Thinking About Using Direct Mail for Marketing?
If you’re a small-business owner located in Portland or beyond, then you’re certainly aware of direct mail marketing and the many benefits that it can offer. In fact, you may have even used direct mail marketing in the past. But how much do you know about the United States Postal Service’s EDDM service?
What Is EDDM, or Every Door Direct Mail?
EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Mail. As the name suggests, this USPS offering allows business owners to reach out to every potential customer within a select geographical area, giving them the ability to target specific segments of a city, like the Southeast area of Portland, Oregon.
Given the fact that most bricks-and-mortar stores draw clients from within a 5-mile radius, EDDM can be a very effective tool for gaining new clients from your local area.
No Mailing List Required With EDDM
In the past, you may have purchased a mailing list in order to better target your audience. The problem is that mailing lists can be quite expensive, and they’re not always accurate. With EDDM, there’s no need to purchase a mailing list, which allows you to devote more of your marketing budget to actual marketing.
How Much Does EDDM Cost?
Small-business owners with tight marketing budgets will be happy to learn that EDDM campaigns are quite affordable. For smaller campaigns (up to 5,000 pieces of mail per day) the postage rate is a mere $.183 per piece of mail. That’s considerably less than standard postcard rates, and when you’re sending a lot of mail, the savings really adds up.
Plan Your Direct Mailing Campaign
The first step in initiating an EDDM campaign is to plan your mailing. The USPS has an easy-to-use mapping tool that’s been designed to help you choose the right postage routes for your mailing.
Design Your Mailer
Next, you’ll need to create your mailpiece. If you have the design skills, you can design your own. Just make sure you adhere to the size requirements and specifications for EDDM mailpieces, available here.
Don’t have a flair for design? Don’t worry. Your reputable local print shop’s on-staff designers are likely to be well versed in designing EDDM campaigns, and they’ll be able to create a results-oriented campaign that will get noticed.
Print Your Mailer
This is one part of the process where you shouldn’t cut corners. Poor-quality printing can ruin a well-designed mailing, so make sure you choose a print shop (in Portland and beyond!) with a solid reputation for high-quality work.
Purchase Postage
Once your mailer is ready to send, you’ll need to pay for postage. You’ll have a few options: you can create a USPS.com account, pay in person, or sign up for a third-party postage service such as Stamps.com. Last, many printers can handle the job for you, from cradle to grave: that includes design to postage purchasing, and East Side Printing Co. in Portland is one of those printers.
It’s Time for Delivery of Your Direct Mail Piece!
The final step is to take or to send your mailers to the post office for delivery. The choice is yours. If the post office is close to home, you can save some money by delivering your mailers by hand. If not, you can always ship your mailers to the post office.
When delivering your mailpieces to the post office, make sure they’re bundled with a facing slip, in bundles of 50 to 100 pieces. Don’t forget to include the piece-count per bundle. And remember — East Side Printing Co. will take your mailing bundles straight to the post office for you!
Good Luck With Your EDDM Campaign!
We hope your EDDM campaign causes the world (or at least the neighborhood) to beat a path to your door. And if EDDM sounds like a smart play for your Portland-based business, let East Side Printing Co. do the work for you. We can design, print, purchase postage, and deliver right to the post office to ensure your campaign has every chance at success. Just contact us with your project today!
[Photo Via: Goodnight Raleigh; USPS; Overnight Grafix]