Canadian Processing

Anchor can now update your Canadian mailing lists with the latest mover information and prepare your mail to qualify for discounted postage rates using Canada Post’s Incentive Lettermail, Addressed Admail and Publication Mail services.

Address Accuracy corrects and standardizes your Canadian addresses to meet the Addressing requirements of Canada Post Corporation (CPC). Addresses are corrected by fixing misspellings, stripping out unnecessary punctuation marks, verifying the city, province and postal code. We also fill in missing address elements where possible such as addresses that are not assigned postal codes. Your address file can then be matched against CPC’s National Change of Address database to provide you with new addresses of Canadians that have moved.

We also offer (as additional services) Merge Purge and Postal Presortation to remove duplicates and presort your mailing for insertion into the Canadian mail stream using the service of your choice.

Address Accuracy 

To qualify for Incentive Lettermail, Addressed Admail and Publication Mail rates, mailers must meet certain Canada Post Corporation "Address Accuracy Program" requirements (This is similar to the USPS^® requirement of utilizing CASS™ certified address matching software). The Address Accuracy standard in Canada is 95%, which means that at least 95% of the addresses on a mailing list must be valid addresses. This standard must be achieved otherwise a rate adjustment is applied to the mail pieces with inaccurate addresses. We process and standardize a mailing list through Canada Post recognized Address Validation and Correction software, and a Statement of Accuracy (SOA) is provided to report the percentage of accurate addresses when mail is deposited with Canada Post. You are required to keep a valid copy of the SOA on file in the event Canada Post requests a copy. Mailers must also generate a new SOA once a year for each customer database or on the contents of a merged database. For more information, please download the Canada Post – Address Accuracy Program – Customer Guide and/or the Canadian Addressing Guide.

National Change of Address (NCOA^Link_™) 

Anchor’s Canadian National Change of Address (NCOA^Link_™) makes it possible for businesses to improve the accuracy of their Canadian address files. This translates into postage and production savings on mailed items that are undeliverable and better response rates on direct marketing campaigns. Our NCOA^Link_™ database is the most accurate and up-to-date mover information available in Canada and contains 36 months of data. Each year about 1.7 million individuals, families and businesses move in Canada. Approximately 1.2 million of those movers file a Change of Address Notification (COAN) form with Canada Post Corporation (CPC) when they move. This information is captured electronically and made available, for those customers who have provided their consent to licensees of Canada Post’s National Change of Address Data.

Merge/Purge 

Anchor’s Merge/Purge process identifies duplicate and/or unique records that are returned after a rigorous merge purge matching process. Our merge purge matching strategy uses exact matching or can identify a percentage of exactness based on one field or multiple fields and/or a subset of each field. It is not limited to a record-to-record comparison. In addition to performing string comparisons, the match function performs aggregate matching based on various factors and data. Performing a merge purge will reduce your postage costs by removing Canadian duplicates before you mail.

Postal Presortation 

Anchor’s Postal Presortation services enable your mail to qualify for discounted Canada Post Incentive Lettermail, Addressed Admail and Publication Mail rates. To qualify, your mailing must be consistent with the definition of the service selected. For example, Addressed Admail is defined as mailable items bearing a uniform message, that;

1. Promote the sale or use of products or services;
2. Report on financial performance, primarily for promotional purposes; or
3. Solicit donations or contributions.

While you can fully personalize your messages to customers and prospects with Addressed Admail. The intent of the mail item must be promotional and the theme of the entire mailing must be uniform.

Addressed Admail can be sent anywhere within Canada. Every item must be addressed to a specific individual, company name or'occupant' and include a complete address and a valid postal code. Addressed Admail must be deposited at an approved Canada Post location. Addressed Admail cannot be deposited in mailboxes, parcel receptacles or other mail receptacles.

Anchor presorts your Addressed Admail to meet the specific requirements of Canada Post to ensure proper and efficient mail handling and delivery.

After processing, we return your file completely presorted, and accompanied by reports enabling you to enter your mail into a Canada Post approved facility.

For more information on Incentive Lettermail, please download the Incentive Lettermail – Customer Guide.

For more information on Addressed Admail, please download the Addressed Admail – Customer Guide.

For more information on Publications Mail, please download the Publications Mail Presortation and Preparation – Customer Guide