Tag: eddm postcard printing

How to Target the Right Customers through EDDM Postcard Printing

When you’re playing darts, if you are at a shooting range, or if you are into archery, your goal is to hit the target. You may be off by a few millimetres or centimetres, but as long as you are hitting close to your goal, then you would be satisfied with your performance. The same thing is true when it comes to print marketing campaigns, specifically eddm mailing. For Every Door Direct Mail, your promotional postcards can be sent to every door within a zip code, for example. But if you are making products for kids, how can you make sure that you are not unnecessarily sending postcards to households who are not your target market? The key is in choosing which addresses to send your marketing materials to. If it’s children’s products that you are selling, you can narrow down the mailing list only to households with kids. Learn more about this in the next section. 

Ways to Target the Right Customers through Postcard Marketing

Unlike direct mail where you need to put together your own mailing list, EDDM mailing is when print shops work with the USPS to bring your postcards to a specific group of addresses. Here are the ways for you to target the right customers through eddm postcard printing:

  • Know who your target market is in the first place. 

Are you offering landscaping or lawn care services? If yes, then you can send promotional postcards to every household within a five-mile radius of your office. This is because you are offering a service that anybody can use. 

  • Do not send postcards to every household in a zip code if you have a niche market.

Now, if you have a niche market, you will just be wasting money by sending postcards to every household within a zip code. The good news is that you can narrow down your mailing list based on different categories. You can send mailers according to:

  1. Average household income
  2. Average household size
  3. Households with family members of a certain age bracket (elderly, kids, women, etc.)
  4. Renters or homeowners

By knowing where exactly to send your postcard mailers, you can save money on unnecessary postage. Not only that, but you will also get great response because these folks are the ones who are interested in buying your products or services. With an enticing tagline, call-to-action, and promo code, you are bound to see results from your postcards mailing campaign shortly. 

EDDM Postcard Printing: Elements of a Great Design

If your goal is to combine digital with print marketing, you are definitely on the right track. With almost all businesses establishing an online presence these days, you would be left behind if you not have official social media pages and a website. It’s well and good to market digitally, but there’s still a part of your audience who are not online. This is what you can target with Every Door Direct Mail or eddm postcard printing. For this, the print shop will work with the USPS to deliver your eddm postcards to every door in a zip code, mailing route, or addresses based on certain demographics. What’s good about this method is that you do not have to put together your own mailing list – the print shop does all the work for you. 

Elements of a Great Postcard Design

Aside from distribution, eddm mailing requires an excellent design for it to be effective. Here are some elements of a great postcard design:

  • An attention-grabbing headline

This is a one or two liner that’s written on top of the postcard. Since it is the first line that a customer will read, it needs to be compelling and instantly deliver the message. 

  • Sharp images and high-definition photos

Stay away from chunks of text because people do not like reading lengthy lines. Also, your space is limited in the first place. Combine the copy with sharp images, hand drawn illustrations, or HD photos which are professionally shot. 

  • Benefits that the reader will enjoy

Are you offering a product or a service? What benefit will a person enjoy when buying your product or booking your services? Highlighting these will entice the reader of your postcard to try out your brand at least once. If they like it, they will surely be repeat customers and that is when you will slowly realize the gains of your postcard marketing campaign. 

  • An impactful call-to-action

Lastly, include a call-to-action. Place it inside a brightly-colored box somewhere in the design of the postcard to immediately draw the reader’s eyes to it. Your call-to-action could be a QR code which leads to your website or social media pages, or it could be a number that people can call for more information. 

With a well-designed postcard, you can impress customers, prompt them to take action, and make them familiar with your brand, enough to establish loyalty. 

Which Address Group Should I Send My EDDM Postcards to?

For any print marketing campaign to be successful, you need to have high-quality products and an effective distribution system. Let’s take business cards as an example. These are handed out personally whenever you are meeting with a client, supplier, or prospective customer. You naturally want the cards to be impressive and have a design that suits your brand’s image. The same thing holds true when it comes to postcard mailing, specifically eddm mailing. EDDM is Every Door Direct Mail and it’s a mailing system offered by the United States Postal Service. 

Before delving deeper into the distribution aspect, what do you need to remember about the printing of the postcards? Again, your goal is to make a great first impression so see to it that the postcards are printed using high-quality materials and a state-of-the-art printing process. Offset and digital are your choices – some print shops offer both. Digital uses desktop printers while offset utilizes huge printing presses which can handle big print jobs. Quality-wise, offset produces more vivid colors and the initial setup may be a bit costly, but you can actually order more to save on the per piece price. 

