How to Send A Letter Online: The Ultimate Guide

How to Send a Letter in The Mail

Both individuals and companies use letters. Individuals communicate messages by writing letters to their loved ones, whereas industries like banks, insurance, real estate firms, healthcare, and financial services use a lot of letters like contract letters, resumes, promotional letters, client agreements, taxation forms, and much more. In the context of sending a letter in the mail, all these documents are considered letters. You need to know and follow the required steps for sending a letter, which include:

1. Drafting and Printing the Letter

We will start with the first step you need to complete after deciding to send a letter to someone. Depending on your motive to write a letter, you need to plan out its contents. If it is a personal letter – you need not give much thought to it as you can literally write anything you want and in any flow or tone. But, if it is a business letter, you might want to carefully consider your tone as this letter ought to be a representation of your brand.

Keep it formal but do not overdo it. It is okay to add some casual sentences and words to relate to your audience. Usually, direct mail letters are highly personalized. Select the theme, background images, font style, and other things, after which your letter will be ready for print. For printing letters, you can contact a local printing vendor or use your own printer.

2. Choosing the Right Envelope

Usually, letters are supposed to be enclosed in envelopes, unless your letter fits within the dimensions of a postcard – wherein you can avail yourself of the USPS postcard rates, and your letter wouldn’t require an envelope. It is simply folded and sealed.

However, generally, letters are bigger than postcards, and it is highly possible that your letters don’t fit in with the USPS-approved postcard dimensions. Hence, you should select the right envelope and get your letter enclosed.

There are multiple factors to consider while choosing the correct size and type of envelope for your letter, like the destination, size and shape of your letter, the purpose of mailing, and more.

• Size and shape: You should select an envelope size that can securely hold your letter. If your letters are foldable into a standard size, they can fit in standard-sized envelopes. Otherwise, you will require a larger envelope to enclose your letter. Similarly, your mail should be machinable, that is, fit in the USPS automated mail processors. Oversize, unusually shaped envelopes or the ones with strings or buttons are all non-machinable and will cost you more.
• Destination: Consider the destination of your letter and the delivery time before you select an envelope. The envelope type that you select should be thick and sturdy for overseas mailing to keep your letter safe throughout the delivery process, whereas you can go for a thinner envelope if you are sending local or domestic mail.
• Budget: If it is a personal letter, you probably don’t have to emphasize the budget. For direct mail, draw out a budget plan and select an envelope size accordingly. Companies that are focused on saving postage should send machinable letters and fit them in the letter slots. If not, your letters will be treated as parcels and charged more.
• Motive: You should be clear about your reason for sending a particular letter. If your mail consists of a birthday greeting, you should use a bright and colorful envelope. On the contrary, official documents like resumes, contracts, and forms should be enclosed in professional-looking envelopes.

3. Measuring Dimensions and Weight

Your letter should be eligible for mailing under the USPS letter category. Otherwise, you will be needed to pay more. It is mandatory that your letters are enclosed in rectangular and standard-sized envelopes. Letters can be folded and enclosed in these envelopes. If your letter is unfoldable due to the type of paper you have used, you will need to use a bigger envelope.

According to the USPS-approved letter dimensions, letters should be at least 3.5″ x 5″ and should not exceed 6.125″ x 11.5″. Furthermore, the thickness of your letter should be at least 0.007″ and not more than 0.25″.

Please note that even if your letter is enclosed in a standard-size envelope, it is not essential that your letter will be charged as per the letter rates. Non-machinable envelopes are charged differently. Before calculating the postage, make sure to measure your letter’s dimensions and weigh it on a scale.

4. Enclosing and Sealing

After selecting the appropriate envelope, it is important to enclose your letter in it and seal the envelope securely. Make sure that the seal protects the contents of your envelope and remains in place until the recipient opens it up. There are quite some options for you to seal your envelopes.

The first and the easiest option is to lick the closing edge of the envelope and shut the flap to seal it. This step moistens the glue present on the edge and helps it stick.

Elsewise, you can opt for wetting the edge using a sponge. Self-sealing envelopes present in the market do not require the edge glue to be moistened before sealing it. Other ways include using glue sticks or small tapes to seal your envelopes.

5. Inserting the Mailing Address

An essential part of sending a letter is to mention the mailing address clearly. The recipient’s name and address should be correctly mentioned on the front of your envelope. If you know how to mail a letter, you would already know about the USPS’s address guidelines, like – all the words should be in capital letters, and the city name and province code should come on the same line.

