The advances in technology today have made a lot of older practices look outdated and obsolete. A P.O. box is one such practice. Frequently used by small business owners, frequent travelers, digital nomads, and anybody else not looking to have their mail delivered directly to their homes, a standard post office box has now been replaced by newer PO box alternatives that provide all the convenience and none of the downsides.
A virtual mailbox, the cutting-edge alternative to the old PO box, is the perfect modern solution to all your snail mail needs. Here’s a look at what a virtual mailbox means, and the four key benefits it offers.
What Is a Virtual Mailbox?
Looking to travel often but need someone to not only receive but also go through your mail to let you know what is urgent and what isn’t? A professional virtual mailbox service such as the one offered by PhysicalAddress.com is better than a po box since you don’t have to drop everything to come and collect your mail every time you receive new mail.
PO box alternatives like physicaladdress.com offer a scan and email feature where every item in your new mail gets scanned and the images of the scan sent to you via email. You can then decide if the mail is urgent enough for you to pick up immediately or be forwarded to you, or whether it can also be sent to you at a later date along with other incoming packages.
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Besides the mail pickup, these types of virtual mailbox services also offer you an actual physical address to use for your business and other communication if you want to keep your personal address private. Let’s take a closer look at all the benefits of a virtual mailbox.
You Don’t Need to Keep Going to Your Mailbox
Unless you’re expecting a package that you’ve been really looking forward to, commuting every time to check your mail can feel like a needless, thankless chore. It may also not be physically possible for you to keep checking on your PO box in person. This might be due to a number of reasons. Some people intentionally prefer the thrill of being a digital nomad where you’re constantly on the move, be it for personal or professional reasons.
An old-style P.O. box is pretty burdensome in such cases, where you might be out of the country, not just out of the city or state, too often to actually keep checking on your PO box. This might also be the case for frequent business travelers. Or someone in poor health might have difficulties in getting to their PO box often. A virtual mailbox does away with this need to be there in person to check your mail. When you compare a po box’s price to the bare-bones services it offers, a virtual mailbox emerges as the clear winner.
See Your Mail in Your Inbox Before You Get It
Most professional virtual mailbox providers offer a scan and forward service. This entails scanning all your new mail and sending you these images of your packages and envelopes to you in your email. You can thus sort out for yourself which mail is important enough to be picked up or forwarded to you and which mail can be kept until your next mail package. The scan feature also ensures you could be anywhere in the world and yet know when and what new mail you’ve received.
Get Your Mail Forwarded to You
A great benefit of a professional virtual mailbox is that you don’t need to go physically to retrieve important emails. You can decide if you want every bit of mail forwarded to you, or just the important ones, based on the images of the mail sent to you in your inbox. You can also choose to have your non-essential mail privately and confidentially shredded to de-clutter your mail.
Seen this way, the virtual mailbox service plays the important role of a virtual assistant that can help you sort out your mail, simplify your chores, and make your personal and professional life easier. What’s more, you can look for a service that does not involve third parties to sift through your mail, but their own, confidentiality-bound employees. These benefits of a virtual mailbox far outweigh the cost of a po box and the meager benefits it offers.
Keep Your Personal Address Private
The physical address feature of a virtual mailbox ensures you never have to share your personal address if you don’t want to. For frequent travelers and digital nomads, this means your lifestyle does not need to get in the way of having a single, consistent address for your packages. You could be on a whole different continent every month, and yet be able to retain a regular address.
For small business owners, if you have a marketing campaign in mind, then you’ll need to send a lot of emails. Most business emails and newsletters require an official business address. A physical address via a virtual mailbox is the perfect solution when you don’t want to advertise your real or personal address to the hundreds of people you want to send your newsletter to.
Another key benefit for small business owners is that the professional address provided by a virtual mailbox service usually looks far more business-oriented and professional than a private, residential address. Use the business address for all your official, government, and marketing communication to send the signal that yours is a serious, ‘real’ business. Remember that a number of banks and businesses too might not accept a mere PO box for an address.
Take advantage of the virtual mailbox to help your small business and your personal life thrive without the inconveniences of an older service where you need to do all the physical labor of traveling or commuting. With the virtual mailbox, you can keep track of all the really important mail you need easily and conveniently from wherever you are around the world. The virtual mailbox is thus truly an important and handy advancement in technology for small business owners and world travelers.