Choosing the Best Address Group for EDDM Mailing 

To get the best eddm results, you need to choose the best address group to send the postcards to. Once you get in touch with an  eddm postcard printing company, they will ask you whether you want to send the postcard to every mailbox based on these: 

  • Zip Code
  • Individual mail carrier route
  • Age bracket
  • Household size
  • Household income

If you’re in the food business, for example, it is good to send to every door within a zip code so that you can target as many households as possible. But if your product or service has more of a niche audience, you can send based on a specific demographic. By studying your target market, you can choose which specific audience to send your mailers to. However, you do not have to manually collect the names and addresses. The time and effort that you will save can be spent on growing your business. 

EDDM Mailing Easily Delivers Your Marketing Message to Every Mailbox

If you haven’t heard about eddm mailing yet and you’re a business owner, you are missing out on a lot. This is a service offered by the United States Postal Service to easily deliver your marketing postcards to every door in an address group of your choice. Let’s say that you are preparing for the soft launch of a beauty salon. You naturally would not have any customers yet, so you want to spread the word about the services that you offer. Instead of manually collecting names and addresses, you simply need to look for a print shop that offers eddm postcard printing. Here is what the print shop can do for you:

  • Offer the postcard printing package.

When you get in touch with a print shop that offers eddm mailing services, you can choose between offset and digital – some shops offer both. Digital prints typically use desktop printers and can handle small volumes of orders. For offset printing, huge printing presses are used and once set up, these can print hundreds to thousands of copies quickly. Postcard printing packages are usually offered by volume. If you need 500 copies initially, you can choose the size, paper thickness, and paper coating. You can design the postcard yourself, although there are some print shops with the feature of having your designs checked by a professional graphic designer, for a small fee.

  • Complete the requirements of the USPS so that your postcards can be delivered to every mailbox in your chosen address group.

After the printing of your postcards is done, if you paid for EDDM mailing, then the print shop will take care of the rest of the mailing process for you. You simply need to specify which address group to send the mailers to. This can be a zip code, an individual mailing route in your area, or households which fit a certain demographic like age group, household income, or household size.

The print shop will bundle wrap the cards in stacks of 100 as required by the USPS. They will also take care of the paperwork and deliver the postcards to the local post office for individual mailbox distribution.

Aside from designing and paying for the postcards, there is very little for you to do when ordering EDDM postcards. Since the print shop will take care of the rest of the process for you, make sure that they have the length of experience in printing EDDM postcards. Also go online to search for feedback on the quality of services that they offer.

All in all, EDDM mailing is the easiest and most effective way for you to send your message directly to your target market without exerting too much effort on your part. You can save that up for growing your business.

Done with EDDM Postcard Printing? What’s Next?

You may already have a print advertising campaign in place if you are thinking about EDDM postcard printing. If not, then it’s high time to include EDDM postcards in your list of print ad materials because it is cheap, hassle-free, and effective. First, what is an EDDM postcard? It stands for Every Door Direct Mail where the online printing company will charge you just a few cents per postcard for the postage. You only have to select where to send the postcards to, and they along with the USPS will take care of the rest of the process for you. 

Key Tips for Distributing EDDM Postcards 

When having EDDM postcards printed, make sure that the printing process has a high-quality output. This is especially true if you plan to include images in your postcards. The pictures should be professionally shot and printed in full color HD. Your goal is to impress your customers so anything other than excellent printing results would be a disappointment. They would equate the quality of your postcards with the quality of products or services that you are offering. Next, choose an EDDM eligible size for the postcards. You should also decide whether to print on one or two sides; and if you want a matte or a glossy finish. 

Once you’re done with EDDM postcard printing, what’s next? Distribution is the keyword here. You can choose to mail the EDDM postcards to a specific zip code so one postcard will be sent to every household in your chosen route. You want to be as specific as possible in selecting the route because you want to have good marketing results. 

Let’s say that you are launching a line of women’s products. You want to mail out promotional postcards to households with this demographic. You can select by zip code, individual mail carrier route, age bracket, income bracket, or household size. Aside from paying for postcard printing package, you only need to pay a few cents additional for the EDDM postage. The print shop will bundle the postcards for you, fulfil the other USPS requirements, and bring the cards to the local post office for mailbox distribution. 

Effective distribution is key if you want your print advertising efforts to be a success using EDDM mailing. 

How Cost-Effective is EDDM Postcard Printing?

