Business Mail 1st Class for your urgent correspondence

Business Mail 1st Class is the right option for businesses or organisations looking to send critical or time-sensitive mail quickly – and get a response just as fast.

Send fast, time sensitive correspondence
Customise your mailing options and earn discounts
Reach your customers and build trust.

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Marketing, general correspondence and publishing mail calculator

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Why choose Business Mail 1st Class?

For closing deals

Business Mail 1st Class is the ideal solution for businesses that want a speedy response to an offer or to close a deal. Whether you’re an insurance company keen for a customer to accept a quote, or a charity wanting a customer to confirm a donation pledged in a conversation, Business Mail 1st Class ensures that your customers receive the detail of your offer quickly.

For time-sensitive correspondence

Choose Business Mail 1st Class if you manage critical issues on behalf of your customers, including the purchase of a property. We’ll reach your customers quickly and deliver a great customer experience. Ideal for solicitors, surveyors and conveyancers.

For urgent communications

Business Mail 1st Class is an ideal way for companies and organisations to send out urgent communications to customers. Utilities companies, local authorities and financial service organisations use it when they need to communicate an incident, emergency changes to services or changes to regulation.

For customer service

Business Mail 1st Class is the perfect solution to respond promptly to a specific customer request or complaint whilst building trust and customer confidence.

Choose your options

You can tailor Business Mail 1st Class to meet your needs by choosing from the following options:

letter or large letter format,
1st Class delivery speed ,
range of volumes,
options to prepare and present your mail.

Business Mail 1st Class can be used with the following formats:

Format	Dimensions	Weight limit
Letter	Up to 240mm x 165mm x 5mm	Up to 100g
Large letter	Up to 353mm x 250mm x 25mm	Up to 750g
Large letter if machine-readable	Up to 345mm x 245mm x 25mm	Up to 750g

Delivery speeds

With Business Mail 1st Class we aim to deliver your mail on the next working day following posting. With Business Mail 2nd Class, we aim to deliver your mail within two working days if it is sorted when presented, and within three working days of posting if it is not. With our Business Mail Economy variant we aim to deliver your mail within four working days after the day of posting. Working days are six days per week, Monday - Saturday.

Volumes

From one letter to an unlimited amount.
To meet our machine-readable requirements, a minimum of 500 letters or 250 large letters is required.
To sort your mail, a minimum of 4,000 letters or 1,000 large letters is required.
Two levels of sortation are available, Low Sort (a maximum of 88 selections) for machine-readable mail, and High Sort (a maximum of 1,525 Direct selections and 88 Residue selections). Please see our User Guide for full details of how to sort and present your mail.

Preparing and presenting your mail

Making your mail machine-readable: Save money by preparing your mail so that addresses can be read by Royal Mail’s machines.

There are three levels of address accuracy for unsorted mail:

If you want to be accredited and get a set price:

Machine-readable Unsorted option – if 90% of your addresses and postcodes are accurate.
Machine-readable Unsorted Plus option – if you can ensure 95% accuracy.

If you don’t want to be accredited, you can make savings based on the number of accurate addresses read per mailing:

Machine-readable Unsorted Advanced option – Addresses and full postcodes should be printed in an OCR-readable font and must be PAF-compatible.

Want to find out more about these options?

Sorting your mail:

For our lowest prices, present your mail to us sorted in ‘Low Sort’ or ‘High Sort’ selections. For more information about this please see our User Guide or call our business team on 08457 950 950 (Lines are open 8.00am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday).

Or, you can choose not to sort or make your mail machine-readable. Just give it to us and we’ll do the rest.

Type of mail containers to use
Depending on the type of mail you send you could use one of the following containers:

Trays
Bags
ALPS (auto-levelling packet sleeved York)
Unbagged (shrink wrapped)

For more information, you can call our business team on 08457 950 950.

Prices
How to order

Just one item - this is the minimum volume entry level for Business Mail.

Need to set up an account?

If you don’t already have one, you can contact our Business Centre on 08457 950 950*.

Many of our customers have Account Managers

If your business has a Royal Mail Account Manager, contact yours and find out more about how Business Mail can work for you.

Already have an account?

If you already have an account, contact a member of our business team on 08457 950 950*. They will tell you how to add the 1st Class Business Mail options you want. It will speed things up if you can have your Royal Mail account number to hand when you ring us.

*Lines are open 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday.
Frequently asked questions
How do I get accredited for ensuring my mail is machine-readable?

What type of container should I use?

What are Low Sort and High Sort?

What are the requirements for making my mail machine-readable?

What are the Royal Mail Selection Files?

Do I still need to be accredited to use OCR and Barcode options?

I use Mailsort 3 Deferred at the moment. Will the deferred facility still be available in future?

I see that the new OCR options can be used for sending both letters and large letters. Currently though I can’t send large letters with Mailsort 70 or 120 OCR, so what has changed?

I currently use a CBC (Customer Barcode) product. What do I use in future?

Is there any change to the current specifications for applying an OCR address?

I currently use Mailsort 70, 120, 700 or 1400. Will I have to use something else?

I use Cleanmail at the moment. Will I have to use something else in future?

Search help for more answers...

Search Help and Support

How do I get accredited for ensuring my mail is machine-readable?

You need to go through one or more elements of a quality assurance process. One stage requires you to show your address data meets the required standards for the product option you have chosen, the other stage requires you to prepare sample items which meet our design, address and (where relevant) barcode specifications. The forms are available from your account manager or mailsorttechnical.com under Quality Assurance.

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What type of container should I use?

