Royal Mail has scaled back its disputed rises: Business Mail now goes up 19.4 per cent rather than 30.7 per cent, and Advertising Mail 12 per cent, from 7 December.
Royal Mail has cut back the price rises it planned for business and advertising mail after customers and the regulator objected. The increases, originally due in October, will now take effect on 7 December and are substantially smaller, with Business Mail rising 19.4 per cent instead of 30.7 per cent, as Decision Marketing reported.
Business Mail Standard will now rise 15 per cent rather than 19 per cent, and Business Mail Economy 21 per cent rather than 36 per cent. Advertising Mail, the discounted rate brands use for direct mail campaigns, goes up 12 per cent. Royal Mail said the number of letters being sent “continues to fall, while the cost of maintaining a nationwide postal service remains high”.
The original rises were suspended after wholesale customers including UK Mail, Whistl and Citipost challenged them and Ofcom intervened. The regulator’s review of the dispute is still under way, so the prices could change again.
Direct mail is one of the quieter success stories in UK marketing. It has some of the highest attention and response figures of any channel, and brands from supermarkets to charities still rely on it, partly because it is one of the few places their message is not competing with a feed. But it is priced on volume, and every rise in postage makes a mailing harder to justify against digital channels that keep getting cheaper to buy at scale.
A 12 per cent rise on Advertising Mail is still steep, and arrives just as brands plan their Christmas mailings. Expect more pressure on data quality, since cleaner mailing lists are the easiest way to offset a higher stamp, and more scrutiny of mail’s return against the £21bn now going into digital.
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