I was throwing away an envelope the other day and the postmark made me stop; the postage was $0.83; not that big of a deal if I was the only one receiving the letter but it was a form letter that probably went to thousands of people. $0.83 multiplied by thousands turns into real money pretty quick.
It was an oversize envelope, 9x12 with a window. As someone who knows a lot about envelope printing I figured it must contain a bunch of information, but no it was a single page letter. The envelope alone cost about three times what a standard #10 envelope costs. when combined, the cost of the over sized envelope and the additional postage, added almost $1.00 per mailed piece.
We talk with people every day about envelope printing, these days everyone is looking to cut costs, and most see envelope printing and envelopes as a commodity. It's true you can get envelopes from hundreds of envelope printing companies and frankly there's not much difference from one envelope to the next. If you can save a penny per envelope or even half a penny why not do it. But if you want to save some serious money focus less on the price of the envelope printing and more on how the envelope will be used.
Postage is one of the biggest costs especially since the postal service went from a weight based rate system to a size and shape based system about a year ago. Under the new system using the wrong kind of envelope can double the cost of postage.
In this example one simple step would cut the cost by more than half, use a different envelope. A standard #10 envelope would do the same job as the oversize envelope at about 1/3 the cost, and the postage for a #10 envelope at first class rates is $0.42 instead of the $0.83. If the mailing goes to thousands of people that's some serious money.
There's more to the cost of envelope printing than just the envelope. You can create some some real savings by thinking about how the envelope will be used and considering all the factors involved, especially postage. For more information on postage rates and the new size and shape restrictions visit www.usps.gov