Letters that are meant to be sent to other countries should be addressed according to that country’s postal guidelines. Write the address in the middle of the envelope and include all the required details like the person or company name, street name, suite number, and the correct ZIP code. In the US, you need to use state abbreviations and not the full state name.

Generally, the address should be written using three lines: the first line is used to write the recipient’s full name; the second line should consist of the apartment or suite number and the street address; the city, state, and the ZIP code should be mentioned on the third line.

Every country has its own addressing system, so check out their address traits before adding the mailing address. You can check the website of the postal organization in your destination country. Write the address neatly and use dark ink colors. You can otherwise print the addresses on labels and stick them on your letters.

Printed addresses are much clearer and more understandable than handwritten ones. This step improves the chances of your mail delivery being completed and reduces delays. Businesses can opt to send mail online using PostGrid‘s direct mail automation platform – which is capable of auto-correcting and verifying your addresses. It can solve your problems of lost and returned mail.

6. Adding a Return Address

You don’t need to add a return address or the sender’s address. However, you should include one so that undeliverable mail can be returned back to you. A letter can be undeliverable for several reasons like damage, insufficient postage, and incomplete or invalid addresses.

Without a return address, such undelivered mail will be discarded by the post office. You will likely have no idea about your mail’s whereabouts in such a scenario, which can lead to confusion and misinterpretations about your letter. Moreover, your letter might contain some confidential information. Including a return address is always a smart option.

The sender’s address should be written on the top-left corner of your envelope, towards the front side. It should be written in the same format as the mailing address. Alternatively, you can also write the return address on the back of your envelope. Again, read your destination country’s postal guidelines about the insertion of the return address.

7. Figuring Out the Postage

It is often very difficult to figure out the postage required to be paid for mailing your letter. It depends on destination, shape, size, mailing speed, weight, and the tracking and special handling options you might be looking for.

Sending letters overseas will cost you more than mailing them to domestic locations. Moreover, postage increases with an increase in weight. You also have to keep the dimensions in mind, as only rectangular envelopes are allowed to send letters. If you use a square envelope, it is not considered to be a letter by the USPS. For certain additional options like insurance and fragile mail handling, the postage will be relatively higher.

You can get postage stamps online at the USPS website or other online postage stores. Some drug and grocery stores also sell stamps for both domestic and international destinations. If you carry your letters to the post office, they can calculate the postage for you specifically. Otherwise, you can calculate it yourself.

Make sure to use the right number and type of stamps because the stamp rates keep changing from time to time. The postage stamps value should cover the full cost to mail your letter to a certain destination. Purchasing postage stamps online is much easier and cheaper than purchasing them from the post office.

The USPS also provides several discounts if you purchase postage online. Using metered postage instead of stamps can also help you save a lot as it is cheaper compared to the rate of stamps. For sending bulk mail, you should definitely consider using metered postage to save a lot on the overall postage that you are required to pay.

8. Selecting the Mailing Option

There are many different options to mail a letter through the USPS. Depending on the urgency of sending your mail and budget availability, you can select the ideal mailing option.

The USPS’s first-class mail option is ideal for sending letters with local mail delivered within 2 to 3 business days and national mail delivered in around four business days. The prices start at $0.55 for rectangular and standard-size envelopes.

The postage for oversize, unusually shaped, or square envelopes starts at $0.75. The maximum weight allowed to send first-class letters is 3.5 ounces. There are other mail options available with the USPS for sending mail that can be used if your mail weighs more than the specified weight, for example, the priority mail flat rate option that allows you to send mail weighing up to 70 pounds. If you know how to mail a letter online, you can skip these steps of figuring out the postage and the right mailing option to send your letters.

9. Mailing the Letter

There are blue-colored USPS mailboxes located in all the cities and suburbs at a certain distance from each other in the US. It is likely that you locate a mailbox nearby to you. If not, check the USPS website to locate mailboxes, so you can drop your mail at the nearest one. Otherwise, you can take it to the nearest post office and drop it there.

If you want to track your mail, you can go to the post office and pay the required postage, in return for which the postal worker will give you a receipt with a tracking number. You can then track your letter through the USPS website. A lot of people are not able to calculate the postage on their own. They can always go to a post office and let them handle this task for you.

It is difficult for bulk mailing to carry all the letters, stand in the post office queue, and wait till the postal workers calculate the postage for you. It can be a lengthy and time-consuming process. At this point, you should consider learning how to send a letter online. The online process merely takes a few minutes, and everything is completed in less than half the amount of effort you would have put in to send a letter manually.