What is hybrid mail and how does a hybrid mail service work?

Hybrid mail is a way of sending physical post without printing or posting it yourself. You create letters, invoices and statements in your own systems and send them electronically to a hybrid mail provider, which prints them, puts them in envelopes, applies postage and hands them to the postal service. The recipient gets an ordinary letter. Your team never touches an envelope.

Stratas provides a hybrid mail service for organisations that send documents from their ERP or finance system. Invoices, statements, letters and reminders go out by post, email or both, based on each recipient’s preference. We handle the printing, packing, franking and Royal Mail collection, and the tracking status and available delivery confirmations are written back to your system. Incoming post can be scanned, classified and routed into your workflows too.

The rest of this guide explains how hybrid mail works in general, what hybrid delivery means, what you can send, and what to look for when you choose a provider.

How hybrid mail works

The details vary between providers, but every hybrid mail service follows the same basic steps:

1. You create the document. A letter, invoice or statement is produced as normal, in a word processor, a billing run or your ERP.

2. You send it to the provider. Documents are uploaded through a portal, sent by a print driver from your desktop, or passed across automatically by an integration with the system that created them.

3. Delivery options are applied. The address, postal class and any inserts are set, either by you for each job or by rules that run on every batch.

4. It is printed and packed. The provider prints the documents, folds them into envelopes and applies postage at its production site.

5. It is posted and tracked. The mail is handed to the postal service, and the provider records what was sent, to whom, how and when.

For the sender, the whole job ends at step two. Everything physical happens somewhere else.

What hybrid delivery means

Hybrid delivery is the term for that split between digital and physical. The document starts life digitally and travels digitally to the point of production, then ends up as paper through the post. Many services take the idea a step further and decide the delivery channel per recipient: one batch of statements can go by email to customers who have agreed to it and by post to everyone else.

That mixed approach matters because few organisations can move every customer to email. Some recipients prefer paper, some documents are expected in paper form, and some addresses have no email on file. Hybrid delivery lets you send electronically wherever you can and keep post for where it is needed, from one process.

What you can send by hybrid mail

Anything you would otherwise print and post yourself is a candidate. The most common uses are:

• Customer invoices, credit notes and monthly statements.

• Payment reminders and arrears letters.

• Remittance advice to suppliers.

• Policy documents, renewal notices and service charge demands.

• Welcome packs and onboarding letters.

• Notices and correspondence that must arrive on paper.

Hybrid mail suits both regular batches, such as a month end statement run, and one off letters triggered as they are needed. With Stratas, both come from the same place: a scheduled batch from your ERP, or a single letter sent on demand from the record it relates to.

Why organisations use hybrid mail

• No in-house print room. Printers, folding machines, franking machines and envelope stock all go, along with the space they take up and the time spent keeping them running.

• Send from anywhere. Post no longer depends on someone being in the office. Staff working from home or another site send letters the same way as everyone else.

• Consistent output. Every letter is printed and packed to the same standard, so a statement run looks the same every month whoever starts it.

• A record of every item. Each document has a timestamp, recipient, delivery method and tracking status. When a customer says a letter never arrived, you can see exactly what was sent and when.

• Email where it works, post where it is needed. Hybrid mail sits alongside digital delivery. Our guide to the advantages of electronic mail over physical post covers when each channel makes sense.

Hybrid mail for incoming post

Hybrid mail usually refers to outgoing post, but the same idea works in the other direction. Incoming letters, invoices and forms are opened and scanned, then delivered to staff digitally. This is often called a digital mailroom.

Scanning on its own produces images that someone still has to read. The useful version classifies each document and reads the data off it, so a supplier invoice arrives in your finance system ready to process and a customer letter lands with the right team. That step uses intelligent document processing, the same technology Stratas uses to capture supplier invoices for finance teams.

How to choose a hybrid mail provider

Most providers can print and post a letter. The differences show up in how documents reach them and what comes back. These are the questions worth asking:

• How do documents get to you? A portal or print driver suits occasional letters. For invoices and statements, look for a direct integration with your ERP or billing system so nobody has to export and upload files.

• Can you send by email as well as post? A provider that handles both lets you set channel rules per recipient and run one process for every customer.

• What do we get back? Ask what tracking and delivery information is recorded, and whether it is written back to your own system or held only in the provider’s portal.

• Do you handle batches and single letters? Month end runs and on demand letters should go through the same service.

• How is our data protected? Invoices and statements carry personal and financial data. Ask where documents are printed, who can access them, how long files are kept, and which security standards the provider is assessed against.

• Can you handle incoming post too? If you want to digitise inbound mail, a single provider for both directions keeps the records in one place.

Getting started with hybrid mail

Moving post to a hybrid mail service is mostly a matter of knowing what you send today. Before you talk to providers, gather:

• A list of document types. Invoices, statements, reminders, letters and anything else that goes out by post, with the system each one comes from.

• Rough monthly volumes. How many items of each type, how many pages each, and whether any need colour or inserts.

• Channel preferences. Which recipients have agreed to email and which need paper, so channel rules can be set from the start.

• What you need recorded. The delivery details your team, auditors or regulator expect to see against each document.

With that in hand, a provider can quote accurately and show you a test run of your own documents before anything goes to a customer.

Hybrid mail FAQs

What is a hybrid mail service?

A hybrid mail service takes documents you send electronically and turns them into physical post. The provider prints, envelopes, stamps and posts each item, so you get the reach of a letter with the effort of sending an email. Most services also record what was sent and when.

How much does hybrid mail cost?

Hybrid mail is usually charged per item, and the price depends on the number of pages, whether printing is colour or black and white, any inserts, the postal class, and your monthly volume. Postage is normally the largest part of the cost. Stratas quotes based on your volumes and document types, so the quickest way to a figure is to book a demo and talk us through what you send.

Is hybrid mail cheaper than printing and posting in-house?

It often is once the whole cost is counted. In-house post costs more than stamps: printers and consumables, franking machine rental, envelopes, and the staff time spent printing, folding and taking post to be collected. Providers that post in volume can also reach business postage rates a single sender may not qualify for. Compare the per item price against all of those costs, and against the share of documents you could send by email.

Who provides hybrid mail in the UK?

UK hybrid mail is offered by specialist print and mail providers, by postal operators, and by software companies that add a print and post service to their platform. Stratas provides hybrid mail as part of its finance automation work, connected to more than 100 ERP integrations including SAP, Oracle, Dynamics 365, Sage and Xero, so documents go straight from your finance system to print and post.

Is hybrid mail secure?

A good hybrid mail service can be more controlled than an office print room, because documents move electronically to a single production site and every item is logged. Security still depends on the provider, so ask how data is transferred and stored, who can see your documents, and how long files are retained after printing.

Can hybrid mail handle incoming post?

Yes. Incoming post can be scanned, classified and routed to the right team or system, which is often called a digital mailroom. Stratas offers this alongside outbound hybrid mail, so the documents you send and receive are both recorded digitally.