Direct Mail & Postcard Marketing Glossary

25 plain-English definitions for the direct mail and postcard marketing terms that matter to small service businesses. Bookmark this page or share it with a colleague.

New to direct mail? Start with Direct Mail, then Direct Mail Response Rate, and Return on Investment (ROI) — those three together explain how the rest of the channel works.

A

Address Standardization The process of correcting and formatting mailing addresses to USPS-approved specifications.

B

Break-Even Response Rate The minimum response rate at which campaign revenue covers campaign cost — below this, you lose money.

C

D

E

EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) USPS's saturation mail program — postcards sent to every address on a chosen carrier route, no individual addresses required.

H

House List A mailing list of your existing or past customers, built and owned by your business.

M

Multi-Wave Campaign A coordinated direct mail sequence that sends multiple postcards (waves) spaced over several weeks.

N

NCOA (National Change of Address) Validation A USPS-licensed service that updates mailing addresses against the official change-of-address database.

O

Omnichannel Marketing A marketing approach that coordinates multiple channels — direct mail, phone, email, SMS — into a single sequence.

P

Q

QR Code Tracking Adding a unique, scannable QR code to a postcard so you can measure scans, sources, and conversions.

R

S

Seasonal Campaign A direct mail campaign timed around a season, holiday, or recurring date that creates natural urgency.

U

V

Variable Data Printing (VDP) A printing technique that personalizes each printed piece — name, address, offer, image — within a single press run.

W

Win-Back Campaign A targeted sequence aimed at customers who explicitly stopped doing business — canceled, unsubscribed, or churned.

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