EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) puts one identical piece in every mailbox on the carrier routes you pick, with no list to buy and postage of $0.260 per piece at USPS retail rates. Targeted direct mail goes to named addresses you chose for a reason, such as roof age, system age, a recent move, or a visit to your website, and costs more per piece in postage and list fees. Use EDDM for services almost every home on the route needs. Use targeted mail when the job only fits a fraction of the homes and the ticket is big enough to pay for the list.

Direct mail is the one channel where a contractor's postcard sits on the kitchen counter for days instead of scrolling past in a second. The decision is not whether to mail, it is whether to mail everyone on the route or only the homes that fit the job. This page covers how each method works, the real per-piece costs from the current USPS price list, what the response benchmarks say, what our own client campaigns have done, and which one fits each trade.

EDDM vs Targeted Direct Mail at a Glance

Factor EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) Targeted direct mail
Who gets it Every address on the carrier routes you select. Named addresses on a list you built or bought.
Targeting Route-level demographics: USPS lets you filter routes by age, household size, and income. Household-level: roof age, system age, home value, new movers, past customers, website visitors.
Postage per piece $0.260 (EDDM Retail flats, up to 3.3 oz). $0.395 to $0.467 for automation letters; $0.501 for a presorted First-Class postcard.
List cost None. Per record, plus address cleaning. Varies by data source.
Minimums and caps Retail: 200 to 5,000 pieces per day per ZIP. BMEU: no volume limit. Set by your print vendor and mail class.
Piece format Flat-size pieces only, under USPS flat standards. Postcards, letters, flats, oversized.
Personalization None. Every piece is identical. Name, address, variable offers, past-job references.
Suppress current customers No. Yes.
Best for Services most homes on the route need this season. High-ticket jobs that only fit certain homes.

How EDDM Works

USPS describes it in one line: "you don't need address lists or stamps for your direct marketing mail and ad campaigns: Just choose demographics and ZIP" codes and routes. You pick carrier routes in the EDDM online tool, and USPS says you can "target customers by specific demographics such as age, household size, and income" at the route level. Every mailbox on the route gets the same piece.

Two ways to send it. EDDM Retail is the walk-in version: you bundle the pieces yourself and drop them at the post office, at "$0.26 per piece," with a minimum of 200 and a maximum of "5,000 pieces per day per ZIP Code." EDDM BMEU goes through a business mail entry unit with a permit, "currently as low as $0.259 per piece," and has "No volume limit on size of the mailing." EDDM Retail requires a flat-size piece, so a standard 4 by 6 postcard does not qualify; check the current USPS standards before you print for BMEU.

How Targeted Direct Mail Works

You start with a list. It can be your own (past customers, quote-but-no-sale homeowners, people who visited your website and were matched to a mailing address) or purchased (homes in your area filtered by roof age, HVAC system age, year built, home value, or a move in the last 30 days). Each piece carries a name and address, so it can carry a different offer for a 22-year-old roof than for a 12-year-old one.

Postage runs higher because the pieces are addressed and sorted. From the USPS price list effective July 12, 2026: a USPS Marketing Mail automation letter costs $0.395 at the 5-digit presort level and $0.467 mixed; a Marketing Mail flat is $0.783 at 5-digit; a presorted First-Class postcard is $0.501, and a stamped one is $0.65. Add the list cost per record and address hygiene on top.

Postcards vs letters

Contractors ask which format to mail almost as often as they ask EDDM versus targeted. The Association of National Advertisers' Response Rate Report 2021 (published January 2022, 581 qualified marketer responses) reported three separate ROI figures. By format to house lists, "the mail format that produced the best ROI to house lists was postcards (92 percent)." By format to prospect lists, the leader was "letter-sized envelopes (112 percent), the highest of all formats." Across all direct mail in the survey, the channel "reported a 112 percent ROI, followed closely by SMS at 102 percent and email at 93 percent." For a contractor: postcards to people who already know you, letters to people who do not.

The Real Cost Per Piece

Postage is only one line. A working budget for either method looks like this, using current USPS rates and leaving print and list costs as ranges because they depend on your vendor and quantity.

Cost line EDDM Retail flat Targeted automation letter Targeted First-Class postcard
USPS postage $0.260 $0.395 to $0.467 $0.501
Print Flat-size piece, quoted per thousand Letter, envelope, insertion Postcard, quoted per thousand
List None Per record Per record
Address hygiene None Required Required
Waste Every home that does not need you Only bad records Only bad records

The last row decides it. EDDM is cheaper per piece and more expensive per qualified home, because you paid to reach the renter, the new roof, and the house that replaced its AC last spring. Targeted mail costs more per piece and less per qualified home, as long as the list is right.

