DIRECT MAIL GUIDE

EDDM vs. Targeted Direct Mail

Q: Is EDDM cheaper than targeted direct mail?

Per piece, clearly yes, often half the cost or less. Per booked customer, it is arithmetic: if a targeted piece costs three times an EDDM piece, it has to earn three times the response to break even. Mailing a known list for a high-ticket service, that bar is usually easy to clear. For a low-ticket impulse offer, EDDM often wins outright.

Every Door Direct Mail is the USPS product that drops a postcard on every address along a carrier route: no list, no names, cheaper postage. For the right job it's genuinely hard to beat.

Get a free sample postcard → See pricing

What EDDM is

You pick a ZIP on a USPS map, then pick carrier routes inside it. A carrier route is the loop one letter carrier walks, usually a few hundred to a thousand addresses. You buy the whole route: every address on it gets a piece, and you can't skip the house that already bought from you or add the one prospect on the next street over. Pieces are addressed to "Postal Customer," not to a person.

Two things make it appealing:

Postage is much cheaper. USPS lists EDDM Retail at about $0.26 per piece versus about $0.56 for a single-piece First-Class postcard: roughly $1,500 saved on a 5,000-piece drop. (Rates change; confirm at usps.com.)
You don't need a list. Nothing to upload, buy, or clean.

The trade-off is in the name. Targeting is geographic only. You can't pick "homeowners with kids ages 5–12" the way you can with a purchased list. And since no name is ever captured, there's nothing to personalize and nobody to call afterward.

When EDDM wins, and when it doesn't

EDDM wins for:

✓ Brand-new businesses with no customer list yet
✓ Restaurants, dry cleaners, and salons announcing a grand opening
✓ Hyperlocal services with a tight radius: pizza, plumbers, mobile auto repair
✓ Low-ticket offers where nearly any household on the street is a plausible buyer
✓ Awareness campaigns where reach matters more than precision
✓ Real-estate farming a specific subdivision before a listing comes up

EDDM is NOT a fit for:

× Existing customer recall: you have their address already, so mailing the whole route wastes most of the spend
× Anything that needs a follow-up phone call, since no recipient list exists
× Niche or high-ticket services where most households aren't the buyer: CPAs, specialty medical, B2B
× Any campaign with a do-not-mail list to honor: a route is all-or-nothing
× Offers that only land when personalized ("Bailey is due for her rabies booster")

That second column is why PostKnock doesn't offer EDDM. We mail to named recipients, because a name is what makes address verification, do-not-contact suppression, personalization and a follow-up phone call possible. EDDM trades all of that for cheaper postage: a good trade for some jobs, just not the one we're built for.

If EDDM is the right tool, here's how to run it

EDDM is a USPS product, not a vendor product, no account and no bulk-mail permit needed. (Retail is capped at 5,000 pieces per ZIP per day.) Three ways in:

Do it yourself. Map routes and pay postage on usps.com, print anywhere, then bundle and drop at the post office serving those routes. Cheapest path; costs you an afternoon.
Use a full-service EDDM printer. Most local print shops will design, print, bundle and drop for you. Expect a design fee, and check they're quoting the EDDM Retail rate rather than a bulk permit rate.
Run both. EDDM for blanket awareness in a tight radius, targeted mail for the named people you actually want to book. They answer different questions.

If it's the second one you need, we'll mail you a real sample postcard.

EDDM FAQ

Does PostKnock offer EDDM?▼

No. PostKnock mails to named recipients, because a name is what makes address verification, do-not-contact suppression, personalization and a follow-up phone call possible. EDDM trades all of that for cheaper postage.

What does EDDM cost per piece?▼

USPS lists EDDM Retail postage at about $0.26 per piece, versus about $0.56 for a single-piece First-Class postcard. Add printing on a qualifying flat-size card and an all-in EDDM piece commonly lands around $0.35–$0.45. USPS rates change, so confirm the current figure at usps.com.

Which postcard sizes qualify for EDDM?▼

EDDM Retail requires flat-size mail: the piece has to exceed at least one of 10.5 in long, 6-1/8 in high, or 1/4 in thick. A standard 4x6 postcard (6 × 4 in) and a 6x9 postcard (9 × 6 in) clear none of those thresholds, so neither qualifies. A 6x11 (11 × 6 in) is long enough.

Is EDDM cheaper than targeted direct mail?▼

Per piece, clearly. Often half the cost or less. Per booked customer, it's arithmetic: if a targeted piece costs three times an EDDM piece, it has to earn three times the response to break even. Mailing a known list for a high-ticket service, that bar is usually easy to clear. For a low-ticket impulse offer, EDDM often wins outright.

See what targeted mail looks like

We'll print and mail one real PostKnock postcard to your address. Free, no credit card.

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Or see pricing, from $0.79 per card on Pro.