When entrepreneurs think about something like EDDM postcard printing, the first thing that they might consider is the costs involved. It’s perfectly fine to scrimp on some costs but when it comes to advertising your business, you need to invest – and you should get your money’s worth. With EDDM or Every Door Direct Mail, you will get every bang for your buck. Read on to find out what makes EDDM cost-effective.

Factors that Make EDDM Postcard Printing Cost-Effective 

First, let’s have a quick look at how EDDM works. If you order business cards online from a print company, ask if they offer EDDM mailing. If yes, you need to order EDDM postcards and pay the printing fees. Then, you have to specify which audience you would like to send the mailers to. The online printing company will work with the USPS in sending your postcards to the zip code, mailing route, or any other demographic that you will identify. 

What makes this arrangement cost effective? Take a look: 

  • At just a few cents per piece, you can have a ready-made mailing list. Imagine how time consuming it is to put together a list of your customer’s names and mailing addresses. You can also pay for mailing permits, but that is another cost to pay and too much of a hassle. If you are soft opening a restaurant, for example, you can send postcards with promo codes to every door in the same zip code as your location. You can also narrow down the list by age bracket, household size, household income, number of people per household, etc. This is yet another cost-saving way because you don’t have to mail a postcard to someone who does not belong to your category of target audience. 

  • At just a few cents per piece, you do not have to do the ‘dirty work’ in mailing out the postcards individually. Once you order EDDM cards from a print shop, they will bundle the cards in stacks of 100 each. This is a requirement of the USPS. Then, they will fill out the necessary paperwork. Finally, they will be the one to deliver the ready-for-mailing postcards to the local post office in your area. This is what will be delivered to the individual mailboxes on your chosen route. 

As you can see, EDDM mailing is a cost-effective, hassle-free way of reaching out to your target market. The time and effort that you will save, you can use to focus on growing your business more.

Frequently Asked Questions about EDDM Postcard Printing

There are many online printing services offering either offset or digital printing. If you want to launch a full-fledged print advertising campaign, then you need to look for one with the length of experience and the equipment needed for the types of printing jobs that you require. Here, we will take a look at one print job in particular: EDDM postcard printing. 

EDDM is Every Door Direct Mail where the print shop works with the USPS to send your mailers to the mailboxes of every door in a specific zip code or mailing route that you will specify. Instead of building a mailing list from scratch, you can simply pay for the EDDM postage fees and the printing company will take care of the rest of the process for you. 


EDDM FAQs

To learn more about EDDM postcards mailing, here are some frequently asked questions about it:

  • What are my printing options for postcards? 

As mentioned earlier, you can choose between offset and digital printing. Offset looks more professionally-made than digital simply because of the sophistication of the printing presses that they use. If you want to have full color HD postcards, offset printing is for you. 

  • Which size should I choose? 

There are over two dozen sizes available for postcards ranging from 2.5” x 2.5” to 9” x 12”. For EDDM, however, there are only seven acceptable sizes including: 4.25” x 11”, 4.5” x 12”, 6” x 11”, 6.5” x 12”, 6.5” x 9”, 8” x 10”, and 9” x 12”.

  • Is EDDM cheap? 

If you will be working with a print shop that specifically offers EDDM services, you only need to pay for the price of the printing package, plus a few cents each for the EDDM services. This fee is more than worth it because the printing company will take care of the bundling of the postcards for you, as well as the paper work. They will also deliver your postcards to the local post office for mailbox distribution. 

  • What marketing message should I include in the postcard?

Based on the size of the card, you can have just a short marketing message in the mailer. Make sure to add a call to action, the information should be accurate, and it’s better to include a promotional code. This way, your marketing message will be all the more effective. Lastly, be consistent in postcard marketing because the more that customers hear from you, the more loyal they will be to your brand.

How Do I Choose the Best Size for EDDM Postcard Printing?

When launching a print marketing campaign, you want to focus on two things: design and distribution. Let’s say that you would like to add EDDM postcard printing in your print advertising arsenal. EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Marketing. Here, the online printing company will work with the USPS to distribute your mailers to every door in a zip code or carrier route. You can also mail to a specific age bracket, income bracket, household size, or any other demographic. What makes EDDM mailing an ideal option for entrepreneurs is that distribution becomes hassle-free. Just pay for the printing and postage fees. After choosing the mailing route, you simply wait for customers to receive their postcards in the mail. Since distribution is already taken care of, you can focus your attention on designing the postcard itself. 

What are the EDDM Eligible Postcard Sizes?

Let’s say that you have already chosen a printing partner. Once you have your design, you can decide on the other details like the size, the paper finish, the thickness of the paper, and whether you are printing front and back, or one side only. 

