Every Door Direct Mail™

Thanks to a follower on Twitter – Gregg MacMillan (or as I like to call him, ) – I learned about a nifty USPS program called Every Door Direct Mail™ (EDDM). Gregg is the President of TechneGraphics, Inc., in Milford, OH. His LinkedIn profile also says he’s an EDDM Expert.

In a nutshell, here’s how it works:

With EDDM, you can send a mail piece to every address within a specific neighborhood, zip code or city in a cost-effective way. Whether you’re a big company or a small business, this program provides online tools designed to help you saturate certain mail routes for as low as $.142 apiece in postage.

Gregg tells me it was specifically designed for businesses whose target audience is within a compact geographic area. EDDM was made possible by a change in postal regulations to allow the use of simplified address format (Postal Patron or Residential Customer) for saturation mailings on city routes. A saturation mailing is a delivery to every address on one or more carrier routes or an entire ZIP code. Using Postal Patron tells the letter carrier to deliver to every address; Residential Customer signals delivery to every household.

There are guidelines to follow, of course, but it seems to me that if you don’t have a current and accurate mail list of addresses in a particular city or neighborhood, and you want to reach every address, EDDM would be a good solution.

The program is available “only for Standard Mailâ Saturation flats, irregular parcels, periodicals, and bound printed matter flats,” according to the web site.

With EDDM, you save on buying or renting mail lists – but keep in mind that there are no individual names and addresses on your mail pieces. Let’s say you have a service business in a community and want to promote it, or you’re a doctor, dentist, realtor or restaurant owner – these are obvious examples of who might benefit from EDDM.

Since Gregg’s used EDDM for his clients, I asked him to answer some questions.

1. What can’t EDDM do?

You CANNOT mail what the USPS describes as either “postcards” or “letters.” (The USPS defines “postcards” as being at least 3.5 by 5 and no more than 4.25 x 6 inches, and “letters” as being at least 3.5 x 5 and no more than 6.125 x 11.5 inches.)

The mail piece MUST BE what the USPS describes as a “flat.” (The USPS defines “flats” as being at least 6.125 x 11.5 and no more than 12 x 15.)

We have had quite a few requests from clients who would like to send out what they call postcards, which are in the 5 x 7 up to 6 x 9 range, and these do NOT qualify for the special EDDM processing and pricing.

2. What other not-so-obvious restrictions are there?

Unfortunately, at present, you cannot send to just businesses. This may change. The USPS gives you an option to send to just residents, or both residents and businesses, but not to just businesses. It is possible to send to carrier routes that are primarily businesses, but the mailing must also be delivered to all the residential addresses on the route as well. By the time you factor in that additional expense, there usually is a better / less expensive way to do business-to-business mailings.

3. When would it be a good idea to use EDDM? A bad idea?

The EDDM program was designed to help small businesses that draw most of their customers from a relatively small geographic area around their business (typically a 5-mile radius). This includes most retail stores, restaurants, and health care professionals.

EDDM is a bad idea for businesses and professionals who draw most of their customers from a broad geographic area and/or have a well-defined niche market, which can be better targeted with mail lists and a more personalized direct mail piece.

4. Is it easy to follow the online rules/forms/templates for EDDM?

The USPS EDDM website (http://www.uspseverydoor.com/ )  is quite well done. It probably requires following the instructions that are also available on the site the first time it is used, but once you become familiar with it, it’s user-friendly, and the forms and templates are easy to use.

5. Is it trackable/measurable?

The mailings cannot be tracked on the USPS site, but like most direct mail, it can be tracked based on the offer or request on the mail piece. This might be measured by the number of coupons returned, website visits, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, apps downloaded, or other 2D barcode scans.

6. Gregg, please give a couple of examples of how you’ve used this program for your customers. What types of customers? What types of DM pieces? How many, roughly? What were the results?

Our very first EDDM mailing was not a typical retail establishment, rather a non-profit community newsletter, which is a 16-page, 8.5 x 11 format, mailed monthly. The postage amount was about the same (EDDM rate of 14.2 cents vs. what they were paying based on their non-profit standard mail rate). Since they were mailing to every home in a particular zip code (about 1000), it meant that they no longer had to maintain a mail list, and did not have to address each newsletter. They have been quite pleased with the savings and the results.

Another successful mailing was for a new dog grooming business. The owner was looking for a way to get the word out quickly about their services and decided on EDDM. The 6.5 x 9 card was printed on a Wednesday, approx. 650 cards (1 carrier route) were delivered to the post office on Thursday. She started getting inquiries and bookings on Friday. By the end of Friday, she had received many calls and had four bookings. By the following Monday, she had ten bookings.

Another example was for a backyard bird feeding retail store. They do lots of postcard and newsletter mailings to their customer list, which has about 3500 names. Because it is an in-house list, they always get a great response. In the past, they’ve done some prospect mailings but haven’t had good results. They decided to try an EDDM mailing to a well-to-do area and were quite pleased with the results. I don’t have exact numbers, but they are planning to continue using EDDM.

7. I presume there are no “undeliverables” since it goes to every address, correct?

There should not be any “undeliverables,” but in reality, there is a better chance that EDDM mail pieces will not be delivered. It is the responsibility of the mail carrier to remember to place one mail piece in each mailbox since they are not sorted in with all the other mail.

8. What other ideas do you suggest for making an EDDM campaign successful?

When websites were first becoming popular, postcards were the best way to drive traffic to the new sites. Today, social media sites are an increasingly important marketing tool for retail establishments, and adding either QR Codes (Quick Response Codes) or Microsoft Tags to the mail piece is a great way to build larger social media communities.

Some examples of how 2D codes might be used could be to get recipients to visit mobile optimized sites, download apps, watch a video, like your Facebook page, or follow you on Twitter. As retail stores, restaurants, and medical professionals continue to recognize the importance of connecting with their customers, clients, and prospects using social media, the use of EDDM will continue to increase as a means to building social media activity.

Thanks, Gregg! You’ve given us great information about working with the EDDM program. So glad you follow me on Twitter – and vice versa. Follow Gregg on Twitter .