Is EDDM Worth It? Real Costs, Pros and Cons

Somebody mails 5,000 postcards one time, the phone barely rings, and they hop online to announce that EDDM is a waste of money. Sound familiar? If you typed is EDDM worth it into Google (probably with "reddit" stuck on the end), you've seen plenty of those stories and almost zero actual math. So let me give you the honest answer, with real numbers, from a guy whose entire business runs on EDDM.

Here's the short version. EDDM is worth it when you mail more than once, to the right neighborhoods, with a real offer. It's usually not worth it as a one-shot mailing that a small business pays for all by itself. And there's a third option most business owners never hear about, which is where the math gets really interesting. Let me break it down.

Is EDDM worth it? First, know what you're paying for

EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Mail. It's a USPS program that delivers your mail piece to every address on the carrier routes you pick. No names, no addresses, no mailing list. If you're brand new to it, I wrote a full walkthrough of how EDDM works, so I won't repeat all of that here. This post is about one thing: money. What it really costs, and whether it pays you back.

Here's what USPS lists for EDDM Retail (the do-it-yourself version you handle at the Post Office counter) on its official Every Door Direct Mail page:

Both the 9x12 card and the community card qualify as EDDM flats, so 26 cents is the postage number for everything below. But here's the thing. Postage isn't the cost. Postage is one piece of the cost.

How much does EDDM cost for a solo mailing?

So how much does EDDM cost when you actually do it? Let's price a real one. Say you own a local business and want to mail a big 9x12 postcard to 5,000 homes by yourself. I'll use the Print Only prices from our own print shop, 9x12 Method Printing, because I know those numbers are real. Print Only means the cards ship to your door and you handle postage and the EDDM paperwork.

So one solo drop to 5,000 homes runs about $2,609, or roughly 52 cents a home. And that's before anybody designs the thing.

Here's how it moves at other quantities (same 9x12 size, Print Only plus 26 cents postage):

Homes	Print Only	Postage	Total	Per home
1,000	$509	$260	$769	About 77 cents
2,500	$859	$650	$1,509	About 60 cents
5,000	$1,309	$1,300	$2,609	About 52 cents
10,000	$2,399	$2,600	$4,999	About 50 cents

Go smaller, like our 6x11 community card size, and 5,000 pieces runs $839 to print plus $1,300 in postage. That's $2,139, about 43 cents a home. Cheaper, sure. Still a couple grand for one shot. And if you'd rather never touch a bundle, our All Inclusive run for a 9x12 to 5,000 homes is $2,999 with postage and USPS fulfillment handled, about 60 cents a home.

EDDM cost per piece vs. cost per home

This is where people get tripped up. When someone asks about the EDDM cost per piece, they usually mean postage: 26 cents. But your real cost per piece is printing plus postage. And since EDDM puts one piece at every address on the route, cost per piece and cost per home are the same number. About 52 cents a home for a solo 9x12 mailing. Keep that in your head.

The EDDM postcard cost nobody puts on the invoice: your time

Printing and postage are the EDDM postcard cost you can see. The one you can't see is your Saturday. Here's what a DIY EDDM Retail mailing actually looks like, straight from the USPS requirements:

1. Pick your routes in the USPS EDDM online tool. You can filter by things like age, income, and household size. (Here's how I choose EDDM routes for a card.)
2. Get your card designed with the EDDM Retail indicia printed on it. USPS requires it on every single piece.
3. When the boxes show up, bundle the cards into stacks of 50 to 100 pieces, no taller than 6 inches. At 5,000 pieces, that's somewhere between 50 and 100 bundles.
4. Fill out a facing slip for the top of every bundle, with the piece count written on it.
5. Haul everything to the Post Office for your selected ZIP Code and pay at the counter (cash, card, or check), or pay online with a card through the EDDM tool.

Is it hard? No. Is it fun? Also no. It's rubber bands, facing slips, and a trunk full of boxes. Fine once. It adds up fast every month, which (spoiler) is exactly how often you need to mail for EDDM to work.

The shared card math: 10 cents a home

Okay so here's the option most business owners never hear about. Instead of paying for the whole mailing, you buy one ad slot on a shared postcard that's already going out. An operator (like the folks in our community) sells about 16 slots to 16 non-competing local businesses, and everybody splits the cost.

And side by side with going solo:

Option	You pay	Homes	Per home
Solo 9x12 mailing (Print Only + postage)	$2,609	5,000	About 52 cents
Slot on a shared 9x12 card	$500	5,000	10 cents
Slot on a shared community card	$250	2,500	10 cents

Now, full honesty. These aren't identical products. Mail solo and you own the entire card, both sides. Buy a slot and you get one spot out of about 16. That's the real trade, and I'm not going to pretend it isn't.

But for about the same money as one solo drop, you could be on a shared 9x12 card five times. $2,609 buys one shot at 5,000 homes. $2,500 buys five mailings. Which one is a homeowner more likely to remember when their AC dies in July? Right?

Rachel has a roofer on her cards who figured this out fast. He bought 12 monthly mailings and paid $3,000 up front. Twelve mailings for barely more than one solo drop. That roofer gets it.

EDDM doesn't reward one big splash. It rewards the business that keeps showing up in the same mailboxes, month after month.

EDDM pros and cons (the honest list)

Here are the EDDM pros and cons the way I'd explain them to a buddy who owns a business.

