You don’t believe me, do you? You’re thinking you’ve not received or sent a letter for ages and all your correspondence is digital — email, teams, zoom or SMS?
That may be true but letters are being sent and, perhaps because they are a rare sight, they are more impactful than ever?
I started a letter mailing business back in 2003. At the time I had moved to Australia and still had contacts in the UK who were not on the internet. I asked a friend to print the letters I emailed over from Australia. The letters would arrive quicker than airmail and, because we were sticking local stamps on, the price was a lot cheaper too. As letter volumes increased the business was fully automated and a website was developed at www.docsaway.com.
When that business started back in 2003 little did I think it would still be operating in 2022 yet here we are going through another post-pandemic growth spurt. Businesses, especially with a global client base, find it beneficial as our letters still get through quicker than airmail and are still cheaper. But why are they still sending letters when an email is almost free?
Our letters are still being sent for many reasons:
a. A legal requirement for the correspondence to be mailed.
b. To reach people who are not online. Only 63% of the world population is considered as being online.
c. To confirm someone lives where they say they live. Often a letter is sent purely to confirm the recipient is present at an address and this helps financial institutions meet anti-money laundering and ‘Know your Customer’ requirements.
d. The correspondence is encoded in Braille. Our Braille partner encodes letters so people with limited vision can read directly from a hard copy.
e. To save the recipient from having to get something printed, a visa or a visitor pass for instance. Not everyone has a printer at home so receiving something already as a hard copy can be convenient.
f. People still read letters and now, more than ever, they have a novelty value making them a welcome arrival in the mailbox.
In business, I’ve always tried to have multiple income streams in preparation for when one may fall away but now, more than ever, recognise that it is hard to predict exactly when that may be. Keeping fixed costs to a minimum so reduced turnover is not terminal is as important as having flexible processes that can accommodate an increase in business at literally a moment’s notice. For this, successful long-standing partnerships with businesses in 11 countries around the globe have been vital.
While the end of letters has been predicted for some time, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings – and apparently, she is still reading printed mail.