How Canadian Companies Can Benefit from Direct Mail’s Renaissance in 2025
How Canadian Companies Can Benefit from Direct Mail’s Renaissance in 2025
By Ali Hussain
In the modern era of digital ads, email marketing and influencers the concept of direct mail is practically existent to most ecommerce operators. Only a small portion of operators even consider direct mail. With the evolution of ad tech however, direct mail could be seeing a renaissance. Advanced services now have services for direct mail that are cheaper, highly targeted and can absolutely compete with traditional digital ad campaigns.
Smarter Mail
Canada Post actually has several types of direct mail services tailored specifically for small businesses, it's called Smartmail Marketing™. Smartmail and other Canada post small business services are not just for large companies, small business owners can now affordably send postcards, flyers, catalogues and more using complex targeting attributes and custom audiences all without having to lift a single envelope.
And if you’re already running Shopify or WooCommerce? Setup is even easier. Simply paste or download the pixel to your store’s front page and you’re ready to go.
Retarget Anonymous Visitors With Physical Mail?
Imagine this: Someone visits your Shopify store, they browse for five minutes, almost buy, and then leave, no opt-in, no purchase. This is a common problem given the relatively low conversion rate of digital audiences, but there is a way to squeeze more value out of this cohort.
Utilizing simple to install plugins (like Canada Post’s smarter mail, PostPilot, Inkit, or Direct Mail Manager) you can send actual, physical postcards to people who visited your site even if they didn’t sign up, leave information or buy anything.
The plugin tracks visitors anonymously through cookies or device ID cross-matching, and if that person’s address can be matched an automated postcard, letter, flyer or even catalogue is sent. This type of system can improve your overall conversion rate, and help reverse a failing ad campaign.
Here’s a scenario of just such a situation: If your store has 100,000 monthly visitors and converts 2,000 (2%), sending direct mail to 10,000 abandoned carts or high-value browsers could convert an additional 400–900 orders at a typical 4–9% direct mail response rate. This scenario is also not counting those additional leads that can be targeted who never added to cart. The potential is enormous.
Canadian Choice
A 2023 Canada Post study showed that 69% of Canadians, across all age groups, tend to view physical mail as more trustable, personal, and less spammy than email or ads on their feeds. Other studies show a 30% increase in response rates and 51% of Canadians have mentioned being prompted by direct mail before making a purchase.
With rising CPMs in digital marketing services, direct mail is also becoming just as affordable if not more so than digital ads. In one study, a beauty e-commerce brand's test found direct mail had a $37.50 cost per acquisition (CPA), compared to $50 for Google ads, $40 for Amazon, and $45 for Facebook over four months. Even expert ecommerce marketers like Ezra Firestone have seen as high as 2600% ROI on direct mail marketing campaigns
Low Minimums and Lots of Functionality
In the old days, large brands would have a national rollout of 100,000 addresses to make direct mail worth it. Most direct mail providers had high minimum fees and a high minimum order, only possible for large corporate brands. With Canada Post’s Smarter Mail offering however, you could send 200 targeted flyers to a specific audience or one that has engaged with your website to drive top of the funnel traffic.
You can get deep on top of funnel filtration of demographics, to, you can for instance use Canada Post’s Precision Targeter tool and choose postal routes based on income, age, household, very similar to Facebook or Snapchat’s advertising options. Marketers could promote their new health food product to mothers in high income neighborhoods or select certain cities to target for an upcoming event.
With Post Pilot, Canadian businesses can collect data on their US customers and leads for their CRM or use that data to drive targeted mail campaigns.
Own Your Data
Apple’s changes to its iOS operating system meant important data on users was slowly being hidden, making it harder for digital advertising providers to collect data and target the right devices with the right ads. Services such as Post Pilot’s retargeting however allows operators to OWN their lead and customer data. Post Pilot’s SiteMatch will match website visitors with a physical address and you can use the added data to help improve digital marketing campaigns as well.
It Feels More Authentic
Researchers find that direct mail has a multisensory effect because of the sensation of touch, holding the paper, the texture, scent of the ink triggers an "endowment effect" (a bias towards items we physically can touch". The ad ends up feeling like a gift, rather than spam. Digital ads on the other hand are not "real" they're pixels that can disappear quickly. The endowment effect creates stronger emotional connections and better recall of ads compared to digital banners, evoking feelings of nostalgia and a more personal experience.
Digital fatigue is real. Everyone’s swiping, skipping, deleting. A postcard?
It will always beat the spam folder and it has the chance of reaching the entire household.
Sources: https://informationpackaging.ca/recent-stats-on-the-effectiveness-of-direct-mail-in-canada/
https://consumerig.com/insights-blog/direct-mail/is-direct-mail-marketing-effective/#
https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-direct-mail-delivers-in-the-age-of-digital-marketing/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmTQ41ZD6JY
https://deepsync.com/direct-mail-nostalgia-digital-fatigue/
https://www.postpilot.com/solutions/retargeting