Every Door Direct Mail for service businesses: test one ZIP first

Every Door Direct Mail is the USPS way to mail every address on a route without a name list. Retail postage is $0.26 a piece, no permit needed, 200 to 5,000 pieces a day per ZIP Code. That is postage only. USPS publishes no printing or design price.

What does Every Door Direct Mail cost?

USPS lists EDDM Retail postage at $0.26 per piece for Marketing Mail flats weighing up to 3.3 ounces. The BMEU option lists "as low as $0.259" per piece.

Postage is one line of the bill. Your printer's quote and your design time are the others, and USPS publishes neither. Get the print quote first, then add postage.

Check the USPS page before you order, because postage changes.

Retail or BMEU, which one do I use?

Retail, almost certainly. BMEU asks for a bulk mailing permit and a drop-off at a large USPS mail processing center. Here is how they compare.

The postage gap is a tenth of a cent. On a 500-piece test, that is 500 times $0.001, or $0.50. A permit isn't worth chasing for fifty cents.

What size can the mailer be?

A Retail piece must be a flat. A flat clears at least one of three tests: longer than 10-1/2 inches, taller than 6-1/8 inches, or thicker than 1/4 inch. It also has to weigh 3.3 ounces or less.

Overall, USPS sets a floor of 5 inches by 3-1/2 inches and a ceiling of 15 inches by 12 inches, up to 0.75 inch thick.

So a 6 by 9 inch card clears none of the three tests. A card 6-1/4 inches high and 9 inches long clears the height test. Ask your printer to check the size against USPS rules before you approve a proof.

Do I have to buy a mailing list?

No. EDDM goes to every address on the routes you pick, addressed to Postal Customer, so you need no names. That can include businesses as well as homes.

A targeted list reaches chosen recipients, and the list can add its own cost. USPS publishes no list prices, so I can't give you a number. Neither option guarantees demand.

How do I pick a route for a service business?

Use USPS's online EDDM tool to choose routes. Then apply a short filter built for a route business.

1. Start next to your customers. A new customer on a street you already serve adds a stop instead of a drive.
2. Know your capacity. Decide how many new customers you can take before you mail. A card that works and finds you full is money spent.
3. Pick one ZIP Code. Choose a handful of routes inside it. A county-wide mailing is too big to learn from.
4. Keep the record. Write down the routes, the quantity and the card, so the result can be read later.

How do I run a one-ZIP test?

Here is a 500-piece test. The postage is real. The print quote and the customer count are made up, so swap in your own.

At $45 a month, $152.50 is about 3.4 months of revenue, and less of that is profit. If that is too high for your route, the test just told you so for $305.

Run the same card on the same routes once more before you decide. A single small test can swing on luck.

What response should I expect?

I found no published number you can lean on. USPS gives none. The response rates printed on printer sites cite a trade report that sits behind a sign-in, so I left them out.

The Association of National Advertisers does publish figures, but they are ROI from a self-reported survey, not response rates.

One vendor case shows the scale. PostcardMania reports that a landscaper mailed 4,233 postcards to a purchased list of local homeowners, with matching online ads running. That brought 20 responses, which is 0.47%, and 15 of them became customers.

That was a purchased list with matching ads, not EDDM, so treat it as one data point. The vendor's 714% ROI also subtracts spend from revenue and counts nothing for the cost of doing the jobs.

Apply 0.47% to a 500-piece test and you get about 2.35 responses. A test that size may bring two calls or none. That is why the second run matters.

How do I know a card brought the customer?

Give each mailing its own way to be counted. Put a separate phone number, or a word the customer says, on this mailing only. If you add a QR code, keep a phone number printed beside it.

Then ask every new customer how they found you, and write the answer down. Count the people who mention the card without using the word.

If you run online ads during the same weeks, record that too. Mail alone can't take the credit for a combined result.

What do I do next?

Pull a USPS route list for one ZIP Code, get a print quote and fill in the table above with your own numbers. If hand delivery is more your style, the door hanger guide covers the mailbox rule.

For the cost question on its own, see what Every Door Direct Mail costs. For the response question, see direct mail response rates. Work out what a customer is worth with the customer acquisition cost guide.

Plenty of people who get your card will look you up before they call. On ProveWorth, your reviews live on your own page. You can get your free page, or see how it works.

Sources

• USPS, Every Door Direct Mail
• USPS Domestic Mail Manual, section 143, EDDM-Retail
• USPS Quick Service Guide, EDDM-Retail flats
• PostcardMania, landscaping case study (vendor account)
• Association of National Advertisers, direct mail ROI study (self-reported survey)