Trays, bags or unbagged for letters

Trays, bags or unbagged for large letters up to 10mm in thickness

Bags, unbagged or ALPs for large letters greater than 10mm in thickness.

When using trays you must also have an average of at least 100 letters or 25 large letters per selection across the mailing.
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What are Low Sort and High Sort?

You can earn savings by sorting your mail and ensuring your addresses are accurate. If you you’re your mail, you must provide a minimum of 4,000 letters or 1,000 large letters in a single mailing.

Low Sort option

For mail that meets our machine-readable specification, sort your mail to a maximum of 88 ways and ensure your items can be read by our sorting machines to achieve maximum savings.

Sort up to 88 selections as detailed in the Royal Mail Selection Files (the new name for the Mailsort Database)

Ensure that 90% of your mail has postcode and address accuracy using either OCR font or barcode (for letters only).

High Sort option

Sort up to 1,525 Direct Selections or 88 Residue Selections as detailed in the Royal Mail Selection Files

Ensure that 90% of your mail has postcode and address accuracy

You must have a minimum of 50 letters or 10 large letters for a Direct Selection.

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What are the requirements for making my mail machine-readable?

Machine-readable Unsorted Standard option

Addresses printed with an OCR font (90% postcode and address accuracy). Available for letters and large letters

Barcode (90% accuracy). Available for letters only.

Machine-readable Unsorted Plus option

Addresses printed with an OCR font (95% postcode and address accuracy). Available for letters and large letters

Barcode (95% accuracy). Available for letters only.

Machine-readable Unsorted Advanced option

Available for letters only

Recommended use of postcode and address accuracy and addresses printed with OCR font, but this is not required.

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What are the Royal Mail Selection Files?

This is the new name for the Mailsort Database. The Royal Mail Selection Files detail the Selection Codes (SC) that you must sort to when posting Business Mail Sorted options.

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Do I still need to be accredited to use OCR and Barcode options?

Yes, if your company is not already accredited by us to post Cleanmail or Mailsort OCR or CBC products, you will be required to gain accreditation before you can post Business Mail Machine-readable Unsorted OCR or Barcode, or Business Mail Low Sort.

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I use Mailsort 3 Deferred at the moment. Will the deferred facility still be available in future?

Yes, deferred mailings will be available with Business Mail Economy. However, deferred mailings will not be able to be sent in trays.

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I see that the new OCR options can be used for sending both letters and large letters. Currently though I can’t send large letters with Mailsort 70 or 120 OCR, so what has changed?

We are introducing a new OCR Large Letter attribute for Low Sort (sorted up to 88 ways).

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I currently use a CBC (Customer Barcode) product. What do I use in future?

We will no longer use the term CBC and will in future refer to this method of preparing your mail as Barcode. The specification for using a Barcode on letters with the new options will however be the same as before.

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Is there any change to the current specifications for applying an OCR address?

No, when you use one of the new OCR options such as one of the Machine-readable Unsorted options or Low Sort OCR, the actual OCR specification is the same as before.
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I currently use Mailsort 70, 120, 700 or 1400. Will I have to use something else?

Yes, Business Mail replaces the old Mailsort products. If you use Mailsort 70, 120 or 700 currently, the easiest thing for you to do will be to start using Business Mail, selecting one of the Low Sort options. If you use Mailsort 1400, then you should switch to Business Mail, selecting the High Sort option.
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I use Cleanmail at the moment. Will I have to use something else in future?

Yes, Business Mail replaces the Cleanmail products.
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Product documentation
- User guide

Deliver your Direct Mail strategy the sustainable way

Reduce your impact on the environment and save money too

Find out more about Sustainable Advertising Mail

Can't meet the specification for Sustainable Advertising Mail?

Build relationships with your customers using Advertising Mail instead.

Send packets, standard and large letters with Advertising Mail

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Business Mail 1st Class

Solutions for your urgent business mail

Marketing, general correspondence and publishing mail calculator

Online Business Account

Why choose Business Mail 1st Class?

For closing deals

For time-sensitive correspondence

For urgent communications

For customer service

Choose your options

Delivery speeds

Volumes

Preparing and presenting your mail

Prices

How to order

Need to set up an account?

Many of our customers have Account Managers

Already have an account?

Frequently asked questions

Search help for more answers...

How do I get accredited for ensuring my mail is machine-readable?

What type of container should I use?

What are Low Sort and High Sort?

Low Sort option

High Sort option

What are the requirements for making my mail machine-readable?

What are the Royal Mail Selection Files?

Do I still need to be accredited to use OCR and Barcode options?

I use Mailsort 3 Deferred at the moment. Will the deferred facility still be available in future?

I see that the new OCR options can be used for sending both letters and large letters. Currently though I can’t send large letters with Mailsort 70 or 120 OCR, so what has changed?

I currently use a CBC (Customer Barcode) product. What do I use in future?

Is there any change to the current specifications for applying an OCR address?

I currently use Mailsort 70, 120, 700 or 1400. Will I have to use something else?

I use Cleanmail at the moment. Will I have to use something else in future?

Product documentation

User guide

Deliver your Direct Mail strategy the sustainable way

Can't meet the specification for Sustainable Advertising Mail?

Search our help centre

Top topics

Business Mail 1st Class

Solutions for your urgent business mail

Marketing, general correspondence and publishing mail calculator

Why choose Business Mail 1st Class?

Choose your options

Prices

How to order

Frequently asked questions

Product documentation

Deliver your Direct Mail strategy the sustainable way

Can't meet the specification for Sustainable Advertising Mail?

Search our help centre

Top topics

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