Mail Media
| | Direct mail, or "mail media" is the third largest advertising medium in the U.K. It commands a share of 12.5% of total advertising expenditure and around £1.9bn is spent on it each year. Advertising through the mail supports over £16bn of sales annually and plays an important role in the marketing mix. | Transactional Mail | The mailing of statements, bills and invoices boosts total mail expenditure in the U.K to circa £5bn annually. There is an increasingly blurred line between classic direct mail and the use of other regular communications as part of a wider relationship marketing programme. This strengthens the power of mail media making it a very dynamic marketing tool. Mail volumes are dominated by business mail users with domestic mail making up just 13% of the total: Domestic to domestic - 10% Domestic to business - 3% Business to business - 27% Business to domestic - 60% |
Regulation In July 2000 POSTCOMM was appointed as the independent postal regulator. The opening of the market to competition means the end of the Royal Mail monopoly and, potentially better all round deals for mail users. Despite this, Royal Mail continues to dominate the UK market in the provision of collection and distribution services where it has a market share of 97%. In terms of final delivery to doorstep its share is 99.8%. 
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Derek Fairhurst
Managing Director, PostalAudits