Sustainable® Advertising Mail

Sustainable® Advertising Mail is the right choice for your business if you:

• are using direct mail but want to ensure your mailings have a low environmental impact
• are posting at least 4,000 letters or 1,000 large letters per mailing
• can meet the Entry Level or Intermediate Level specifications and qualify for a discount on the standard Advertising Mail™ price
• want the flexibility to choose when your items are delivered – 1st Class, 2nd Class or Economy.

You can tailor Sustainable® Advertising Mail to meet your needs by choosing from the following options:

• Letter or large letter format
• 1st Class, 2nd Class or Economy delivery speeds
• a range of options to prepare and present your mail.

Formats

Delivery speeds

If you choose to sort your mail, you have additional options:

• 1st Class - next working day
• 2nd Class - delivery aim within two working days after the day of posting
• Economy - delivery aim within four working days after the day of posting
• Economy Deferred - we will deliver the items within four working days after a date you determine.

Volumes

The minimum number of items per mailing is 4,000 letters or 1,000 large letters, if you sort your mail.

Multi-stage mailings

You can use Sustainable® Advertising Mail for the main part only of an Advertising Mail™ with Multistage option campaign. For details, see Advertising Mail™.

Preparing and presenting your mail

With Sustainable® Advertising Mail you have the option to give your mail to us to process and deliver – or, if you choose, to make your mail machine-readable or sort to save money.

At least 90% of items must be fully and accurately addressed and postcoded. The postcode must be consistent with the address compared to Royal Mail’s PAF.

If you are using the Barcode option (Letters only) you also need to ensure that you meet the minimum DPS accuracy level of 90%

For Intermediate Level you must ensure that at least 95% of items are fully and accurately addressed and postcoded in accordance with Royal Mail’s PAF.

Want to find out more about these options?

Sorting your mail

Save money by sorting your mail and making sure your addresses are accurate. There are two levels of sortation:

• Low Sort option (up to 88 ways) if your mail is machine-readable
• High Sort option (up to 1,525 ways) which doesn’t require you to make your mail machine-readable.

Types 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).

Find out more about mail containers.

For more information about all of our Sustainable® Advertising Mail options, refer to the Sustainable® Advertising Mail chapter of the user guide which can be found on our Royal Mail Technical website.

Sustainable® Advertising Mail can help you save money. Prices represent a fixed discount on the cost of regular Advertising Mail™. First, take a look at what you have to do to meet the necessary requirements, get started - and begin to see the benefits of a more sustainable approach to your marketing.

Sustainable Advertising Mail Rate card from 2 April 2013 onwards

To use Sustainable® Advertising Mail you'll need to have an account with Royal Mail and meet a few important criteria. These include assuring us that your mailing is a largely uniform message to all addressees and that your data meets our specifications. We’ll want to see a sample of your mail piece together with a copy of your sales order.

We'll make getting started easy. With a standard option from 1,000+ items and no sorting or address preparation necessary, you can be set up in no time. However, if you can sort your mail, you'll be able to choose from highly competitive discounted options too.

Need to set up an account?

If you don’t already have an account, you can contact our Business Centre on 08457 950 950 (lines are open 8.00am to 6.00pm Monday to Friday).

Many of our customers have Account Managers

If your business has a Royal Mail Account Manager, contact yours and find out more about how Sustainable® Advertising 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 Sustainable® Advertising Mail options you want. It will speed things up if you can have your Royal Mail account number to hand when you ring us.

Once you have decided which Sustainable® Advertising Mail options meets your requirements; you've read and agreed the terms and conditions and our sales team have set you up with a unique reference, you can log in to your Online Business Account (OBA), locate your reference number - and get started on your mailing.

There are two levels in our specification: Entry Level and Intermediate Level. Both of these provide a discount from the standard Advertising Mail prices. Sustainable® Advertising Mail prices are set as a further discount of the base Advertising Mail™ prices.

• At Entry Level, you need to use data techniques to ensure a high level of targeting, use sustainable materials, processes and suppliers and ensure your direct mail pieces are capable of being recycled.
• With Intermediate Level, you need to meet additional targeting, sustainability and recycling requirements.

Speak to your Royal Mail account manager and you’ll also find more information about getting started in our user guide which can be found on our Royal Mail Technical website