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How EDDM direct mail works, in plain terms

EDDM means Every Door Direct Mail. You skip the name list and pick whole neighborhoods instead, so the postage costs less.

Or just tell us who you want to reach, and we will handle the map.

The path at a glance

One piece, five stops

Here is the whole trip an EDDM mailer takes, left to right.

Pick the routes Whole neighborhoods
Design the piece Built around your offer
Print in-house Our own presses
Bundle by route Sorted the postal way
Drop at post office Every home gets it

Two ways to mail

EDDM vs a name list

Most direct mail starts with a bought list of names. EDDM works the other way. You pick routes and mail every home.

EDDM

Pick routes, mail every home

  • No name list to buy
  • Cheaper postage rate
  • Whole route, all or nothing
List-based mail

Pick people, mail each name

  • Buy a list of names
  • Pay more per piece
  • Skip anyone you want

The big idea

You mail neighborhoods, not names

A carrier route is the path one mail carrier covers, about the size of a neighborhood. Pick a route, and your mail goes to every home on it.

That is why EDDM is cheaper. You skip the name list, and the post office charges less when the mail goes out neighborhood by neighborhood, in a neat, sorted stack.

There is one trade-off. You cannot skip one house in the middle of a route. If you pick a route, every home on it gets the mail. So the real skill is picking the right routes.

Cheap postage only pays off if you mail the right neighborhoods.

The words you will hear

A few plain-English words

A few words come up when people talk about EDDM. Here is what each one means.

EDDM
Every Door Direct Mail. It is a post office program. You mail every home on the routes you pick. You do not need a list of names.
Carrier route
The path one mail carrier covers. It is about the size of a neighborhood. EDDM lets you turn whole routes on or off, but not single houses.
Postal sorting
Stacking and bundling the mail the way the post office wants it, route by route. This is what earns the cheaper EDDM postage rate.
Drop
The day the finished, bundled mail goes to the post office. One mailing is one drop.

How a mailing comes together

From an idea to every mailbox on the route

Weber is the designer, the print shop, the mail house, and the post office run, all in one building. Here is the whole path.

  1. 1

    Pick the routes

    You choose which neighborhoods to reach. This is the part that matters most. We show how routes get picked in the next section.

  2. 2

    Design the piece

    Weber designs the mailer around your offer. EDDM pieces are bigger than a normal postcard, so your message gets more room to stand out.

  3. 3

    Print it in-house

    Weber prints the mailer on our own presses, in full color, on the right paper. The presses are ours, so your deadline is up to us, not another shop's line.

  4. 4

    Bundle it the right way

    We sort and bundle the pieces route by route, just the way the post office wants. That is what earns the cheaper EDDM postage rate.

  5. 5

    Drop it at the post office

    We do the paperwork and carry the bundles in. From there, the carriers mail your piece to every home on the routes you picked.

The part people ask about most

How the right routes get picked

Mailing every home sounds like a blunt tool. It can be, if you pick routes at random. The real value comes from picking the right neighborhoods.

A few things guide the choice. Distance matters, because you want routes you can actually serve. Who lives there matters too, like the age of the homes and whether people own or rent. And most of all, where your buyers already sit matters. Your next customer usually lives near your last one.

That last idea is the one Weber leans on most. We take your own list of past customers, put their addresses on a map, and look for where they bunch up. Then we mail the routes around them and skip the rest on purpose.

One more thing. Run it a few times a year, not just once. When the same name keeps landing in the right mailboxes season after season, it adds up.

Your next customer lives next to your last one.

Common questions

Quick answers before you call

Do I need to buy a mailing list for EDDM?
No. That is the main point of EDDM. You choose whole postal routes, so there are no names to buy. You only pick the neighborhoods.
Why is EDDM postage cheaper?
The post office charges less for mail that goes to every home on a route in a sorted, bundled stack. You skip the name list and keep it neighborhood by neighborhood. That is what earns the lower rate.
Can I skip certain houses on a route?
No. With EDDM, a route is all or nothing. If you pick a route, every home on it gets the piece. That is why picking the right routes matters so much, and why we map where your buyers already sit.
How big does the mailer have to be?
EDDM pieces are usually bigger than a normal postcard. That is good news. The extra room helps your offer stand out. We size and design the piece to fit the rules and your message. You do not have to learn the specs. That is our job.
Does Weber print and mail it, or just design it?
Both, and everything in between. We design it, print it in-house, bundle it the right way, and drop it at the post office. One team, one bill, one drop date.

Keep reading

Where to go next

If EDDM sounds like a fit, here is more on how we run it and where it works.

Want us to just handle it?

If the routes and the postal rules are starting to blur together, that is normal. Tell us who you want to reach and roughly where. We will map the neighborhoods, design and print the piece, and get it out the door. Give us a call and we will take it from here.

Get help with this Or call 717-299-1277

Not ready to talk yet? You may be after something so unique we have not built a page for it yet, and given our history of unexpected jobs, we are sure we will find a solution.