You’ve got mail: franking to enhance brand identity

As any business owner will verify, it’s quite often the little things that make all the difference in terms of how successful they are.

Of course, every business, be it a small independent retailer or a large corporate conglomerate, should know the importance of having a business strategy that carefully sets out the direction and scope of the organisation over the long-term. After all, if they don’t know where they want to be, how on earth do they expect to get there?

Indeed, a clear business strategy is the backbone of any successful business and is what everything else is built upon. But how the aims and objectives within the strategy are achieved is where many companies can face difficulties. And this is where it pays to focus on the details; getting the small things right will make the big things fall in to place a whole lot easier. Building a professional brand identity is central to the whole process, and if a company looks the part, customers will be more inclined to use their services.

Front of house, most companies are well aware of the power of advertising, whether it’s flyers, newspaper adverts or even their website. But behind the scenes, a company may want to consider how they can use every opportunity to make their brand as visible as possible.

On mail-outs, for example, rather than using traditional stamps, it may be worth considering the advantages of using a franking machine. There are practical benefits, of course, such as speed and efficiency. And the cost of sending franked mail is actually cheaper than buying stamps. But another major plus of using a franking machine, or a postage meter as they are also known, is that they enable a company to ‘brand’ their outgoing mail with a company logo.

A personalised plate on outgoing mail helps to enhance brand awareness and also adds a real professional touch. Franking mail with a company brand is essentially free advertising, something which is very difficult to achieve through any other medium.

And not only is the cost of sending first and second class post less than with stamps, it also eliminates the possibility of ‘paying too much’ on outgoing mail, through the use of accurate, electronic scales.

Furthermore, it saves valuable accounting time, allowing anybody to see exactly how much has been spent on postage and how much is left on the account. Different accounts can even be created on each machine, allowing employees who are working on different projects, to key in their own password and it can then be costed directly against the appropriate project code.

So, this helps to show how by getting the small things right, a company can greatly enhance their efficiency. The speed and accuracy of a franking machine minimises the time a company spends on administrative tasks and not only is it a much more cost-effective means of dispatching mail, it allows the business to advertise their brand for next to no cost, meaning a postage meter could just about be worth its weight in gold.

About the Author

Isla Campbell is an online, freelance journalist and avid traveler and pilates devotee. When not on the road she lives on the outskirts of Oban.