Postage Paid Envelopes
More and more marketers and business owners are now turning to direct mail for accomplishing their marketing goals. Direct mail is often more effective in connecting with customers and generating responses. However, direct mail marketing can be complex and time-consuming unless you have the right tools.
Postage Paid envelopes are one of the most convenient ways for business organisations to simplify their direct mail process. However, many companies are still unaware of the Prepaid Envelope offered by Australia Post or how they can use it for direct mail marketing.
Hence, we will explain what a Postage Paid envelope is and how Postage Paid envelopes work. Furthermore, the article also discusses the requirements of Australia Post’s prepaid envelopes and how you can optimise your direct mail campaigns.
What Is A Postage Paid Envelope?
Postage Paid envelopes or prepaid postage envelopes are envelopes that do not require you to attach postage stamps for mailing them. In other words, prepaid postage envelopes allow people to send postal mail without applying postage stamps.
Businesses often employ prepaid envelopes to boost the reply rate of their direct mail campaigns. Companies can also use prepaid envelopes to conveniently send marketing mail without going through the trouble of applying postage on each mailer.
Postage paid envelopes Australia comes with a Postage Paid Imprint, distinguishing prepaid envelopes from regular postage envelopes. So, if you ever see Postage Paid Imprint in a direct mail envelope, it means that its postage is already paid for.
Postage Paid Imprint
According to Australia Post, Postage Paid Imprint is a preprinted impression that serves as an alternative to postage stamps or a postage meter. The Postage Paid Imprint indicates that the postage is already paid for by some means other than postage stamps.
It is usually used by businesses that send regular quantities of mail and boost the response for their direct mail campaigns. Understanding the characteristics of the Postage Paid Imprint enables you to distinguish prepaid envelopes from preprinted envelopes.
Otherwise, businesses may use regularly printed envelopes without attaching the necessary postage. It can lead to financial and time loss. Hence, if you want to use Postage Paid envelopes for your business communications, you should learn everything you can about it.
Postage Paid Imprint Location
The image above shows the position or location for the Postage Paid Imprint. Ensure that the positioning of the Postage Paid Imprint is within the postage zone of an envelope. If the imprint is not on the postage zone, it is not considered as one of the AusPost Postage Paid envelopes.
The Postage Zone:
Some of you may be unsure about the position and size of the postage zone. The postage zone is 90mm wide and 40mm high. It appears on the top right corner of the address side of the envelope.
You can measure the 90mm width of the postage zone from the top right-hand corner and its 40mm height from the top edge of the envelope.
Postage Paid Imprint Design
The Postage Paid Imprint also has some unique design characteristics to tell whether an envelope is prepaid or not. First of all, you should look for the wording “POSTAGE PAID AUSTRALIA”. The envelope is not a prepaid postage envelope unless the imprint contains this wording.
Furthermore, the words should be printed in black ink and capital letters. The ideal font size for the wording is 8.5 to 14. Australia Post also recommends that you use the fonts Helvetica or Arial. Ensure that the imprint is against a white background with a rectangular shape.
The maximum allowable size or dimension of the rectangular box is 26mm in height and 40mm wide. You should also ensure that the triangle has a minimum measurement of 19mm height and 25mm width.
Prepaid Postage Envelopes For Priority Mail Services
One of the benefits of prepaid postage envelopes is that they are also available for priority mail services. As you can guess, the Postage Paid envelopes for priority mail are different from the standard prepaid envelopes.
However, the design features of priority Postage Paid Imprint differ from the regular one. Apart from the words “POSTAGE PAID AUSTRALIA”, the Postage Paid Imprint for priority mail also has the words “PRIORITY.”
The word “PRIORITY” is provided in a smaller rectangle below the white rectangle for the wording “POSTAGE PAID AUSTRALIA.” Australia Post uses mail processing equipment for sorting the mail. It enables them to streamline their direct mail delivery and eliminates manual processing delays.
Australia Post uses the same equipment to recognise and sort priority mail from regular mail by identifying “PRIORITY” on the imprint. The significant design aspects of the priority Postage Paid Imprint include the following:
Use Reverse Text For “PRIORITY”
One of the design aspects that stands out in the Postage Paid Imprint for Priority Mail is the reverse text. And no, the reverse text does not mean that the letters are reversed. The reverse text here means that the text should be white while keeping the background black.
Text Format
Australia Post recommends using capital letters to ensure the mail processing equipment easily recognises your prepaid postage envelopes.
It would be best to opt for bold font over the regular font. The preferred font style for Priority Mail Postage Paid Imprint is Helvetica Bold or Arial Bold.
Australia Post also suggests that you should maintain the font size between 10 to 14 to ensure the imprint’s easy readability.
Design Of The Rectangular Box
The small rectangular box should have 4 to 6mm height for wide imprints and 6 to 10mm size for tall imprints.
Contrast
Australia Post suggests maintaining a minimum contrast of 65% between the background and the text for optimal readability.
Other Requirements For Postage Paid Envelopes
Apart from the design aspects that we have discussed earlier, there are other factors you need to consider when using prepaid envelopes. The additional requirements for Postage Paid envelopes include the following:
Return Address
The Postage Paid envelopes should always have an Australian return address. Make sure to print it on the top-left-hand corner on the front of the envelope.
Lodgement Requirements
Another important thing you should note about the Postage Paid envelopes in Australia is the lodging requirements. Make sure to lodge the mail during the working hours of an authorised Australia Post facility.
How To Pay For Prepaid Postage Envelopes
There are two ways you can pay for Postage Paid envelopes from Australia Post. Customers can either use an Australia Post Business Credit Account or cash payments. The former is more convenient for marketing purposes. Furthermore, cash payments are only preferable for Postage Paid Imprint mail for individual or personal communications.
Conclusion
AusPost Postage Paid envelopes are an excellent way for business organisations to run easy and convenient direct mail marketing campaigns. Prepaid Postage envelopes enable businesses to send direct mail to their customers, prospects, and partners without the trouble of attaching postage stamps.
Apart from this, they can also use prepaid envelopes to boost the response rate of their direct mail campaigns. Sending a prepaid envelope to your target audience provides them with a convenient way to respond to your direct mail.
Companies can further enhance the effectiveness of their prepaid envelopes by using an automated tool like PostGrid. Advanced software solutions like PostGrid can automate the entire direct mail process, including personalisation, printing, and delivery of your mailers.
Such extensive automation of your direct mail process enables you to ensure the fastest processing time for your mailers. Any business that wants to see feasible changes in its direct marketing effort should consider an advanced automation solution like PostGrid.
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source https://www.postgrid.com.au/how-do-prepaid-postage-envelopes-work/
source https://postgridaustralia.blogspot.com/2022/02/postage-paid-envelopes.html
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