Most new businesses hit the same wall. You need customers. You have no customer list, and buying one costs money that would be better spent on the offer itself.
Every Door Direct Mail was built around that gap. You choose postal routes near your shop, print one piece, and a letter carrier drops it in every mailbox along those routes. Nobody’s name goes on it.
That makes it the cheapest way into direct mail marketing for a business with nothing to mail to yet. It is also one of the few local marketing channels you can price to the penny before spending anything. USPS Postal Facts records over 33 billion pieces sent since 2011.
What Is EDDM?
EDDM is a saturation service from USPS. You are not buying addresses at all. What you buy is a carrier route, the daily walk one letter carrier makes, and every active address on it receives your piece. The address block reads LOCAL POSTAL CUSTOMER.
Take the name off and the cost falls away with it. Conventional direct mail services charge for list rental, for addressing each piece individually, and for a higher postage tier on top of both.
The USPS network ran 236,347 delivery routes in fiscal year 2025, covering 157.8 million residential addresses. Almost any service area can be cut into routes and priced route by route.
How Much Does EDDM Cost in 2026?
Half the budget is fixed and published, which is unusual in advertising. EDDM Retail postage went to $0.260 per piece on July 12, 2026, up from $0.247. BMEU sits a tenth of a cent lower at $0.259.
Size barely matters. Both rates stay flat for anything qualifying up to 3.3 ounces, so a 9 by 12 flyer mails for the same postage as a 6.25 by 9 card. Any quote for EDDM postcard printing sits on top of those rates. That is what makes EDDM advertising forecastable when you have no campaign history behind you.
| Quantity | Postage at $0.260 | Typical all-in cost |
| 1,000 pieces | $260 | $350 to $550 |
| 2,500 pieces | $650 | $850 to $1,300 |
| 5,000 pieces | $1,300 | $1,700 to $2,600 |
Printing is the part that moves. Paper stock changes it. So does coating, so does trim size, and unit cost drops noticeably once you clear a couple of thousand. Direct mail postcards on 14pt or 16pt keep that side lean. Ask a mailing service for one number covering print, prep and postage instead of three.
How to Choose the Right Routes on a Small Budget?
Route choice is where a small budget is won or lost.
Most residential routes carry between 400 and 600 addresses. Some carry 437. Whatever the count, $1,000 buys full coverage of two to four routes, and that ceiling is your starting point rather than a list of ZIP codes you like the sound of.
Four rules do most of the work.
- Measure in drive time rather than miles. Ten minutes is realistic for a restaurant, a salon, a dental office or a repair shop. Twenty is optimistic.
- Take the business addresses out. Route data splits residential from business counts, and dropping the business side saves real money on a household offer.
- Look for barriers. A route on the far side of a freeway or a river reads as close on screen and drives like a chore.
- Go deep before you go wide. Three routes mailed three times will beat nine routes mailed once, because people act on the third card rather than the first.
That last one separates EDDM marketing that compounds from local marketing that vanishes after a single drop. Any honest provider of mail marketing services says so before quoting. Run your shortlist through a route map tool and check household counts before committing to a quantity.
How to Run Your First EDDM Campaign in Five Steps
Routes chosen, the rest is process, and no permit is required at any point. Most EDDM services will run these five steps for you. Knowing them anyway protects you from a vague quote.
Print to USPS size rules
The piece has to qualify as a flat. Taller than 6.125 inches, or longer than 11.5, or thicker than a quarter inch, while still fitting inside 12 by 15 and weighing under 3.3 ounces. A standard 4 by 6 card misses on every measure. That is why most EDDM postcards come off the press at 6.25 by 9.
Add the indicia and one offer
The EDDM Retail indicia goes top right with the ECRWSS endorsement. Everything else belongs to a single offer, a deadline, one clear way to respond. Direct mail postcards running two offers against each other tend to get a response to neither.
Bundle in 50s or 100s
Bundles of 50 or 100, none taller than 6 inches, facing slip on every one. Count them twice. A slip that disagrees with the postage statement sends the whole drop back across the counter, which has wrecked more launch dates than bad design ever has.
File the right form
Retail uses PS Form 3587. BMEU uses PS Form 3602. Filing the wrong one is a common reason a first job stalls at the window.
Drop at the correct post office
Bundles go to the office serving your routes, often not the branch nearest your shop. Our step-by-step process of using EDDM Retail walks through the counter visit. Full EDDM mailing services will make the drop when that trip is time you do not have.
What Response Rate Should You Expect?
Lower than the number you have probably been quoted.
The ANA/DMA Response Rate Report published in 2025 puts direct mail at 4.4 percent on average, against 0.12 percent for email. Read further before planning around that headline. House lists pull 5 to 9 percent. Cold prospect lists pull 2 to 4.4 percent.
Saturation mail is colder still, because nobody on the route was screened for interest in anything. Plan against 1 percent. On 2,000 pieces that is 20 inquiries, and at a $180 sale closing half, the drop returns $1,800 against roughly $800 spent. Those numbers work. They are simply not 4.4 percent numbers, and EDDM advertising sold on that promise is sold against the wrong benchmark.
If your buyer is defined by income, age or property type rather than by street, targeted direct mail marketing is the better tool and worth paying a list fee for.
A 90-Day EDDM Plan for $1,000
- Days 1 to 10. Pick three adjacent residential routes covering roughly 1,400 homes. Approve artwork at 6.25 by 9.
- Days 11 to 20. Print 2,800 pieces. Two passes, one press run, lower unit cost.
- Day 21. Drop the first 1,400.
- Days 22 to 45. Log every call, coupon and scan against the route it came from.
- Day 46. Second pass to the same routes, new headline, same offer.
- Days 47 to 90. Compare the passes route by route, keep whatever answered, reinvest at the same depth.
Two passes to the same 1,400 homes will beat one pass to 2,800 strangers. Every door direct mail treated as a once-a-year event is why so many first campaigns disappoint. It is also why
EDDM services priced per drop suit a small budget better than one large blast. The same logic runs through list-based work, covered in our guide to the basics of direct mail.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does an EDDM campaign cost per piece?
Postage is $0.260 for Retail and $0.259 for BMEU as of July 12, 2026, printing billed separately. Most small mailings land between $0.35 and $0.55 per piece all in.
Do I need a mailing list or a permit?
Not for Retail. A free USPS account covers it. BMEU wants a permit, which pays for itself only at repeated volume, much like most list-based direct mail services.
What size postcard qualifies for EDDM?
Taller than 6.125 inches, longer than 11.5, or thicker than a quarter inch, and no bigger than 12 by 15. EDDM postcards at 6.25 by 9 are the most common size.
How many pieces can I mail per day?
Retail caps at 5,000 pieces per ZIP code per day, floor of one full route or 200 pieces. BMEU has no daily cap, which is where higher-volume EDDM marketing tends to end up.
How long does EDDM delivery take?
Three to fourteen business days after the drop. Open your offer window after that spread, not on the drop date, and confirm timing with your mailing service before printing a dated coupon. Good mail marketing services build the lag in.
Start With Three Routes, Not Nine
EDDM turns a requirement you cannot meet, a customer list, into one you can afford. A map.
Postage is public. Route counts are public. What is left to get right is your offer and your format, plus how often the same households see your name.
So pick three routes this week. Get EDDM postcard printing quoted at 6.25 by 9 and mail two passes six weeks apart. If you would rather have the counts pulled and the bundles dropped for you, request a quote from MailPros USA. Their EDDM mailing services handle print, prep and delivery as one job, which usually decides whether a first mailing ships or sits on the list until spring.
