1 Talk to Us First
The following tips point you in the right direction to develop a cost effective mailing campaign. If you don’t want to struggle through the Canada Post rules and regulations just give us a call and we can assist.
2 Product Classification
Before you spend time designing and printing your direct mailing material make sure that your piece meets Canada Post criteria. The classification will affect the minimum volumes you must send and the price of your postage. Addressed Admail is a very different definition from a Publications Mail piece, for example.
3 Canada Post Restrictions on Size and Weight
Small size or weight changes can result in your mailing piece falling into a different rate classification with a significantly higher postage cost. Increasing from 30 grams to 31 grams for a lettermail item can increase postage by 72%.
4 Design Requirements for Machineable Mail
Canada Post has quiet zone requirements to ensure that mailing addresses can be read by their equipment. Text, certain graphics, and dark colours must appear outside of the specified quiet zones on the envelope. Your items must be sealed on all sides.
5 Address Area
Ensure that the address block on the mailing panel of your piece is large enough to contain your mailing list information. As a general rule we suggest a minimum address area of at least 4 inches x 2 inches. We can refine this once we have seen your database.
6 No Labels Please
If your mailing pieces are already labeled we can sort manually but your postage costs can be substantially higher (up to 26%). If you have mailing data in an electronic format we perform a computerized sortation to determine the least cost option.
7 Data Format
We recommend one of the following formats: Excel, .DBF, .csv, delimited or other spreadsheet and database formats.
8 Format Your Mailing List Properly
We prefer to work with the following information in separate fields: address, city, province and postal code. With this layout we can easily verify and correct your addresses, eliminate duplicate addresses and merge/purge for multiple databases. These processes ensure your mail is more deliverable and less costly.
9 Plan Your Mailing
Make sure that you build in sufficient lead time to all components of your mailing campaign to allow completion in a timely fashion. Consider the time required for: design and graphic layout, mail piece printing, processing by the mail house and finally delivery by Canada Post. Canada Post’s delivery standards can range from 4 to 15 business days for the national delivery of Addressed Admail.