Master the Technique of Printing EDDM Postcards

One of the easiest, cheapest, yet most effective forms of print advertising is postcard marketing. Specifically, you need to print EDDM postcards and take advantage of the “Every Door Direct Mail” service offered by the USPS or United States Postal Service. Here, the postal service will send out your printed marketing material to a specific group of people or even all the households in an area of your choosing. Using the US Census data, they can filter the addresses by age, income, household size, or any other demographic. This makes for an effective yet affordable print marketing campaign.

The Physical Aspects of Postcard Mailers

Consistency is key if you would like to succeed at postcard marketing. If you have an in-store promotion, for example, you can mail out postcards which can serve as the customer’s discount coupon. During holidays or a customer’s birthday, you can do the same thing and print EDDM postcards then mail them out for good measure. The more regularly you send out those promotional postcards, the better brand retention is – and the more loyal your customers will grow.

Now, to master the technique of postcard marketing, you must learn about the physical aspects of these unique mailers. Here are a few things to remember when you print EDDM postcards to use for promoting your brand:

  • Make sure that the postcard is the right size.

Since you will be using the EDDM services of the USPS, there are some size-related requirements that you need to stick to. Other sizes may not be accepted as EDDM, so it’s better to choose the acceptable options. A 6” x 11” postcard is said to be the most effective in mail promotional campaigns while small business owners prefer the 6.5” x 9” size. If you want, you can also go for half the size of a computer paper, or one that’s as large as a greeting card.

  • Also consider the thickness of the paper used.

There are different card stock options when you print EDDM postcards. The thinnest is a 12-pt. card which is like a very thin cardboard, while the thickest is similar to a credit card, with a 32-pt. stock number. The thicker the paper, the heavier the weight. In terms of cost, if one piece of postcard does not exceed the minimum dimensions declared by the postal service, then you will be charged minimal costs for mailing. If you exceed the maximum sizes, you might have to pay more for postage.

Make sure that the overall design of your postcard matches the card stock thickness, size, finish, and the material used. By familiarizing yourself with the various physical aspects of postcard mailers, you can turn your print marketing campaign into a huge success.

Size Matters: Selecting the Right Size when You Print EDDM Postcards

You may have noticed how a lot of companies offer to print EDDM postcards, along with other printed materials. But what’s the difference between a regular postcard and EDDM postcards? If you are launching a full-fledged print marketing campaign to promote your business, it might be difficult to mail regular postcards – especially if you don’t have an extensive collection of customer mailing addresses just yet.

With EDDM, you can simply choose a zip code, neighborhood, or even demographic like a certain age group within an area – and the USPS will take care of mailing out those postcards for you. The service is called EDDM or Every Door Direct Mail, which is just what the name implies: your mailers are delivered to every door within a certain area. In the next section, we will find out which factors you need to consider when you print EDDM postcards to promote your business.

Factors to Consider when Printing Postcards

You naturally want your print marketing campaign to be a success. When printing postcards, what are the most important factors that you need to consider? Take a look:

  1. Size

When you print EDDM postcards, here are some of the most popular sizes to choose from:

  • 4” x 6” – The size of a typical neighborhood flyer.
  • 5” x 7“ – Greeting card size.
  • 5” x 8.5” – Half the size of a computer paper.
  • 5” x 9” – The size preferred by small business owners.
  • 25” x 11” – Popular among big corporations.
  • 6” x 11” – The size which is most effective in mailing campaigns.
  1. Thickness

Next, consider the thickness of the paper used. There are card stocks which have the same thickness as a credit card. Others are thinner or thicker, ranging from 12-pt. to 32-pt. depending on the design of the card and probably your budget, you can opt for very thin, medium thick, or ultra-thick cards.

  1. Material & Finish

Finally, go with a company that provides good quality paper material. For the finish, you can choose from high gloss, matte or a combination of both.

When deciding on the size, thickness, material, and finish as you print EDDM postcards, all these factors should blend well together to come up with a printed promotional product that will effectively get your marketing message across.

 

Map Out a Strategic Marketing Campaign when You Print EDDM Postcards

Are you planning to print EDDM postcards to promote your business? If yes, then you have taken the next right step in getting the word out about your brand. EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Marketing which is just what the name implies: marketing materials for your business will be delivered at every door. This is provided by the United States Postal Service (USPS) and because of its affordability, ease of setup, and high targetability, a lot of businesses would do well to take advantage of EDDM.

