Every Door Direct Mail, or EDDM, is a saving grace for smaller businesses.
EDDM is a USPS provided service that is capable of mailing postcards or brochures to physical addresses within a certain geographic area.
In other words, it is the business owner’s go to solution for local marketing. With that in mind, here are 5 reasons why EDDM is a great marketing solution for your growing business.
1. IT’S CHEAP AND SIMPLE
The price tag of any product or service is probably the biggest influence that determines whether or not someone is on board. As is especially the case with smaller businesses, every penny counts in terms of investing in your company.
Luckily, EDDM is (almost) dirt cheap. The postage cost of one EDDM post card could even go lower than a quarter (literally $0.25). That means that $20 will get you enough to mail to up to 80 different households!
Signing up with a third party company makes this an even simpler process. Some companies offer full-service EDDM, meaning they take care of all the boring work like paperwork, bundling, mailing routes, etc. This works for those who are new to EDDM and are too busy to worry about every single detail of the process. Some providers are even willing to offer free design templates, to expedite the process even faster.
2. SOLIDIFY YOUR BRAND
Every brand, big or small, needs consistent branding between all mediums.
McDonalds rarely strays from their standard red and yellow artwork. Apple likes to keep things monochrome, sleek, and simple. Are you seeing a pattern here? It’s consistency.
So why should the branding of your growing business be any different?
EDDM post cards are a great way to establish your own brand with local clients. Stay consistent with your visuals. Make your logo easily recognizable on all your postcard designs and coordinate colors for a matching aesthetic. If you need a recognizable logo design, we can help you out.
Having continuity between your physical prints and your online marketing tools (which are just as essential as offline marketing tools) will make your brand that much more recognizable and give customers a complete package. After all, EDDM is easily capable of things that digital marketing makes a challenge.
3. SPECIFICITY WITHIN YOUR SPACE
Simply put, EDDM is the most efficient way to target a specific geographical region to market to.
You can plan out a mailing route to designate which neighborhoods will receive your postcards, or set up a more general radius to target. This kind of service is ideal for local businesses looking to establish clients within a certain distance of their brick and mortar.
Because mapping out which areas to mail to is no problem, it is very easy to figure out what neighborhoods are in most need of your type of service. This makes future marketing even easier since you can literally map out what communities yield the highest conversion for you. Who knows, you may even want to reward these returning customers with reason number 4.
4. Promotional Powerhouse
Limited time promotions, holiday deals, and reward coupons are not foreign concepts to the world of marketing.
Setting up a community-wide coupon is as easy as making a small design tweak to your postcards. Since the cards come individually mailed, they are sure to get recipients interested and get that envelope opened. Also, these postcards are, to put it bluntly, pretty darn big.
It is much harder to ignore a 6.25″x9″ piece of brightly colored card stock than a singular coupon in a generic coupon book. The sheer physical size is also a great advantage when you are looking to update customers on big announcements or even just staying locally relevant. If anything, these cards can just be a pleasant surprise for some simply because…
5. People Still Love Getting Mail
The difference between something like E-mail marketing and EDDM is the same as writing someone a heartfelt, handwritten letter or sharing the same letter through Google Docs. There is just something about establishing that physical connection with your clients that just cannot be replicated online, but don’t just take our word for it.
In a survey about mail, 59% of US respondents said that they enjoy getting branded mail that informs them about new products. In addition, 70% consider mail to be more personal than the internet.
As instant as the internet is, businesses should still take the time to appeal to what brings customers joy. After all, the most essential part of any business is the customer.
Conclusion
I won’t pretend EDDM is ideal for every business. If your clientele is primarily other businesses, then EDDM may not be the best option as cards must be mailed to residential addresses. Furthermore, this should not be the end all be all of your marketing plan. Don’t rely on EDDM to net you 99% of your customers, and don’t think that they can replace social media or other digital marketing tools. You still need to understand the internet.
If used properly, however, then EDDM is a great tool to use in your marketing arsenal. If you are looking to market to individuals, families, the general public, or your lovely neighbor next door with the loud dog, then EDDM is great for you. It’s low cost and easy setup make it a low-risk, potentially high-reward service that you should take advantage of.
If you would like to get started with EDDM, or simply just want more information, click here.
Have you used EDDM before to market your business? Let us know in the comments about your own experience with EDDM and how it has worked for you.
