One of the pain points for business owners is finding cost-effective channels for reaching new customers and keeping in touch with existing ones. Small and medium businesses (SMB) are often challenged to find the time and money to build a quality mailing list consisting of the right customers. There is a new program that has become tremendously popular among SMBs, which provides the opportunity to reach new and existing customers with bargain rates, in a specified geographic area, all without a mailing list or permit! Offered by the United States Postal Service (USPS), Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) costs as little as 15.4 cents per piece for Flats that weigh up to 3.3 ounces.
So how does the program work? Let’s say Jen has just opened a gym and is interested in getting the word out to customers in a 5 mile radius, about her introductory special offer. She can visit the USPS website and use the EDDM Mapping tool to select the mail delivery area in the targeted radius, and then she can specify her intended audience by income, household size and age. Once Jen has framed her promotional targets and has created her EDDM account, she can either select the “EDDM - Do-It-Yourself” package or the “EDDM-Online Design and Printing Help.” The major difference between the two packages is that with the former, Jen can save some money by designing, printing and dropping-off her own mail pieces. The wow factor is that Jen can send 200 to 5,000 mail pieces in the specified ZIP code per day. This is significant for a new business as these are customers that were not previously a part of the contact database.
While online marketing channels have become essential marketing tools for businesses, direct mail is still an effective medium for finding especially local customers.
To learn more about the EDDM program, you can consult the user guide.
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