Steps to Map Out an EDDM Marketing Strategy

Whether you are newly launching or reintroducing your brand to a specific target market, you can easily of print EDDM postcards or other marketing materials and use it to promote your business. Here are a few easy steps to follow if you want to map out an EDDM marketing strategy:

  1. Decide on the route that you will use for sending out mailers.

By now, you should already have a business plan which includes your target market, and how you plan to reach out to such an audience. For example, if your target audience is males who are aged 18 years and up, the design when you print EDDM postcards should appeal to them. The same thing holds true if you are offering a service that’s targeted to a more general clientele. After determining your target audience, you can decide on the route that you will use when sending out mailers.

 

  1. Use the EDDM online tool at the USPS website.

The USPS has an EDDM online tool that allows you to map a route for your mailers. This can be based on a zip code, a demographic, a neighborhood – you can even filter by income, age, or household size. The date is based on the US Census. This is a very useful marketing tool provided by the postal service.

  1. Design then print EDDM postcards.

As mentioned earlier, you need to design then print EDDM postcards in such a way that it appeals to your target audience. Make sure that the size of the postcards, for example, are accepted by the USPS. After mapping your route, you simply need to bundle up those postcards and make a payment to USPS – then they’ll take care of the rest of it for you. Another advantage to enjoy when you print EDDM postcards is that the rate is less than the price of a stamp. Moreover, there is no need for you to collect mailing addresses from your customers because USPS already has the data that you need.

 

After mailing out the postcards, make sure to follow up with your customers. Postcard marketing in particular requires consistency from your end. If you want to mark your brand’s name in the minds of your customers, be consistent and regularly mail out those postcards to establish loyalty to your brand.

A Glimpse at the Process & Benefits when You Print EDDM Postcards

The United States Postal Service (USPS) encourages the use of EDDM or Every Door Direct mail services, which is why it pays to print EDDM postcards if you want to promote your business. Here, we will have a glimpse at the EDDM promotional process and its benefits for entrepreneurs – whether they have a small or big business venture.

EDDM: The Process

The goal of the USPS providing EDDM services is to help business owners promote their brand within the local community. Whether you are having a big sale, opening another store in a new location or if you want to bring more customers to your doorstep, you can print EDDM postcards. Through USPS’ EDDM, printed ad materials like postcards are distributed to every home along a specific route. If you have a barbershop, for instance, the postcards you had printed out will be mailed by USPS to every house within the area – thus the name Every Door Direct Mail.

EDDM: The Benefits

Next, what are the benefits of EDDM? When you print EDDM postcards to promote your business, you can enjoy these perks:

  • No need to put together a mailing list.

One of the biggest challenges of marketing any brand is putting together a mailing list which you can use to reach out to customers. With EDDM, there is no need for you to collect email or mailing addresses. By simply identifying the carrier route and the date when you’d like the postcards to be sent out, the USPS will assign a mail carrier to deliver your marketing message to every household in the area.

 

  • Enjoy excellent marketing results within a reasonable budget.

The fact that you’re distributing marketing material to everyone within the vicinity of your business makes your marketing campaign highly targeted. Another bonus is that USPS has great rates so this advertising technique is very affordable.

 

  • Have a flexible print marketing campaign.

Finally, you can print EDDM postcards or any other marketing material that you’d like within your target area. After having them printed out, simply arrange them into bundles, attach a facing slip, then deliver the marketing materials to the nearest USPS branch. After making a payment, the postal service will handle the delivery of your marketing message to every household within your target area. It’s that easy.

 

Must-Remember EDDM & Postcard Printing Tips

EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Mail marketing. It can be part of your business’ print promotional campaign where you can finish a 4 x 6 postcard printing task and have it mailed out to every door within a specific address. If you have a line of organic products targeted towards women, for example, EDDM will work because there is a large percentage of households with women. On the other hand, if you are offering a service like real estate brokering, you might be better off going with a targeted 4 x 6 postcard printing and marketing list. Not all households would have owners who are interested in selling or buying property, so it makes more sense to create a targeted list first.

Whether you decide to launch an EDDM or a targeted 4 x 6 postcard printing mailing campaign, here are a few tips to make it more effective:

• Invest in high-quality postcards.

When looking for a 4 x 6 postcard printing company, go for offset instead of digital printing. There might be some extra cost involved but considering the professional look of the results, offset is worth it in the end. The images are razor sharp and there is a wider color palette that you can use in the design, not to mention more options in terms of paper finish.

• Include a call-to-action.

