Question 1

What is Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)?

Accepted Answer

Every Door Direct Mail® is a USPS service that delivers your mailpiece to every address on the postal carrier routes you select, without a mailing list. Instead of targeting individual names and addresses, you target geography — a neighborhood, a ZIP code, a carrier route, or an entire town. Pieces are addressed simply to "Postal Customer," and the letter carrier delivers one to every active address on the route as part of the normal daily route.

Question 2

How much does EDDM cost per piece?

Accepted Answer

EDDM Retail postage is $0.26 per piece as of July 12, 2026, and EDDM BMEU postage is as low as $0.259 per piece. Postage is a flat rate set by USPS — it does not change with the size of your mailpiece, so a 9" × 12" flat costs the same to mail as a 6.25" × 9" postcard. Printing is the variable. All-in costs including print, prep, and postage typically land between $0.45 and $0.80 per piece depending on size, paper, quantity, and finishing.

Question 3

Do I need a mailing list for EDDM?

Accepted Answer

No. That's the defining feature of EDDM — you select carrier routes rather than buying names and addresses. It removes both the list cost (typically $0.05–$0.15 per record for a purchased list) and the list maintenance burden. The tradeoff is that you can't target individuals or specific households; everyone on the route gets the piece.

Question 4

What size does an EDDM mailpiece have to be?

Accepted Answer

An EDDM mailpiece must qualify as a USPS "flat," which means it must exceed at least one of these three thresholds: longer than 10.5 inches, taller than 6.125 inches, or thicker than 0.25 inches. It also cannot exceed 12 inches high, 15 inches long, or 0.75 inches thick, and cannot weigh more than 3.3 ounces. This is why standard 4" × 6" and 5" × 7" postcards do not qualify. Common qualifying sizes are 6.5" × 9", 6.25" × 11", 8.5" × 11", and 9" × 12".

Question 5

Is there a minimum order for EDDM?

Accepted Answer

Yes — a minimum of 200 pieces, and you must mail to complete carrier routes. You cannot mail to part of a route. Since a typical carrier route covers roughly 300 to 600 addresses, most real campaigns start above the 200-piece floor by default. EDDM Retail is also capped at 5,000 pieces per ZIP code per day; larger drops go through a Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU), which has no daily cap.

Question 6

How long does EDDM take to deliver?

Accepted Answer

USPS guidance is 7 to 14 business days from the day your mailing is accepted at the Post Office, though delivery windows are estimates rather than guarantees. Add production time on the front end — design, proofing, printing, bundling, and paperwork. Plan on two to three weeks from approved artwork to mailboxes, and add buffer during the back-to-school and holiday peaks.

Question 7

Can I track an EDDM mailing?

Accepted Answer

There is no per-piece tracking with EDDM, because the pieces carry no individual addresses or barcodes. What is confirmed is the drop — USPS receipts document acceptance of your bundles at the Post Office. To measure response, build tracking into the creative: a QR code pointing to a dedicated landing page, a unique phone number, a promo code, or a distinct offer per route so you can compare neighborhoods against each other.

Question 8

Do I need a postal permit to use EDDM?

Accepted Answer

No permit is required for EDDM Retail. You pay postage at the time of mailing, with no annual permit fee and no trust account to maintain. A permit is only required for EDDM BMEU, which is the path for drops above the 5,000-per-ZIP-per-day retail cap. When PubPlus handles your mailing, the permit question is moot — we handle the entry path and the paperwork either way.

Question 9

What is the difference between EDDM and traditional direct mail?

Accepted Answer

EDDM targets geography; traditional direct mail targets people. With EDDM you buy carrier routes and reach every address on them with no list. With traditional direct mail you buy or build a mailing list, address each piece individually, and can select on demographics, purchase behavior, homeownership, life events, and more. EDDM has the lower postage rate and no list cost. Traditional direct mail has higher precision and supports personalization — variable names, offers, and imagery per recipient.

Question 10

Is EDDM cheaper than traditional direct mail?

Accepted Answer

On postage, yes, and by a meaningful margin. EDDM Retail runs $0.26 per piece, while presorted USPS Marketing Mail at the standard Mixed tier is $0.467 per piece as of July 2026 — before you add list acquisition. On a 5,000-piece drop, that's roughly $1,300 in postage for EDDM versus about $2,335 plus list cost for a targeted mailing. Cost per response is a different question: a targeted list mailed to the right households often beats a saturation drop on cost per lead, even at higher postage. The right comparison is cost per customer acquired, not cost per piece.

Question 11

Which should I choose — EDDM or a targeted mailing list?

Accepted Answer

Choose EDDM when your customers are defined by geography rather than demographics, and when reach matters more than precision. Restaurants, home services, dental and medical practices, gyms, salons, retail grand openings, and local political campaigns all fit this profile. Choose a targeted list when your buyer is a narrow slice of the population — high-income households, homeowners over a certain property value, recent movers, businesses in specific SIC codes — or when personalization materially improves your offer. If more than about half the addresses on a route could never buy from you, you're paying to mail to the wrong half, and a list is usually the better spend.

Question 12

Can I target by demographics with EDDM?

Accepted Answer

Only at the route level, not the household level. The USPS EDDM tool reports route-level averages drawn from Census data — average household income, average household size, and age distribution — so you can prefer routes that skew toward your customer profile. What you cannot do is select individual households within a route. Everyone on a route you select receives the mailpiece. For true household-level demographic selection, you need a list-based direct mail campaign.

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