Canada Post

Smartmail Marketing™ and Commercial Mail Services Overview of Changes posted October 28, 2020

This overview is a notice of the changes and improvements affecting services you, or an authorized user of your Agreement with Canada Post currently use. Please share this information with your colleagues who prepare mailings or work directly with Canada Post.

This notice and any applicable customer guides form part of your agreement with Canada Post. The most current and upcoming customer guides are always available at canadapost.ca/notice.

Canada Post will introduce changes to the following services:

Changes Smartmail Marketing™ Commercial Mail
Neighbourhood Mail™ Postal Code Targeting Personalized Mail™ Incentive Lettermail™ Lettermail™
Recently introduced
New Essential Guide to Direct Mail
New mandatory 2D custom barcoded postal indicia
Coming in Early 2021
Introducing a Special Handling category

APPLICABLE TO ALL SERVICES

New look and feel for postal services information website

Our postal services information website provides detailed information on Canada Post's core products and services at canadapost.ca/postalservices. In early 2021 this website will be redesigned to provide a better user experience when accessing current pricing, customer guides or the postal guide. This redesign applies to all the services listed in the table above as well as Commercial Mail; Publications Mail™, Business Reply Mail™ and International Incentive Letter-post™.

Recently introduced

APPLICABLE TO NEIGHBOURHOOD MAIL, POSTAL CODE TARGETING AND PERSONALIZED MAIL

New Essential Guide to Direct Mail

The new Essential Guide to Direct Mail is now available. It provides information and support to help plan, integrate and execute impactful Smartmail Marketing campaigns. Access this information to get better results for your business at canadapost.ca/essentialguide.

APPLICABLE TO POSTAL CODE TARGETING, PERSONALIZED MAIL, INCENTIVE LETTERMAIL AND LETTERMAIL

New mandatory 2D custom barcoded postal indicia

Keeping indicia artwork current is essential to mail processing. The barcoded indicia identifies the service type and helps our machines locate the address on your mail item. These elements help minimize delays by maximizing machine processing. The indicia artwork tool has been improved and now includes a Canada Post customer number within the barcode, along with an option for user-defined campaign codes. These changes are part of a roadmap for allowing us to notify Canadians when mail is coming their way.

Apply the new mandatory indicia to your mail items before April 2021 and benefit from its features.

Your current 2D barcoded indicia may be outdated. You cannot tell from looking at it. Ensure you are ready for what the future holds by downloading a new version today!

Unsure? Send us an image at mail_courrier@canadapost.postescanada.ca with “Indicia Test” in the subject line and we’ll confirm.

Update your indicia artwork in three easy steps using the new online tool.

  1. Go to postescanada.ca/indicia, enter your seven-digit customer number and choose the service/size/service option/indicia design.
  2. If you choose Lettermail™, Personalized Mail™ or Postal Code Targeting you will be asked for your campaign ID, if you don’t have a campaign ID – please input 0000. (Publications Mail™ may not require an indicia. Refer to the Publications Mail customer guide at canadapost.ca/notice for details.)
  3. Download the indicia/artwork files and print them on your envelopes and cards.

Questions? Contact the Customer Service Network at 1-866-757-5480 or your Canada Post representative.

Coming in early 2021

APPLICABLE TO POSTAL CODE TARGETING

Introducing a Special Handling category

We will be extending a Special Handling category to Postal Code Targeting. This will provide customers with added creative flexibility as they will be able to send PCT items that exceed 50 g and/or larger items such as flyers, catalogues and samples. Like our other services, a premium price will apply to this category.