Be it an EDDM or a direct mail marketing campaign, you must know what to write in the postcard in the first place. The smallest postcard size available is 4” x 6” – which gives you very limited space to work with. The call-to-action should suit your marketing message, and it should be attention grabbing.

• Test a small portion of the market first.

What’s good about postcard marketing is that you can use it to test out a small portion of the market first. If you are launching a new scent, for example, you can mail out postcards as discount coupons to your first 100 customers first. If you get a good response, that is when you can mail out the same postcard to the rest of your mailing list.

• Be aware of hidden costs.

Lastly, EDDMs are usually part of a printing package offered by companies working with the United States Postal Service. When taking advantage of printing and mailing packages, make sure that you are aware of all the costs involved. Also take note of the size restrictions – you might have to spend more when mailing jumbo postcards as compared to the standard-sized ones.

 

The Importance of Call-to-Action when Creating an Every Door Direct Mail Campaign

Online printing serviceYou’re a business owner and you decided to use every door direct mail (EDDM) service when mailing out postcards. This is a good decision on your part because with EDDM, you can print and send out postcards to every address within a specific area, without having to pay too much for the service. Now, when it comes to postcard mailing services, no matter how many times you send out postcards to the recipients, it will all be for naught if you do not have a call to action. Remember that you have very limited space when it comes to sending out postcards using postcard mailing services. You need to maximize the available space in such a way that the reader of the postcard will be triggered to act after taking a good look at your offer.

Check out our list of tips on how to create a call-to-action when sending out printed material for every door direct mail marketing:

• Based on the product or service that you are offering, would every door direct mail marketing work? Or are you better off creating a targeted list first, then looking for postcard mailing services? Let’s say that you are offering a specific service like pet grooming. For this, EDDM might not work because not all households in your area would have a pet dog. It’s better to establish a targeted mailing list first. If you have a general merchandise store, it does make sense to send out postcards to every door in a specific area – because every family might have something that they would need from your store.

• Go for the tried-and-tested offers like offering freebies, discounts, free one-month trials, buy-one-get-one-free offers, or free shipping.

• Phrase your offer in such a way that the reader will be compelled to take action. It makes sense to include a deadline – something like “this offer expires 15 days upon receipt”. That sense of urgency will bring the user to respond to your call to action immediately.

• Whatever it is that you are offering, make sure that it is valuable and relevant to the recipient of the mailer.

With postcard marketing, you have very limited space so make sure that the content is attention-grabbing. Also pay attention to the details when designing the card – make sure that the overall design reflects the image you are portraying as a brand. Finally, look for postcard mailing services that updates you with the status of the delivery so that you can track the results of your every door direct mail or targeted mailing campaign.

 

Launching a Direct Mail Campaign? What You Must Know about the Costs

Online printing serviceIf you’re thinking about using a direct mail service to send out postcards to your existing or potential customers, you must be aware of all the costs involved. Why would you want to use direct mailing service in the first place? If you are newly launching a business, for example, you may not necessarily have a mailing list so that you can introduce your brand to your target market. For this, you can use EDDM or Every Door Direct Mail marketing. Depending on your location, you can send out postcards to every address within the vicinity. Using the postcard, you can introduce your brand and maybe even include a discount code that they can use when purchasing your product or service. With very little effort on your part, you can use postcards and direct mail services to introduce your brand to potential customers.

With this type of marketing, remember that there are still hidden costs involved so make sure that you are aware of them. Cost-wise, here are the things that you need to know about direct
mailing service:

– Consider the costs of printing out the postcards. There are offset or digital printing companies which can also offer you direct mail services.  Are they in partnership with the United States Postal Service or another courier company? If yes, can they offer you a discounted package for printing the postcards and the direct mail service?

– If you already have a preferred printing company, you can get a separate prospect lists provider. These usually small businesses utilize analytics to identify which customers are the best fit for your products or services. They will then generate a list that you can use for your direct mail campaign.

– If your printing company does not offer direct mail services, check with the USPS if they can offer you discounted rates for sending out mail in bulk. Also ask about other features like tracking the progress of the mail, and the estimated delivery time. – If your printing company does not offer direct mail services, check with the USPS if they can offer you discounted rates for sending out mail in bulk. Also ask about other features like tracking the progress of the mail, and the estimated delivery time.

Another thing to remember when printing out postcards and using them for direct mailing service is that there are postal companies that have certain restrictions. You might be tempted to send out jumbo postcards to grab the attention of a customer – but if you end up paying more for the mailing service, then it might be a better idea to stick with the standard sizes and just focus on content.

