Personalized Mail Guidelines

While you can send a 4×6″ postcard with Neighbourhood Mail, which will be the cheapest to produce, it does not offer the best value.

Larger postcards will grab more attention and drive more campaign engagement, making them generate more ROI. We find the best size to send is a 5.5×8.5″ postcard due to its production costs being highly efficient and its impact being strong in a pile of flyers.

Personalized mail is one of many options for smartmail marketing. Other forms of smartmail marketing can include: postal code targeting and neighbourhood mail.

See: Smartmail Marketing Campaigns ⋆ PostNow.ca for more info on other smartmail marketing direct mail campaigns that we offer.

Fast. Effective. Affordable.

Our online tools are designed to help you build and manage your direct mail campaigns easier than ever. We’ve put together simple options to select from and then our expert direct mail team handles everything from design, targeting, data cleaning, printing and mailing for you. Oh, and our prices are awesome! Try out our campaign calculator to see how much your next campaign could cost.

1. Create your free account at postnow.ca
2. Your account will be verified and postage rates applied.
3. Select Campaign Builder located under the SmartMail tab in the main menu.
4. Name your campaign and select type of campaign (personalized mail). Select the date you’d like your campaign delivered to Canada Post. Final in-home delivery will be subject to Canada Post delivery standards.
5. Upload your own targeting data or select a previously used audience. Enter your campaign quantity (150-50,000). We included a chart to show you pricing options for the most common options as you adjust your total.
6. Select your campaign format – choose from postcards, letters, invitations, and more.
7. Choose a template from the template gallery, upload your ready-to-print files or request custom artwork from our in-house graphic designer. (All required template changes are included in fees, custom artwork starts at $295).
8.  If you chose to Upload your Data, you will be prompted to either upload now or later. Click yes to clean your data, then select your data retention
   policy for this campaign.
9. Select Generate Campaign & Checkout or Save Progress & Complete Later. If you choose to complete later you will receive a link good for 30
   days via the email you supply. You will receive email notifications confirming your campaign order, as well as any edits requested with custom or edited design work.
   **At any time during this process there is a Campaign Summary button located on the bottom right of
   the page. This will show any customizations to your campaign as well as a quick Help section if you have any questions. Click the button again to close.

We handle everything from: design, print, data cleaning, mail prep and delivery to Canada Post.

When budgeting for a Direct Mail Ad Campaign you should plan for the following cost categories:

• Planning & Design Costs (labour costs, asset licences, etc. )
• Targeting/Data Costs (databases, licences, software, labour)
• Production Costs (printing, folding, inserting, bundling, etc)
• Postage/Transportation Costs

Final costs can be controlled with proper planning and targeting.

Prices for a Direct Mail audience start at “free” and increase based on the dataset being accessed. Standard options for each mail type are listed below. More advanced data sets can be accessed from 3rd party providers like Environics.

Neighbourhood Mail Audience Options:

• Canada Post Precision Targeter – free to use. Includes neighbourhood targeting based on combinations of up-to 3 demographic filters.

Personalized Mail Audience Options:

• Use your own data – free. This includes PostNow doing basic cleaning of your data and running it through the National Change of Address (NCOA) to identify any bad records.
• Canada Post Postal Code Name/Addresses – from $0.15/record. Use 6-digit postal codes to target all households within. Includes names and address data that can be printed by an Expert Partner. Not available for any other use.

Postal Code Targeting Audience Options:

• Canada Post Postal Code Data. Included in postage. Use 6-digital postal codes to target all households within. A suppression list can be provided to remove existing customers from the final data.  Data includes address only, no names.