The EDDM Myth

Many businesses have come to believe that EDDM®, or Every Door Direct Mail®, is the least expensive form of direct mail. This simply isn’t the case but the perception has been perpetuated by the USPS and many mail providers looking to keep the execution of direct mail campaigns as easy as possible.
EDDM Vs Smart Saturation

Higher Costs of EDDM vs. Saturation Mailing

EDDM Mails to Bad Addresses

Have you ever wondered why EDDM counts are higher than a normal Saturation mailing? It’s because you are sending to records that should have been removed. Vacancies, do not mails, and excessive drops have all been removed from regular occupant files. Every “extra” EDDM address–often as high as 10% of the list–is a waste of postage and printing.

EDDM Does Not Allow Removals

To qualify for Saturation rates, you only need to mail to 75% of all addresses in a CRRT or 90% of all Residential addresses–whichever count is lower. So why blanket your mailings to every address? With standard occupant data, we have all sorts of removal options that allow clients to optimize their mailings, while maintaining the best possible rates. Here are three great choices

  • Saturation Record Filters:
    This allows you to trim a list to the count you want. For example, if you have 11,748 records and only want to mail to 10,000 of them, you can select to remove certain types of records (trailers, apartments, PO Boxes, businesses), or you can trim by lowest income CRRTs first. This gives you a “smart” way to remove those records.
  • Penetration Indexing:
    By analyzing your existing customer list and looking for areas you’re already successful, we can effectively target areas that contain “look-a-like” consumers that are more likely to respond to your offers.

EDDM Has Lower Response Rates:

Time and time again, we’ve had new customers come to us because EDDM just performs poorly when compared to normal Saturation mailings.

  • The postal carrier, sometimes, packages all EDDM pieces together, so EDDM mailings become less of a standalone mail piece.
  • EDDM mails to extraneous addresses that normal Saturation mailings would skip thus reducing the overall results.

But What’s the ROI Difference?

With EDDM you do not need to purchase the mailing list or spend as much time processing the job, whereas with saturation mailings you can save on postage and on wasted mail piece delivery. How does this affect the overall ROI of a mailing?
Calculate the following costs:
  • The average cost to address a postcard: .004
  • The average cost to purchase a mailing list: .007
Consider the following savings:
  • Postal savings will be .001 to 2.3 cents.
  • Delivery savings will be .002 to .004, since only SCF is needed for letter Saturation mailings.
  • You save 3% to 10% on wasted mail pieces: vacancies, do not mail addresses, and excessive drops (1 to 3 cents).

"Smart" Saturation Mail Costs Less Than EDDM!

All of this shows that saturation mailing generally ends up costing less than EDDM overall. Additional benefits of saturation include narrowing your list selections on a household level (through Saturation Record Filters, Penetration Indexing or Response Boosters) and Saturation mailings typically perform better.

EDDM® & Full Service Mailing Guide
Tasks to complete in Preparing Mailing USPS Every Door Direct Mail® (EDDM) Retail Steps USPS Every Door Direct Mail® (EDDM) Commercial Full Service Mail Program One-Stop Solution
Design Your Piece Spectrum Handles Spectrum Handles Let Us Do it All for You!
Design, Print, Mail Prep, Trucking, and Postage.
PLUS: With Spectrum's Saturation Mail Program:

  • Agency-level design at reduced rates
  • Customized penetration report
  • Reach every household you want at postage rates at OR BELOW EDDM rates
  • Mail single family homes only
  • Don't mail a fixed radius - mail specific neighborhoods!
  • Drop out your current customers so you're not discounting previous sales
  • Variable data options
  • Mail only top income routes in your market
  • Mail neighbors based on households with children
  • Mail specific ethnic neighborhoods
PLUS lots more targeting options with Spectrum's Full Service Program
Print Your Piece Spectrum Handles Spectrum Handles
Truck Your Piece to Location Spectrum Handles Spectrum Handles
Pick a Maximum of 5k Homes Do-It-Yourself No Maximum Spectrum Handles
Go to USPS.com to select routesbased on 5-Mile Radius Do-It-Yourself Spectrum Handles
Count Mailing in Bundles of 5 and band two ways Do-It-Yourself Spectrum Handles
Print Facing Slips and apply one per each 50 piece bundle Do-It-Yourself Spectrum Handles
Drive to each Post Office and pay on-site for the mailing Do-It-Yourself Spectrum Handles

The Key Takeaway

Less, Waste, Better Campaign ROI!

You will typically get a better ROI with our “Smart” Saturation Mailings Program. While from a pure numbers standpoint, Saturation Mailings tend to beat out EDDM even with their “free data”, but there are other reasons other mail vendors might prefer to use EDDM.

Many mail and print providers don’t have the capability to ink-jet addresses or turn around EDDM jobs rapidly making it difficult to deliver on time. Many also don’t have the knowledge, capability, or expertise to execute them properly.

So if you use EDDM often, think about whether it is the right choice for your marketing campaigns – you may be wasting resources!

Not sure?  Spectrum will do a free marketing analysis to help you to determine which targeted mailing list option is best for you.

Spectrum has the data technology, expertise, and mail formats to execute higher ROI campaigns using “smart” saturation mailings.

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