By doing your research, you can launch a successful direct mail marketing campaign using postcards, without being surprised by hidden costs.

 

Combine Direct Mail Services with Postcard Printing to Boost Your Business

Do you know about direct mail services? If you’re a business owner, you can include postcard printing as part of your printed promotional marketing efforts. Combine this with direct mail services and it can surely give your business a boost. But what exactly is direct mail marketing? For this, a mail service like that of the United States Postal Service (USPS) is used to deliver postcards to your target market. It can be an EDDM or Every Door Direct Marketing campaign where all addresses in one area will be sent the material. Or, it can be a more targeted campaign where only existing customers will receive the mailer. No matter which of these two techniques you end up applying, what is important is that you take full advantage of the benefits of direct mail services and postcard printing in general.

How to Make Postcard Printing Effective

Now that you already know the basics of direct mail services, here are some tips on how you can make postcard printing more effective:

• Your message should be short but sweet.

What’s your goal for postcard printing in the first place? Are you a real estate agent who would like to generate leads? If yes, create compelling content on the first page of your postcard and make sure to include a call to action. If this call to action is to call a 1-800 number, state that explicitly on the postcard. In short, your message should be direct and, well, short.

• Invest in offset printing.

With postcard printing, you have two options: digital or offset. In terms of quality, nothing beats offset printing because high-tech printing presses are used. Remember that you have very limited space to write content in or print images on with postcards – so the print should be as sharp as possible.

• Opt for the standard or be bold with unique postcard sizes.

With postcard printing, you have the option to go for standard sizes like 4” x 6” or go bold with huge postcards measuring 6” x 11”.

• Make sure that the overall design reflects your brand.

Include your company logo in the design of the postcard. Make sure that the text does not look crowded on the space, and the overall design should reflect the image that you would like to project as a brand.

• Be consistent!

Finally, consistency is key. Use direct mail services frequently that your customer remembers you – but not so often that they would consider it spam mail. By combining direct mail with postcard printing, you have an effective way of advertising your brand without having to spend too much for it.

Does EDDM work? What EDDM results can I expect? Here are EDDM facts!

So you’re thinking of printing postcards for EDDM mailing?

To quickly help you, we would like to say that you are on the right path and the facts and statistics below will help you get an excellent understanding that many clients don’t always spend the time to research.

Let’s break it down for you real fast and revisit these numbers again later in the article…

1000 clicks on Google at $3 per click = $3000 spent

1000 postcards via EDDM mailing services at $0.18 postage per piece = $180

2% conversion on 1000 views (digital or by physical mail) = 20 new clients

if one client is worth $50 to you and you gain 20 new clients that is a newly acquired income of $2500. With digital Google marketing, you are at a $500 loss but with physical postcard marketing, you are at a $2300 profit. A no-brainer indeed.

In today’s digital world where the cost per click (PPC) with Google AdWords or Facebook page promoting can reach on average $3 all the way to $15, depending on your line of work, it is no wonder why so many people owning businesses are just unaware of where to turn for growing their business using marketing.

The majority of business owners are small businesses who cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on marketing firms on something they cannot grasp or see. Many advertising firms promise you the world and you just have to hope that they do a good job because you are unable to gauge and measure their ability and performance expectations. In short, most of the services are full of fluff and you just blow all of your money away. This further discourages you from promoting business and reason like this is why nine out of 10 small businesses fail in America. There is just no clear way to advertise and still have the ability to track and gauge the success of the marketing dollars you are investing.

For those of you that have experimented in the past or present with cost per click campaigns you may say, “hey guys, what you’re saying is not true. As a matter fact I can track my PPC performance through Google analytics or my advertisers admin page from Facebook.” Yes, it is true that you can track how many people have clicked but you do not know the interaction that potential customer had or why they clicked. Did you know 80% of mobile ads are clicked by mistake due to clumsy phone handling? Filtering out advertisers that use mobile devices versus laptops and desktop computers can increase your performance. Someone sitting behind a desk will not be clicking as neurotically as someone using a mobile phone. Think about all the times you’ve clicked the wrong links or ended up on a page you never intended to be on while using your mobile phone. You can imagine the same goes for mobile ads. Most of these service providers display ads in such areas that forces more clicks. More clicks means more money for them and a greater charge for you. So while you can indeed track the amount of clicks you are unable to understand how many are wasted clicks.

