EDDM — Every Door Direct Mail
EDDM: every door on the routes you pick, no mailing list
Every Door Direct Mail reaches every address on the carrier routes you choose, with no list and no names. The 6×11 postcard qualifies as the USPS flat the program needs, and the drop is printed and entered by the print partner on the date set for it.
Every Door Direct Mail, or EDDM, is the USPS program that delivers a mailpiece to every address on the postal carrier routes you select. There is no mailing list, no names and no addresses: you choose routes on a map, and the carrier walks your piece with the regular mail. Because nothing is addressed, the piece has to qualify as a USPS flat, and postage is a flat per-piece EDDM Retail rate the Postal Service sets and publishes in Notice 123 — the same figure in Phoenix as in Philadelphia.
What we quote is the whole job around it. You tell us the ZIP codes, the routes or the area you want blanketed; we confirm the household count, design the 6×11 if you need it, and the print partner that takes the job prints the cards and enters them under its own permit. Some neighborhoods are better reached as addressed saturation mail instead, which costs a little more per piece and lets you skip the households that will never buy. We will tell you which of the two your routes call for before you approve anything.
EDDM or a mailing list: which one fits
EDDM is worth it when most households on a route could buy from you: a pizza place, a dentist, a lawn service, a gym, a car wash, a church, a grand opening. It is a poor fit when your customer is one household in fifty, such as a pool builder or a wealth manager. Then a targeted list costs more per piece and far less per real prospect, because you are not paying postage on forty-nine people who were never going to call.
The rule we give people on the phone: if you would be happy handing your card to every single person on the street, mail the street. If you would not, mail a list. And if the honest answer is "most of them, but not all", saturation mail narrowed by income, home value or age of home sits between the two.
What EDDM costs, and what drives the number
There are two costs. Postage is the flat per-piece EDDM Retail rate, which the Postal Service sets, publishes in Notice 123 and charges the same everywhere in the country. Printing is the part that moves: it rises with the size and the stock, falls per piece as the quantity grows, and depends on how many separate post offices your routes fall under, since each one is its own drop.
That is why a quote is written for your routes and your city rather than pulled from a national table. Send the ZIP codes or the routes and the quantity through the quote form and a written quote comes back with printing and postage stated separately, at up to 60% less than the big online printers charge for the same drop.
What qualifies as an EDDM piece
An EDDM piece has to qualify as a USPS "flat", which means at least one dimension exceeds the letter-size limit: longer than 10.5 inches, taller than 6.125 inches, or thicker than 0.25 inches. It can be no larger than 12×15 inches, no thicker than 0.75 inches and no heavier than 3.3 ounces. Our 6×11 postcard qualifies on length. The 5×8.25 does not, which is why that card mails to a list instead.
The piece also needs the EDDM indicia in the upper right corner — PRSRT STD, ECRWSS, U.S. POSTAGE PAID, EDDM RETAIL — and an address block that reads "Local Postal Customer". Both are placed for you on a card we design, and artwork you send is checked against the rules before anything prints, because a piece that fails at the counter costs you the mail date.
How a saturation drop goes, start to finish
Nothing about it needs you to visit a post office or learn the paperwork. You pick the ground, approve the numbers, and the partner handles the mail stream.
- Pick the routes: by ZIP code, by a radius around your address, or by what the households look like
- We confirm the route and household counts and quote the job for your city and mail date
- Send artwork for the 6×11, or have the card designed for you
- Approve the quote and the printed proof
- The print partner prints, prepares and enters the mailing
- Carriers deliver to every door on the route with the regular mail
EDDM Retail and the full-service alternative
EDDM Retail is the version with no permit: 200 to 5,000 pieces per ZIP code per day, entered at the local post office at the flat retail rate, addressed to nobody. It is the cheapest postage in the mail stream, and the daily cap is the catch — a big neighborhood can take several days to enter, so the drop lands over a week rather than on one morning.
The alternative is to reach the same households as addressed saturation mail, entered by the print partner under its permit. There is no daily cap, so a whole city can land together; the piece can carry a name, an offer code or a map; and you can leave out the households that do not fit, which EDDM cannot do. Per piece it costs more than Retail EDDM and less than a cold targeted list, and for most jobs over a few thousand pieces it is the one we recommend.
When only some of the households on a route are worth the postage, targeted direct mail addresses just those homes, and the dimensions every card has to clear are in postcard sizes and USPS requirements.
Request a free quote
Quote a eddm job for your city
Tell us what you want to mail, roughly how many and the city it is going to. Whatever the piece is, the quote comes back priced for your city — printing, mail processing and postage — with no obligation, and it comes back in minutes rather than days. No finished design or mailing list needed.
Answers
EDDM: questions people ask
What is EDDM?
EDDM, or Every Door Direct Mail, is a USPS program that delivers your mailpiece to every address on the carrier routes you select, with no mailing list, no names and no permit needed from you. Postage is a flat per-piece retail rate set by the Postal Service, and the piece has to be flat-size, such as our 6×11 postcard.
How much does EDDM cost?
Postage is the flat per-piece EDDM Retail rate the USPS sets and publishes in Notice 123, and it is the same in every city. Printing depends on the quantity, the stock and how many post offices your routes fall under, so each drop is quoted for its routes and its city, at up to 60% less than the big online printers. There is no list to buy.
What sizes qualify for EDDM?
The piece must be a USPS flat: longer than 10.5 inches, taller than 6.125 inches or thicker than 0.25 inches, and no bigger than 12×15 inches or 3.3 ounces. Our 6×11 postcard qualifies on length; the 5×8.25 does not and mails to a list instead.
Do I need a permit for EDDM?
Not for EDDM Retail — that is the point of the program, and no bulk mail account is needed either. Mailings entered as addressed saturation mail go in under the print partner’s permit rather than one of your own, so there is nothing for you to apply for in either case.
Can I choose which houses get my EDDM mailer?
Not with EDDM: you choose whole carrier routes, typically 300 to 800 addresses walked by one carrier, and every door on the route gets a piece. You can exclude the businesses and pick routes by ZIP code, by distance from your location, or by the age, income and household size the USPS tool shows for each route. To skip individual households, mail addressed saturation instead.
Is there a minimum for an EDDM mailing?
The Postal Service asks for at least 200 pieces per route and caps a ZIP code at 5,000 pieces a day at the Retail rate. Our own orders start at 1,000 pieces, which is usually two or three carrier routes.
How long does EDDM take to deliver?
The mail date is set with the print partner that takes the job. From there the Postal Service quotes 3 to 10 business days for Marketing Mail, and saturation pieces are walked with the regular mail over several days rather than all landing on one morning.