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Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a great new way to do direct mail at a low cost. Whether you are an experienced direct mail advertiser or new to direct mail, the United States Post Office program is a great way to save money or get into direct mail for the first time.
Over the past ten years our agency has backed off direct mail because of the high postage rates and the need for timely arrival. But now with EDDM postage is just 14.5 cents per piece and we at Aim have a system to target postal routes by income.
I never thought I would be promoting direct mail again, but the Every Door Direct Mail® program is a good solution for a small business, making it practical to do direct mail on a relatively small budget. Here’s how it works:
1. Open a business account on the USPS site.
2. Use their mapping tool to target carrier routes and get counts.
3. Have your printer bundle the printed pieces in stacks of 50.
4. Deliver to the post office no address or bulk mail permit needed.
The Post Office always had a way to save money with bulk mail if you were willing to do a lot of the work yourself. But the problem was you had to have a bulk mail permit and understand the process. The EDDM program makes it easier to take advantage of the discounts by not requiring the bulk mail permit. It also lowers expenses by making it possible to mail without labeling, and has simplified the processing and delivery for the customer.
A very important advantage of the EDDM program is the local delivery system. Instead of your mail going to one location to sort and it gets distributed to all the local offices, you take it directly to the local offices. This process bypasses the Post Office distribution system, making it easier to make sure your mail hits at the right time. Timing is a big issue.
The savings typically are a third to almost half. Where we have done 5,000 piece mailings for some of our clients, with EDDM we can mail 10,000 pieces for about the same price. So if you would like to include direct mail as part of your Christmas advertising, you still have time to get it started. But don’t wait too long. You still need some lead-time.
AIM Advertising has taken the EDDM to a new level by avoiding saturation mailings to home that do not fit your target. We have combined EDDM with a program that sorts routes by household income and home values. This way we can target and save you even more.
(Example, you would not want to mail a piece on pellet stoves to a rental property)
For your most important 4th quarter this year the Every Door Direct just may be the vehicle you have been looking for. Call us or go up to the USPS site and get going.
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