With EDDM postcard mailing services you have the great benefit of grasping a potential customer’s attention in their home with a physical advertisement they can hold in their hand versus something they can click away from in three seconds which is the duration of a person’s attention span went on a mobile device or desktop computer. EDDM mailing services are less than $.18 postage per piece which is an astonishing savings compared to three dollars per click versus digital marketing.

Did you know that just 15 years ago it only took three times for a potential customer to see your ad before they reacted to it? In today’s world, it takes a whopping 11 attempts to simply get the attention of a potential customer. When you consider one click on Google cost three dollars that translates to $33 just to get a person to click your ad not taking into account the 80% of people that wasted your money by clicking by mistake.

The attention span of somebody who is on a computer is so short because they’re just so much going on and so much to see went on an electronic device. It is no surprise why the attention spanned of humanity that is using an electronic device has increased by over 500%.

The only time a potential consumer is alone with their thoughts is when they are using the washroom, taking a shower, right before bedtime and when they are checking their mailbox at home for bills or postcard offers. I know you can relate to this personally. Think about the offers you received in the mail. Even if they were something you would never in 1 million years purchase or hire someone for you still got to see it and that is one more time that company was able to have eyes on their service. Think about all the times when a friend or coworker asked if you know someone for landscaping or dry-cleaning services or anything that they look for in you to recommend and although you may not personally need that service, your friend remembered that one advertisement they saw. So if it’s not for you, you may still recommend it to someone else. Postcard marketing works in this very way. You’d never say, “Hey Charlie, I was googling for tackle recipes the other day and I stumbled upon a tire repair shop instead.” With EDDM postcard mailing you may come across an advertisement that you didn’t go looking for and still remember it. As a business owner yourself you know the value in this type of exposure.

Many uneducated business owners who have no clue in any form of marketing believe that because everyone has flocked to the Internet that somehow the old methods of marketing are obsolete. This could not be further from the truth did you know that Google is actually the biggest direct mail client in America today? Let that sink in for a moment. The biggest digital media advertiser that relies 100% on clicks for their income happens to be the biggest printer of postcard marketing in the United States. We all know that Google is a smart company right? A company that has thousands of genius employees that research industry, marketing methods and the best routes to rack in those billions of dollars per year.

EDDM mailing services has made marketing by physical mail reality again, thanks to the extremely low price of just $.18 postage per piece. This is a reality that is working for thousands smart big-name companies who understand the value of that return.

Both Internet advertising versus physical EDDM postcard marketing have on average a 2% conversion rate which is also known as your ROI (return on investment).

Here is what those numbers look like:

1000 clicks on Google at $3 per click = $3000 spent

1000 postcards via EDDM mailing services at $.18 postage per piece = $180

2% conversion on 1000 views (digital or by physical mail) = 20 new clients

if one client is worth $50 to you and you gain 20 new clients that is a newly acquired income of $2500. With digital marketing, you are at a $500 loss but with physical postcard marketing, you are at a $2300 profit. A no-brainer indeed.

Let’s dig a little deeper…

It’s a fact that every consumer becomes a repeat consumer with whatever company they’re dealing with. Using this proven and trackable data that we have listed above that means a $180 investment in postage four direct mail campaigns has brought you the $6,900.00 in profit in a 12 month period.

If you also take into account that it takes 11 attempts to gain a client this means at only $.18 per postcard postage, it would cost you right under two dollars for an entire year to target the exact same customer once a month for an entire year and still would have spent less on one round of Google ads.

Besides the gaining of that client you also embed the image of your company into their minds and they may recollect your service at a later time when they need it so if you do not gain their business in the immediate present time still got your money’s worth by making your service known to the world.

So your original question was: Does EDDM work? What EDDM results can I expect? Here are EDDM facts!

Yes! Numbers are your best friend! Numbers do not lie commission point numbers are traceable and marketing gurus who claim to be specialists cannot be traced on their success nor are you ever able to justify their fancy service at a ridiculous price and you do not want to take on Google advertising on your own because as 95% of business owners who try to do this on their own end up just blowing all that money.

EDDM postcard marketing is the most genius way to market your business affordably.

Head over to BlockbusterPrint.com where a specialist can guide you and provide recommendations on what can best suit you and the best part is you pay zero dollars for the advice of professionals, unlike a fancy PR firm that might serve you a fancy cup coffee while taking thousands of your dollars.

EDDM postcard marketing with Blockbuster print is a breeze and all specialists spend an enormous amount of time explaining the process to