What Are Bubble Envelopes, And How Can They Help Your Business Mail Communication?
Safety is often an issue for every little thing that we do. You drive a car – you’ve got to put your seatbelts on; you go kayaking – you need a life jacket, and so on. But what safety measures can you take when sending small and fragile items via business mail? The answer to that question may be padded or bubble envelopes.
So, what are bubble envelopes? Does your business mail need them? These are some questions you are probably hoping to find some answers to, and it is likely the reason why you are here. Below, we will discuss the role of bubble or padded envelopes along with their role in your business mail marketing and communication.
What Are Bubble Envelopes Or Bubble Mailers?
Bubble mailers or bubble envelopes are covers or envelopes lined with a bubble wrap layer for extra protection. The envelope’s exterior can be either paper or plastic and typically comes in rectangular shapes.
You can get bubble mailers in a wide variety of sizes. The size of the interior and exterior layers of the envelopes are not the same. It would be best if you considered this size difference to use bubble-layered envelopes for your business mail.
Make sure the inner side of the bubble envelope has enough usable room to accommodate whatever you are trying to send. It is also worth noting that bubble-type envelopes are also called padded envelopes.
Technically, all bubble envelopes are padded envelopes, but all padded envelopes do not necessarily have a bubble-wrap layer. In addition to the bubble wrap layer, padded envelopes can also have a protective layer or padding made of foam, paper, Etc.
People often use the terms padded envelopes and bubble envelopes interchangeably. Nonetheless, these envelopes are not always the same, and it is critical to understand their differences.
When Should You Use Bubble Envelopes?
The reason for using a bubble envelope is evidently to protect the envelope’s content. But is bubble wrap the best form of protection you can give a mailer? Well, no. If you want to mail something and ensure its content’s safety, we suggest you go with something like a mailer box.
A mailer box is the best way to ensure maximum protection for your business mailers. But that does not mean it is better than bubble mailers for sending business mailers. Like a two-seater, Lamborghini is not for carpooling your kids to school; the mailer box isn’t suitable for all business mailers.
Fragile, Light, And Small Items
If the business mailer content satisfies three characteristics. It has to be
- Small
- Fragile
- Light
Moreover, using a mailer box for sending something fragile, small, and light is going overboard and unnecessary. A bubble envelope can protect your small and fragile mail items. More importantly, it is much more practical to use a padded envelope for your business bulk mail instead of mailer boxes. Some mailing items you can include in padded envelopes include the following.
- Books.
- Documents.
- Jewelry.
- CDs.
- And more.
The items listed above can fit comfortably in a bubble mailer and do not require the ample space of a mailer box. One argument you may raise now is that you could just as easily use a regular envelope for the job.
It is normal to have this question in your mind. But, you may be overlooking how often packages get damaged every time you ship them. A study conducted in 2010 found that a mailer is tossed or dropped almost 27 times for a one-way shipment. Imagine sending a CD without a bubble envelope that drops 27 times on its way.
Instead of receiving a readable CD, the recipient may receive pieces of it by the time it reaches their hands. The chance of this happening is significantly lower if you use a bubble envelope for sending your fragile or light content, like CDs.
Where Can You Find Bubble Envelopes?
Suppose you want to use a bubble mailer envelope to send fragile items to your audience. In that case, the next obvious question is, where can you find it? And we got the answer for you. But chances are that you already know where you can find padded envelopes for your mailers.
In case you are thinking about buying bubble envelopes from your nearest office supply shop or post office. If so, you are on the right track. You can buy padded envelopes of different sizes and colours from your nearest stores or post offices.
Alternatively, you can also place orders for bubble mailer envelopes online. And it is relatively easy to buy these envelopes in bulk, whether at the store or online. Additionally, the cost for these envelopes is almost negligible compared to the much more expensive marketing efforts.
You also have the option to make your envelopes with your brand logo and colours printed on them. Doing so enables your mailers to stand out. The recipient can understand that the bubble mailer is from you before opening it.
It is much easier to design or customize your business or bubble envelopes than you think. Direct mail tools like PostGrid enable you to create your business envelopes through its dashboard. PostGrid offers a template gallery and editor to design mailers for your direct mail campaigns.
As we mentioned before, the only thing you need to be a little extra careful in determining the mailer size. You need to find the size of your mailer content before choosing the size bubble envelope for your campaign.
How To Pack And Ship Your Bubble Envelopes?
At this point, you know what a bubble envelope is, when you should use it, and where you can buy them. Let’s assume you already have the right content and the padded envelope for your business mail. In that case, it is time to discuss how to pack and ship your business mailers using padded envelopes.
How To Pack A Bubble Mailer?
You know that bubble mailers have a line of protective layers made of bubble wrap inside the envelope. In most cases, this protective layer is more than sufficient to protect the content inside. You don’t have to add any additional packing materials inside the envelope.
