One of the best services that the United States Postal Service has to offer is their Every Door Direct Mail service. Unfortunately, in my experience when I ask most business owners about it, they've never heard of it before. Well if you haven't heard about it, I'm telling you now!
Every Door Direct Mail is a service that lets a business send their postcard, fliers, or menus out on entire mail routes that are choosen through an online mapping tool. It's a great way to get the word out about your business. Many businesses utilize the service to grow their customer base. All the owner has to do is have their mail piece designed to standards, with "Local Postal Customer" acting as the address label, and the EDDM Retail Indicia in the top half corner of the mail piece. What's an indicia? Well it's a design on bulk mail that works very similarly to a stamp, showing that the postage for the mailing has been paid for, but you only pay a 3rd of the price per delivery for EDDM, as a stamp currently cost 63 Cents!
Many Local Restaurants benefit by sending their takeaway menus out to local potential customers as Every Door Direct Mail. Those menus are something that restaurants typically need anyway, but by simply making the menu the right size and adding the indicia and LPC label, it turns their menu into a valuable marketing piece that can drive new customers to their restaurant! Then they can send their menus out in bundles to mail market whenever they like! Not only restaurants can benefit from EDDM but also Landscapers, Tree Removers, Painters, Retail shops, any type of business with a general service that most people need or can use.
Utilizing QR Codes on your Mail Piece Design to Engage
Businesses are highly encouraged to put QR codes on mailings. QR codes can help drive new traffic to your website! In the era of online ordering the QR code has never been a more valuable asset. It can also drive more followers to your social media pages where you can further engage with your customers. Bulk mail permit holders can enjoy promotional discounts by having a QR code on their mail piece. Not a bad deal, getting a discount for making your mail piece more engaging. Mail pieces with QR Codes in their marketing campaign have also been known to have higher return on investment compared to mail pieces without them.
Mail Marketing Can Work With Your Budget
Many People think mail marketing is expensive, and it can be depending on what level of targetability you're looking for, but through EDDM, mail marketing is affordable for every size business! What's great is you could pick a single local mail route, a few, or all of them! It can fit nearly any marketing budget! The minimum is 200 pieces per order, and the maximum is 5000 pieces per order a day on the retail side, but if you have a bulk mail permit there is no limit per order. Most routes are typically over 200 pieces per order, except the occasional PO Box route. Yes that's right, you can even market to the active PO Boxes in your local post office!
Utilize the Power of the EDDM Mapping Tool
USPS utilizes Census Bureau data in their EDDM Mapping tool so Business Customers can market to their preferred demographic. The EDDM Tools provides valuable data such as age demographics on the route, house hold size, and the median income for the people who live on that route! The EDDM Mapping Tool also lets you filter out the businesses so you can get residential customers only if you prefer!
Mail just Works
Mail is a wonderful marketing channel. Why? Well it's part of many people's daily routine to go out and collect the delivered mail in their mail box. Whether you want the mail piece or not, you usually look at it first before throwing it away right? Now that is precisely why mail is strong marketing! You also have to think about your demographics, not everyone is all over the internet. The elderly for example, in my experience as a mail carrier, appreciate the mail more than any other age demographic! Do you think you are going to reach those people by making posts on Facebook, Instagram, or Linkedin about your business? Ha! Send them mail!
About our Guest Blogger:
Jon Reynolds is a Business Lead Development Specialist who Works for the Customer Relations Department of the USPS. You can reach him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-reynolds-b581479a/