Next, if your print partner is working with the USPS, they should have a list of the EDDM eligible postcard sizes that you can mail out to your customers. Here are your options for the EDDM postcard sizes:

  • 4.25” x 11”
  • 4.5” x 12”
  • 6” x 11”
  • 6.5” x 12”
  • 6.5” x 9”
  • 8” x 10”
  • 9” x 12”

There are dozens of other postcard sizes available but these are the specific ones accepted by the USPS for EDDM. The print shop will also handle other tasks like bundle wrapping the postcards in stacks of 100 as required by the USPS. There’s also paperwork to be done. After you have paid the postage fees, the print shop will ship directly to the local post office in your area for mailbox distribution. It’s that easy! 

One more thing to remember when designing your postcard is to not fill it with too much text or too many images – balance the two. You can also include a call to action so that the recipient of the card can take the next step in doing business with you. Better yet, include a promotional code so you can be sure that they will buy the product or services that you are offering.

EDDM Postcard Printing: How to Reach Out to Your Target Market

EDDM postcard printing stands for Every Door Direct Mail, a form of marketing using printed materials. These materials are displayed, given away, or mailed out. Despite the prevalence of digital advertising, there’s still a place for printed marketing materials – if only for novelty. But more than these materials being tangible, they are actually effective and reliable when it comes to spreading the word about your brand. So why should you go with EDDM mailing?

First, it’s easy. You simply need to partner with a printing shop, order your postcards, then they will take care of the mailing part for you. If you will order EDDM cards, they will work with the USPS and fulfil their requirements in mailing out the postcard. You just need to choose the route and your printing partner will handle the rest. 

Second, EDDM mailing is cheap yet effective. For just a few cents per card, you can have your advertising postcards mailed out to ‘every door’ in a zip code, for example. When you make it a habit to mail postcards to your existing and potential clients, you are actually establishing customer loyalty. With all these reasons and more, what is there not to like about EDDM mailing? 


Choosing Where to Distribute the EDDM Postcards

Again, the online printing company will be the one to work with the USPS in mailing out your postcards. You just need to choose which address category to mail out the cards to. Here are some of your options:

  • By zip code

If you’re in the food business, everyone can be considered your target market. So choose a zip code that’s within a five-mile radius of your restaurant, for example, then you’re good to go. 

  • By age bracket

If you’re offering a product or service with an adult or teenage market, choose a mailing list according to age bracket. 

  • By income bracket

If you are have a more upscale clientele, choose a mailing list of people on the higher spectrum of the income bracket. 

  • By household size

You can also decide who to send out your mailers to based on the number of people living in the same house. 

  • By individual carrier route

Finally, you can mail your postcards by individual carrier route. 

With EDDM postcards, there is no need for you to put together your own mailing list. Simply choose among the above categories and the printing company will work out all the details for you. 

Want to Print EDDM Postcards? Know Your Paper Options

In today’s business environment, digital advertising may be the obvious choice for marketing any brand. But because everyone is into digital, there is such a novelty with printed advertising materials, which is exactly what makes them effective. If you want to complete your print advertising campaign, make sure to print EDDM postcards and include them with notepads, brochures, business cards, flyers, envelopes, and similar products. 

EDDM Postcard Paper Options

Naturally, the first thing to do if you want to launch an EDDM postcards marketing campaign is to look for a printing company. Check if they offer digital or offset printing services. Also check on the quality of printing, materials, and customer service that they offer; the turnaround time; and the prices of the printing packages. 

For the paper options, here are a few questions to ask: 

  • What are the available postcard sizes?

The smallest postcard that you can order is 4” x 6”. There are other sizes available, the best performing is 6” x 11” and you can go as big as 6.5” x 12”. 

  • Should I print one-sided or two-sided?

Although there’s an additional rate for two-side printing, it is still a more economical option than printing two one-sided postcards. Make your selection based on the length of the message that you would like to print on the postcard. 

  • Which paper finish should I choose?

For the thickness, 16-pt. or 17-pt. paper stock is used. Next, choose between an ultra-smooth matte finish or an ultra-smooth gloss finish. 

  • Other things to consider 

Also decide on the quantity that you will order. If you will go with offset printing, remember that the price per piece gets lower as the number of pieces that you order gets higher. For instance, ordering 1,000 4” x 9” postcards is pricier than ordering 2,500 or 5,000 pieces. 

By knowing what your paper options are for EDDM postcard printing, you can come up with a piece of marketing material that will impress your customers and boost your overall sales.