EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail)
USPS's saturation mail program. Postcards sent to every address on a chosen carrier route, no individual addresses required.
Definition
EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) is a USPS program that lets businesses send postcards to every address on a chosen postal carrier route or ZIP code, without needing individual recipient names or addresses. Pieces are addressed to "Local Postal Customer" and delivered alongside the regular mail to every household on the route.
Why it matters
EDDM is significantly cheaper per piece than addressed First-Class mail: USPS currently lists EDDM Retail at about $0.26 per piece versus roughly $0.56 for a First-Class postcard, but with lower targeting precision and slower delivery. Because no name is on the piece, you also give up address verification, do-not-contact suppression, personalization, and any named follow-up. EDDM works well for hyperlocal promotions, grand openings, and saturation prospecting where the goal is reaching everyone in a geographic area rather than specific named individuals.
Example
A new restaurant uses EDDM to send 4,800 grand-opening postcards to every household within a 1-mile radius. Postage: roughly $1,250, versus about $2,700 at the First-Class postcard rate. At a 0.5% response rate they get 24 first-time visits: a worthwhile awareness play they couldn't have afforded on addressed mail. The trade-off is that no card carries a name, so there's nobody to verify, suppress, personalize for, or call afterward.
Related terms
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Where PostKnock stands: PostKnock does not offer EDDM. Every PostKnock postcard is addressed to a named recipient. That's what lets us verify the address, honor your do-not-contact list, personalize the card, and hand your front desk a follow-up call. EDDM trades all of that for cheaper postage on anonymous "Postal Customer" mail. If you want to run an EDDM drop yourself, price it with our free EDDM cost estimator.
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