USPS Every Door Direct Mail

What is USPS Every Door Direct Mail, and should I be using it?

USPS – Every Door Direct Mail is a discounted service offered by the United States Postal Service that allows you to market to large areas at a reduced price because it requires no addressing or sorting. It’s literally Every Door in an area.

There are many reasons to use it, for example, if you’re a pizza place and want to hit every house in a neighborhood or a zip code, this is a good way to go. Perfect for postcards for people who don’t know who you are.

The Exodus Newsletter doesn’t use EDDM because your list is your past clients, and while the goal is to have every door in a particular neighborhood, as a past client, it takes work.

If you were to draw a line on a map from your office to all of the addresses of people you’ve helped get a loan, buy or sell a home, there’s a solid chance that there would be some that live on the same street. Clover-leafing does wonders, but entire neighborhoods are a lifelong process. We’re all for that, but referrals come from all types of locations, from one client, but rarely from every door in a neighborhood.

There are a few downsides to both the USPS and to you when considering this option. Here are some of the most common.

• Low-Priority Handling & Revenue: EDDM is classified under USPS Marketing Mail (formerly Standard Mail), which is treated as lower priority than First-Class Mail. Because it is priced significantly lower to encourage bulk adoption, it yields less profit per piece than higher-class mail.
• Operational Strain (Manual Processing): While EDDM simplifies sorting by eliminating individual addresses, it often creates logistical challenges. Large, irregular flats must be bundled and handled, making them less efficient to process through automated machinery than standard letters.
• Reduced Revenue per Address: Because EDDM is designed for “saturation” coverage, it encourages mailers to use the lowest possible postage rate, sometimes cannibalizing higher-priced Marketing Mail services that could be used for similar, more targeted mailings.
• Volume Limits and Retail Drop-off: The “Retail” version of EDDM has a limit of 5,000 pieces per day per zip code and requires physical drop-off at a local post office. This requires employee time at retail counters to accept, check, and process the bundles, rather than it entering the mailstream already fully automated via a bulk mail center.
• Lack of Address Hygiene: Since EDDM does not require individual addresses, there is no verification against the National Change of Address (NCOA) database. This means the USPS may be delivering a higher volume of “undeliverable” or discarded mail to vacant addresses or to individuals who have moved. 

What the newsletter does:

• Genuine general topics of the industry as a reason to be in their home often
• Space to allow you to communicate directly to your sphere of influence
• The opportunity to Share Yourself – Share Your Knowledge – Become Family!
• Most importantly, maintain the relationship you developed during the home finance, purchase, and/or sale process, which is exactly where the referrals come from.

Having worked in every manner of market condition known to man for the last quarter century, we’re fairly well versed in what works and what doesn’t and the entire buyer’s journey for past clients of Loan Officers and Real Estate Agents.

Schedule a call today, and we’ll show you exactly what our clients experience, and we’ll help you turn your past clients into a referral source that lasts a lifetime!