What Our Own Campaigns Show

Three campaigns from the Watson & Co. direct mail program, each labeled by vertical because results do not carry across trades:

  • Home improvement. $508,000 in new sales and a 15x return on ad spend from a full-funnel program combining jobsite radius mail, website retargeting mail, and staggered drops.
  • Foundation repair. $210,000 in five months and a 52.8x return from website retargeting mail alone.
  • Windows and roofing. More than $2 million in nine months and a 62.7x return from matching high-intent website visitors to postal addresses.

Every one of those is targeted mail. The pattern is the same each time: the homeowner already showed intent (visited the site, lives next to a job in progress, just moved in), and the postcard arrives while the need is fresh. EDDM cannot do that, because it does not know who the homeowner is. Where EDDM earns its place is the broad, seasonal offer: a drain cleaning special, a fall tune-up, a storm-season trim, sent to every home in a tight territory where nearly every mailbox is a prospect.

We build both: route saturation for seasonal offers and address-level retargeting for the homeowner who was on your site last night.

See Direct Mail Service

Which One Fits Your Situation

Plumbing, HVAC tune-ups, tree trimming, lawn: services most homes need this season

EDDM. In the routes we mail for these services, most mailboxes are prospects, so the list buys you little. Pick routes by home age and income, send a flat with one offer and one phone number, and repeat the same routes three times a season.

Roofing by roof age, HVAC by system age, repipes by year built

Targeted. A roof replacement only fits the 20-year-old roofs, and in the routes we have pulled data on, those are a small minority of homes. Buy the list, mail a letter to the prospects and a postcard to past customers, and suppress everyone you already replaced. The ticket pays for the list many times over.

New movers, past customers, quote-but-no-sale, website visitors

Targeted, always. These are your best lists and they are free or close to it. Website retargeting mail is the campaign behind the numbers above. EDDM cannot mail a list.

Storm just came through

EDDM, to the routes that got hit. Speed matters more than targeting, and every home on those routes has the same problem this week. Drop it at the post office the same day.

New territory, nobody knows your name

EDDM first, then targeted. Two or three saturation drops build recognition on the routes you want. Once the calls start, switch the budget to the lists that convert.

Direct mail works best when it follows a digital touch: the homeowner clicked your Google ad, read your page, and left, and a postcard arrives two days later. Our guide to retargeting ads for contractors covers the digital half, and the Meta ads vs Google ads comparison covers which ads to run in front of the mail.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does EDDM cost per piece?
USPS postage for EDDM Retail flats is $0.260 per piece, and EDDM BMEU runs as low as $0.259 per piece, as of the USPS price list effective July 12, 2026. Add printing, which is quoted per thousand and depends on size and paper. There is no list cost. A targeted mailing pays $0.395 to $0.467 postage for an automation letter or $0.501 for a presorted First-Class postcard, plus the list.
Is EDDM worth it for a home services company?
Yes, when the offer fits most homes on the route: drain cleaning, tune-ups, tree trimming, lawn care, or a storm response in a hit neighborhood. It fails for a job only a few homes need, such as a roof replacement, because you pay to reach every home that does not qualify. For those jobs, a targeted list costs more per piece and less per real prospect.
What are common mistakes when using EDDM?
Mailing routes by ZIP code alone instead of filtering by home age and income; sending one drop and judging it, when direct mail works on repetition; printing a standard 4 by 6 postcard, which does not meet EDDM's flat-size requirement; putting three services and two phone numbers on one piece; and having no tracking number, so the calls it produces get credited to something else.
What are the downsides of direct mail?
Cost per piece is higher than any digital impression, results take a week or more to show up, and you cannot pause a drop once it is at the post office. With EDDM you also pay to reach homes that will never need you. With targeted mail a bad list wastes the postage and the print. The fix for all of it is a tracked phone number on every piece and a test drop before a full campaign.
EDDM vs direct mail: which has the better response rate?
Targeted mail, because it goes only to homes that fit the offer and can carry a name and a specific message. The Association of National Advertisers' Response Rate Report 2021 put direct mail's channel ROI at 112 percent, with postcards the best format to house lists (92 percent ROI) and letter-sized envelopes the best to prospect lists (112 percent ROI). EDDM response depends on how well the offer fits the whole route, which is why it suits broad seasonal services.
Should a contractor mail postcards or letters?
Postcards to people who already know you, letters to people who do not. The ANA's Response Rate Report 2021 found postcards produced the best ROI to house lists (92 percent) and letter-sized envelopes the best ROI to prospect lists (112 percent). A cold homeowner opens a letter that looks personal; a past customer recognizes your postcard on the counter.

Sources checked September 19, 2026: USPS Every Door Direct Mail (rates, minimums, route demographics) and Notice 123 price list, effective July 12, 2026; the Association of National Advertisers' summary of its Response Rate Report 2021 (published January 24, 2022). Client campaign figures are from Watson & Co. accounts and apply only to the vertical named.