The pros

• No mailing list. You pick routes on a map, not names on a spreadsheet.
• Saturation coverage. Every address on the route gets one. In a tight local service area, that's exactly what you want.
• Cheap postage. 26 cents a piece for EDDM Retail flats, and both the 9x12 card and the community card qualify.
• Low barrier to entry. A 200-piece minimum and no special mailing permit for EDDM Retail.
• It's physical. Nobody unsubscribes from their mailbox.

The cons

• No targeting by individual. You can't mail only the people who need a new roof this year. You pay for every door, including folks who will never call you.
• One-shot mailings rarely work. Most people need to see a business more than once before they pick up the phone. A single drop is a lottery ticket.
• The upfront cost is real. $2,609 is a lot for a small business to bet on one mailing.
• It's labor. Bundles, facing slips, indicia, the drive to the Post Office. Every time.
• Daily caps. 5,000 pieces per day per ZIP Code on EDDM Retail.
• Postage doesn't sell anything. A card with no offer is still junk mail. EDDM gets you into the mailbox. Your offer does the rest.

When EDDM is worth it (and when it isn't)

EDDM is worth it when...

• One customer pays for the whole thing. Roofers, HVAC, painters, landscapers, dentists. When a single job is worth thousands, you don't need a flood of calls. One of Darin's HVAC advertisers sold a full furnace install that traced straight back to the card. Ryan had a dumpster rental client book 3 jobs within days of his mailer landing, and each job paid for the ad slot about seven times over.
• You'll mail repeatedly. EDDM is a consistency game. The businesses that win are the ones still on the card in month six.
• You have a strong, specific offer. Not "Quality Service Since 1998." Something a homeowner can act on today.
• You can track it. A QR code, a dedicated phone number, or a "mention this card" discount. Here's how to track your postcard results without overcomplicating it.
• Your service area matches the routes. If you serve those neighborhoods, every door is a real prospect.

EDDM probably isn't worth it when...

• You can only afford one drop. If $2,609 is your whole marketing budget for the year, a single solo mailing is a coin flip. Spread that money across repeat appearances instead.
• Your customer is a tiny slice of the neighborhood. If only a handful of homes on a route could ever buy from you, you're paying to reach a lot of people who can't.
• You don't serve the area. Online-only shops and nationwide sellers don't get much out of blanketing one ZIP Code.
• You have no offer and no follow-through. If nobody answers the phone when the cards land, cheap postage doesn't matter.

The operator side: EDDM is the engine behind shared postcards

I'm biased here, and I'll own it. My whole business sits on top of EDDM.

EDDM is the delivery engine that makes the shared postcard business possible. The postage is 26 cents a piece whether one business pays it or 16 businesses split it. That's the entire trick. Solo, one business eats the whole bill. On a shared card, sixteen businesses each pay a slice, and the operator who organizes it earns a profit for putting it together. That's the 9x12 Method in one paragraph.

Here's what it looks like from the operator's seat:

The All Inclusive price covers print, packing, postage, and USPS fulfillment, so the operator never counts out a single bundle. The smaller community card is where most beginners start, since $250 is an easy yes for a local business. And the advertisers win too: 10 cents a home instead of 52, month after month. Boring but profitable, for everybody involved.

Full transparency. I do teach this inside the 9x12 Method community, but you don't need it to get started. Everything about EDDM itself is public on usps.com. The community is where 2,800+ operators share their scripts, route picks, and wins.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does EDDM cost per piece?

EDDM Retail postage is 26 cents per piece for flats, according to USPS. That's postage only. A solo run of 5,000 9x12 cards at our Print Only price ($1,309) plus postage comes to about 52 cents per piece.

How much does it cost to mail 5,000 EDDM postcards?

Using our price sheet, 5,000 9x12 cards run $1,309 Print Only plus $1,300 in postage, $2,609 total, and you do the bundling and drop-off yourself. With printing, postage, and USPS fulfillment all handled, the All Inclusive price is $2,999. Either way, that's one mailing.

How many EDDM pieces can I mail in one day?

With EDDM Retail, USPS lets you send at least 200 and up to 5,000 pieces per day per ZIP Code, dropped at the Post Office for the ZIP Code you selected. A bigger mailing in one ZIP Code gets split across days.

Is a one-time EDDM mailing worth it?

Usually not on its own. A single drop is one shot at a neighborhood that may not need you this week. EDDM works best when the same homes see you again and again, so repeated mailings (or a recurring slot on a shared card) make a lot more sense than one big solo splash.

Do I need a mailing list or a permit for EDDM?

No mailing list. You select carrier routes, and every address on them gets a piece. USPS also says no special mailing permit is needed for EDDM Retail. You do need the EDDM Retail indicia on every piece and a facing slip on every bundle.

Is buying a slot on a shared postcard cheaper than doing EDDM yourself?

Per home, yes, by a lot. A $500 slot on a 9x12 card to 5,000 homes is 10 cents a home, and a $250 community card slot to 2,500 homes is also 10 cents a home. A solo 9x12 mailing is about 52 cents a home. The trade-off is space: solo, you own the whole card. Shared, you get one slot out of about 16.

---

Look, EDDM isn't magic and it isn't a scam. It's a delivery truck. A really cheap, really reliable delivery truck. Whether it's worth it for you comes down to what you put on it and how many times you send it.

As always, I'm rooting for you. Peace.