What is EDDM®?

Dec 17, 2020

Delivering the most efficient direct mail pieces requires a variety of resources and tools. Fitting a direct mail project into your integrated marketing strategy is your first step, but where do you go from here? Does your business have a mailing list? Do you want to target specific income or target audience demographics? While these services can help your business or organization target specific audiences, for local businesses, EDDM®, or Every Door Direct Mail® from the United States Post Office, might be the perfect solution to get your mail piece out to a broader, more geographically targeted audience at an economical rate without renting a specific mailing list. So, what is EDDM®, and how can it optimize your business’ reach?

The USPS has a variety of integrated services that direct mail service companies like ProList use to optimize your direct mail campaigns. Let’s evaluate the ins and outs of EDDM® and see if it might be the best fit for your next direct mail marketing effort.

Every Door Direct Mail® Features

Every Door Direct Mail®, or EDDM® is a feature made available through the USPS. This allows businesses to target specific geographical areas like neighborhoods or zip code areas through distribution to specific mail carrier routes. There is no consumer data or mailing list necessary, no individual names and addresses are needed, so businesses and organizations can send out general, marketing mailings to specific areas as opposed to rented mailing lists, or other captured individual prospect or consumer data.

The difference between EDDM® and a more targeted direct mail campaign is simple. With EDDM®, your non-personalized mail pieces are printed in bulk based on the number of residents along a specific carrier route, then prepared for shipment to each of those address on a specific mail route. It’s a bit like handing out a flyer, but the postal route carrier delivers it. EDDM® mail pieces don’t require specific consumer information like names, addresses, spend or purchasing habits, or other targeted demographic data plus there is no postal processing, postal presorting or other data hygiene service required to meet USPS standards. The flip side is that there’s no individualization or personalization, so all the mail pieces are generic and the same. It is however a great distribution method for getting word out about things like a new restaurant in the neighborhood, the closest urgent care location or an invitation to visit or support a local non-profit or museum.

There are two types of EDDM® for consideration, so let’s take a look:

• EDDM® Retail – This EDDM® services utilizes residential carrier routes. It is targeted to individual households along any given route; however, you can select to include businesses as well (although delivery to only business addresses cannot be selected). There is a minimum mail piece requirement of 200 pieces in the carrier route, and a maximum of up to 5,000 mail pieces per day to one targeted location. This program offering is generally set up for ease of use for small business marketing campaigns.
• EDDM® BMEU – This option is a bit more robust and allows marketers to distribute mailers out of a postal facility specifically designed to process and send bulk marketing mail for business mail service providers such as ProList. Using this option requires special permits and for a mailer to have a USPS Business Gateway Account and has some other qualifications regarding use of an indicia and payment requirements through a permit. The benefits are many though – including potentially lower postage rates, the option to mail at non-profit rates instead of marketing mail rates, flexibility to mail to areas all over the country, and targeting multiple carrier routes in certain geographic areas. Marketers are also not limited to the 5,000-piece quantity limit like in EDDM® Retail.

EDDM® for your business allows you to decide what neighborhoods you’d like to target, while offering you the cost-effectiveness of reduced postal rates. With a generic bulk mailing, you can reach more people local to your business who may not have yet seen your message.

Postage rates vary depending on the delivery destination preparation level of the mail pieces and USPS processing center distribution locations that are available. This is generally a great option for marketers trying to reach consumers in larger geographical areas, like large neighborhoods around a location or entire areas of an individual city.

With a targeted geographic direct mail campaign utilizing one of the EDDM® offerings, direct mail service providers like ProList use a variety of tools to target carrier route data, including the tools the USPS provides for route selection and mapping. These tools also show basic demographic information for the residents in the selected routes, which is helpful in understanding the audience within each individual location, and how to adapt your messaging to be most pertinent.

The Details – Understanding How Businesses Can Utilize This Strategy

Getting set up to use EDDM® doesn’t have to be as daunting as the details may imply. That’s what ProList can assist with to make the process as easy as providing your messaging and identifying where you would like the mailers distributed. Assistance with route selection, design, print and distribution is all part of the turnkey service provided. Every Door Direct Mail® is merely one avenue available to deliver direct mail messages to potential customers or audiences. Because this service is set up to make your direct mail campaign simple and to get your mailers to a geographic audience, your mailers are bundled together in groupings of 50 or 100 at a time, and mail carriers deliver them along with residential or business mail along their route.

EDDM® can be a great resource to get your message out if your services cater to a local audience, and it also can be a great way to notify your community that you’re there, and ready to do business! If you need help navigating pricing, postage rates, mailer dimensions, assistance with mail piece graphics, design, route selection, or have other questions regarding implementing EDDM® into your marketing strategies, ProList is here to help. Our experienced, professional staff can assist you with all the details to optimize your campaigns! Give us a call at 1-888-PROLIST or visit our website here for more information.