Personalized Mail Guidelines

Why Personalized Mail?

Personalized Mail campaigns are great for customer retention and building loyal relationships with existing customers through one-one-one interactions.

Did you know? 86% of Canadians open the direct mail they receive and more than half make a purchase as a result. The open rate and purchase rate increases when personalized mail is used, which makes PM one of the most effective ways to incite action among an ideal target audience.

Neighbourhood Mail is the most affordable type of direct mail you can send in Canada. The price of a campaign varies due to the cost of print and campaign production but postage rates are always the same, regardless of volume*.

Current Neighbourhood Mail postage rates for 2023 are $0.188, including transportation fees ($0.015/piece).

Check out our Neighbourhood Mail Budget Calculator for accurate pricing options that include postage, mail prep, design, print and transportation. A small campaign may cost $0.50+/postcard while a high volume campaign (10,000 households or more) will see significant reduction in print cost per piece ($0.15 each).

*If you spend more than $10,000 in Canada Post postage fees per year, you may be eligible for a discounted contract rate! Contact our team for information and a direct introduction to a Canada Post rep in your area.

For more information on Neighbourhood Mail and how to use it effectively, you can check out our Neighbourhood Mail resources.

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.

Yes, you can measure the effectiveness of Personalized Mail. Metrics such as response rates, conversion rates, and customer engagement can be tracked to evaluate the success of your campaign. For detailed insights, integrating personalized mail with digital tracking tools can provide comprehensive data on campaign performance.

For more details, please visit Email Marketing vs Direct Mail: What’s the Difference and Which is Better for Your Business?

You can send as few as 150 pieces for any available direct mail campaign in PostNow.

Canada Post adds a Neighbourhood Mail transportation fee to all campaigns not inducted into the exact depot(s) closest to your delivery neighbourhoods.

In other words, unless you are willing to drive your campaign mail pieces to a specific dropoff depot or depots for larger campaigns, you are covering the cost for Canada Post to distribute your campaign to the appropriate depots for final sorting/delivery.

This transportation fee is often why you will see a published Neighbourhood Mail rate of $0.18 / piece, but the final price is $0.192 when working with a mail house or Canada Post directly.

At PostNow we include the transportation fee in all campaigns automatically.