Personalized Mail Guidelines

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.

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.

Discounts are available. To qualify, a customer must commit to a minimum spend of $10,000 annually per service. Canada Post will look at your marketing plan and budget to see if you’re likely to achieve the minimum spend before awarding you a postage discount. There are various tiers of discounts available. Please contact us if you would like an introduction to a Canada Post sales rep.

An example of $10,000 would spend would be:

• 100,000 NM (approximately)
• 20,000 PM (approximately)

Discounts start at about 20% and increase based on total volume. The commitments are in the millions of dollars spent/year for the largest available Canada Post discounts.

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.

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.