business mail products, although individual services may increase by different amounts.
What is the cheapest way to send bulk letters?
For most organisations, using a specialist UK mailing house that accesses Royal Mail’s bulk mailing discounts is often considerably cheaper than printing and posting mail internally.
Can I reduce postage costs without sending fewer letters?
Yes. Better data quality, more accurate targeting, bulk mailing discounts and outsourcing your print and fulfilment can all help reduce the overall cost of your mailing campaigns.
Is franking still cheaper than using a mailing house?
Not necessarily. Once you include paper, toner, envelopes, staff time, machine rental and maintenance, many businesses discover that outsourcing their mail to a specialist mailing house actually costs less overall.
Does Selectabase provide mailing data as well as print and post?
Yes. Selectabase supplies GDPR-compliant business and consumer mailing data alongside professional print, fulfilment and Royal Mail bulk mailing services, allowing businesses to manage their entire campaign through one experienced supplier.
