You’re thinking “Great, another acronym I need to know...” Believe me, I feel your pain...when I get texts from my nieces and nephews, I have to google what “SMH” and “IMO” and “BRB” stand for.
EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Mail. Simply put, the United States Postal Service introduced this method of mail distribution in 2011. According to ChatGPT, EDDM is an online tool that helps businesses send marketing mail to specific neighborhoods, cities, or zip codes.
Is EDDM a good tool for you?
If you service customers within a geographic region, EDDM can benefit you. Here’s a sampling of business types that have successfully utilized EDDM:
- Restaurants
- Realtors
- Auto Maintenance/Repair
- Beauty/Nail Salon
- Karate Schools
- Political Campaigns
- Roofers
- Plumbers
- Landscaping/Tree Services
Can it save you money?
You bet! I’m sure you’ve noticed that the cost of stamps has gone up significantly. As of May, 2026, a first class stamp is 78¢. At the moment, the price per peice for EDDM is 24.7¢. That’s less than a third of the cost of a stamp.
The reason the postage is lower is because the post office can bypass all of the sorting, scanning and distribution that a stamped piece of mail requires. Your EDDM mailing is delivered to the post office already bundled and labeled for each mail carrier. While delivering mail along their route, the mail carrier places one of your mailers in EVERY mailbox on their route.
How does it work?
You first have to create an account on USPS. Then you navigate to the EDDM page. You will be prompted to enter an address. Depending on your industry, you may put the address where your business is located (like a restaurant, a nail salon, etc.). But if your company provides home services, you might want to identify the most PROFITABLE projects you’ve done in the last few years and market to those neighborhoods. In that case, you would input the address of that job.
As you hover over certain areas, they turn turn deep pink...indicating a mail route.
Watch this quick video for deeper understanding (Please note that this is ONLY postage pricing, not printing or designing.)
What are the pros and cons?
EDDM has very specific parameters for acceptable mailpiece sizes. EDDM pieces must be flat, weigh less than or equal to 3.3 oz, and exceed at least one of these dimensions:
- 10.5" long
- 6.125" high or
- 0.25" thick
Maximum size is 15" long, 12" high, and 0.75" thick
What I like about the size requirements, is that they are larger than a regular postcard or envelope, so your mailing sticks out when the mail is gathered and looked through by your potential customer.
The smallest size is 9” wide x 6.125” high. The largest size is 12” x 15”. The printing price is based on the size. Click here to see price differences for printing our standard EDDM sizes.
Unfortunately, there are some cons to using EDDM. One is that once it’s on the mail carrier’s truck, you have to trust that they will actually put the pieces in the mailboxes and not chuck the stack in a dumpster at the end of their shift. There is also the feeling of “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” as there is no way to filter recipients by demographics like age, income, family size, etc.
How do you get started?
Well, that’s the easiest part! Just shoot us an email: bluedog@getbluedog.com, or give us a ring (610-430-7992) and we can walk you through the process.