But, if you are still worried about the safety of your item inside the padded envelope, you may add other packing materials. Thinking this before picking the appropriate bubble envelope size would be a good idea.
You can’t do much if there is no room to add packing materials inside the envelope. Hence, you can add an extra layer of bubble wrap around the item or use packing paper. It provides an extra layer of protection for items inside the bubble envelope and ensures their safety.
Adding this extra layer can also increase the weight of your package. We suggest that you get your priorities straight before adding this extra layer. The additional cost for the material and postage can be significantly high for your bubble mailers, especially for bulk mailing.
How To Ship A Bubble Mailer?
Now, we have covered how you can pack your padded mailers. Let’s discuss how to ship a bubble mailer for your business.
The shipping processes for your padded envelopes can vary depending on where or how you drop them off. Additionally, how you choose to label the mailer can also have an impact on the shipping process. Below, we discuss the general steps explaining how to ship a bubble mailer for your business.
Step 1: Seal The Bubble Envelope
The first step you must take to ship the bubble mailer is to ensure that it has proper sealing. Ensure the seal is secure and there are no holes in the mailer. The last thing you want is for the items inside to fall out of the envelope or rip a hole.
Either case could damage the item inside, making the whole bubble wrap protection a pointless exercise. It is best to double-check the seal to ensure the safety of the items inside the bubble envelope.
Step 2: Label The Bubble Envelope
After double-checking the seal of the bubble envelope, you must label it. You may choose to label the mailer by yourself. If so, ensure that the label contains all the necessary elements to make it eligible for mailing.
While labelling, ensure you put the delivery address in the centre and the return address in the left corner. Finally, put the postage on the top right corner of the bubble mailer you want to send.
The better option is to use a label you get from the mail carrier, as there is less chance of an error. You can bring your bubble mailer directly to the mail carrier and have them print the mailing label.
If you choose the latter option, the mail carrier will weigh your bubble mailer and assign the appropriate price. You can provide the mail carrier with the necessary information for mailing your mailer. The mail carrier will print the details onto a label and stick it to your mailer.
Step 3: Send Your Bubble Mailer
Now that you have packed, sealed, and labelled your bubble mailer, there is only one thing left to do – and that’s to send it. One option for sending your mailer is to have the mail carrier come and pick it up. To do that, you will need to schedule a pickup and stick to that schedule.
Most mail carriers require you to submit an online form for the pickup option. You must take a printout of the online form and affix it to your bubble mailer before handing it over. The carrier will later come and collect the mailer at the scheduled time. After gathering your mailer, the mail carrier weighs it at their office.
The price for sending bubble mailers can vary depending on your mail carrier. Typically, carriers charge postage specific for the size and weight of the package. Canada Post generally charges lower prices for sending your business mailers than private carriers.
With Canada Post, you can send any envelope that measures 0.75 inches or less as envelopes. Any mailer that exceeds this limit becomes a package, and the pricing changes significantly. Before sending it to your target audience, you should keep the bubble mailer dimensions in mind.
What Is The Cost Of Sending A Bubble Mailer?
As you should know by now, there is no fixed price for sending bubble mailing envelopes because it tends to vary depending on various factors. The weight and delivery speed are two main factors affecting pricing.
The good news is that no matter how you look at it, the cost of sending a bubble mailer is less than sending a mailer box. There are two costs to consider when sending your business mail in a padded envelope. One is the mailer’s price, and the other is your shipping cost.
As we mentioned before, the mailer cost depends mainly on the size, style, and even the brand of the mailer. The smaller your mailer, the smaller the price. But the shipping cost for the bubble mailer may be a little more complex.
First of all, the shipping cost can vary depending on the mail carrier you use. While some carriers base their pricing on the mailer’s weight and dimensions, some carriers base it on the distance it has to travel. We can tell you for sure that the cost of sending a bubble mailer is always lesser than sending a mailer box.
How To Streamline Your Mailing Process With Direct Mail Automation?
At its core, the primary reason companies use bubble envelopes for their mailers is to ensure the safety of their mailers. But merely using a fancy envelope can’t streamline your direct mail marketing or communication efforts.
It would be best if you considered implementing direct mail automation to ensure the best results for your business mail communication. Whether you use bubble envelopes or other envelopes, direct mail automation can help you optimize your mailing.
There are numerous benefits of using direct mail automation software like PostGrid for your business mailing. Some of these benefits include
- Superior tracking of mail-outs and their deliveries.
- Minimal human errors and high-quality control.
- Proof of distribution through archiving services.
- Save thousands of hours on manual mail processing.
- And much more.
It doesn’t matter if you use bubble envelopes or standard envelopes; you can still optimize your business mailing using PostGrid. The advanced direct mail solution fully automates your direct mail process and personalizes your bulk mail effortlessly.
