A guide to understanding the benefits and challenges of EDDM
In looking for cost-effective customer acquisition methods, you may have encountered EDDM. EDDM, or Every Door Direct Mail®, is a marketing mail program started by the United States Postal Service® to aid small business marketers in accessing direct mail services offered through the Post Office® without the need for a list purchased from a third-party provider.
While the cost savings associated with not purchasing a marketing list may sound appealing, there are other considerations when making your decision. But first, let's talk through the EDDM program, so that you can understand the benefits and challenges.
The Every Door Direct Mail - Retail™ Program
Two EDDM programs are currently available: Every Door Direct Mail - Retail™ and Every Door Direct Mail - BMEU. As a small business marketer, you are likely considering Every Door Direct Mail - Retail™. The EDDM Retail program is designed for smaller businesses with a local, community, or regional focus. With EDDM Retail:
- You will use the USPS® Every Door Direct Mail Online Tool to generate your desired geography, learn how many mail pieces are needed, and receive a postage cost estimate
- Your mail pieces are addressed to “Local Postal Customer” for residential and business deliveries, no address or address list is required
- A postal permit is not needed; you will create a USPS.com account for payment (or you can pay when you drop off your mail at the Post Office®)
- You can send between 200 and 5,000 mail pieces per day
- Your mailings can be dropped off at the Post Office® closest to the mailing area (please note that depending on your geography, multiple drop-offs may be required)
What are the benefits you can experience when using EDDM?
- Steep Discounts
Significant discounts on postage rates create opportunities for businesses like yours, that may have small marketing budgets and/or limited resources, to consider direct mail - No Permit Required
For EDDM Retail clients, there is no annual permit required, which is another cost savings - Neighborhood Focused
You can establish a presence and create brand awareness in a specific geographic footprint without the use of a purchased list - User-Friendly Mapping
The USPS® Online Tool provides you with a visual representation of the desired mailing area with count totals - A Partner Directory
A vast collection of USPS® partners make identifying printing and mailing services simple when you are looking for support
What are the challenges you might encounter when using EDDM?
- Limited Flexibility
Strict guidelines are in place for the size, format, and addressing of EDDM mail pieces; non-compliance can result in additional fees or refusal of delivery - Increased Printing Charges
Oversize mail pieces are required, which may drive up your printing costs - Limited Targeting
Limited targeting may result in consumers receiving irrelevant offers from your company - Potential Waste
Undesirable addresses and multi-family dwelling units cannot be removed, which may result in print and postage waste - No Personalization
Contact names are not available and demographic targeting is significantly limited, so generally speaking, personalization is not available - No Tracking
EDDM mail does not include a barcode, which eliminates tracking abilities - No Opt-Out Compliance
Do not mail and opt out requests, as well as suppression services, do not apply to EDDM - Time Intensive
Bundling mail pieces and delivering them to the Post Office® can be time consuming if you don’t have the budget to hire a print/mail shop to perform these services
Reviewing the Alternatives
The alternative to EDDM is purchasing a resident list, which may be referred to as a resident/occupant list or saturation list, from a trusted third-party provider. These lists are commonly compiled with intelligence directly from the USPS® and may be enhanced by the list provider to include additional benefits, for example, the addition of contact names.
Like EDDM, resident data allows for mailers to target geographically-focused addresses to saturate a given area with messaging. Ideal for non-targeted, non-personalized offers, resident data can lead brand marketers to significant postal discounts.
Deep Sync is one of only two companies with direct access to postal data on a national scale; the resulting weekly updates provide extensive postal data coverage. In fact, we have coverage of approximately 96% of all residential addresses in the United States. Our own resident data, Resident Direct, is sourced from the United States Postal Service®, has consumer contact name and aggregated demographic data overlays, and is updated monthly.
Deep Sync's Resident Direct benefits and features
- Carrier Route Focused
The Deep Sync Resident List achieves full saturation for the vast majority of carrier routes in the United States, which helps to maximize postage discounts - Mapping
Like the EDDM Online Tool, Deep Sync's Resident Direct utilizes an advanced geospatial mapping function that enables you to search for and view your area of focus
- Available Address Attributes
You can retain or remove a variety of address and delivery types to customize your mailing list. Please note that removing too many addresses can impact saturation rates and may decrease postage discounts. - Contact Names
Consumer contact names are available for approximately 75% of residential addresses; these contact names can be utilized to add personalization to direct mail efforts, which has been shown to increase open rates - Carrier Route-Level Demographics
A variety of carrier-route level demographic attributes are available through Deep Sync Resident Direct to help marketers understand the makeup of specific carrier routes - Niche Targeting
When your campaigns call for focused audience targeting that goes beyond a geographic footprint, Deep Sync offers you access to the nation’s leading consumer, business, new mover, new homeowner, student, and young adult datasets
Making the Decision - is EDDM Right for You?
Clearly, there are numerous factors involved in deciding if EDDM is right for your small business marketing needs. Now that you have read through the benefits and challenges, and you have learned about Deep Sync Resident Direct as an alternative, here are some final thoughts to help guide your direction.
Consider using Deep Sync's Resident Direct as an alternative to EDDM if any of these scenarios apply to you and your marketing goals:
- You desire design creativity and flexibility
- You plan to mail large volume campaigns
- You see value in adding personalization to your brand's direct mail communications
- You desire to apply tracking to your direct mail campaign
As always, we welcome your questions on our datasets, including Resident Direct, and data-related products and services. For additional information or a consultation in support of your next marketing campaign, please feel free to contact our team.