How Much Does Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) Cost in 2025? 

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) costs as little as $0.30 per piece with the upper end being as much as $1 per piece or more. However, most EDDM campaigns cost between $0.45-$0.65 per piece. 

There are many factors that affect the cost of an EDDM. These include:

• Postage Rate
• Quantity of Mail Pieces
• Size and Format of the Mailpiece
• Paper Choice
• Printing Options

For example, if a nonprofit organization were to do a large EDDM campaign (25k+ pieces) in a local radius, with a small 6.25”x9” postcard on the thinnest paper possible (7pt gloss coated cover), they could possibly achieve a cost around $0.30 per piece. 

• Postage Rate: Nonprofits can mail EDDM’s with a postage rate as low as $0.132 per piece. Even lower with other discounts. This is less than half of the highest postage rate for EDDM’s: $0.292
• Quantity: Mailing more pieces at a time reduces the printing and mailing cost per piece due to volume discounts.
• Size and Format: Most commonly, Every Door Direct Mail campaigns are large postcards but can also be letter, magazines, and newsletter. The smallest and most affordable format for an EDDM campaign is a 6.25”x9” postcard.
• Paper choice: The thinnest and most affordable paper for an EDDM postcard is 7pt gloss coated cover. 
• Printing options: You could add coatings such as UV coatings that could increase the printing costs of printing. At a minimum, you would want to print full-color on both sides in most cases. 

These parameters represent the theoretically lowest cost for direct mail. As far as the most expensive, the sky’s the limit.

However, an average Every Door Direct Mail campaign costing between $0.45-0.65 per piece would look something like this. 

• Postage Rate: $0.253 per piece. 
• Quantity: 5000 
• Size and Format: 6.25”x11 Postcard
• Paper Choice: 12pt Board
• Printing Options: Full-color printing. 

How to Save Money on Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)? 

Optimizing for the following parameters will help you save money on your Every Door Direct Mail campaign: 

• Postage
• Quantity
• Size and Format
• Paper Choice
• Printing Options

There’s also the option of preparing and submitting your EDDM campaign yourself using the Every Door Direct Mail Retail program. We will talk about this later in the article. For now, assume we’re talking about a professional mail service provider like us, Print Shoppe, that is printing, preparing, and mailing your EDDM campaign on your behalf. 

Postage

Postage is the single largest cost of most Every Door Direct Mail campaigns often representing over 50% of total cost. 

Here is a table of Every Door Direct Mail postage rates currently:

To understand this chart you need to understand two simple concepts: the types of EDDM programs and entry discounts. Let’s start with the types of EDDM programs. 

Types of Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) Programs

Every Door Direct Mail has three different types of postage rates and programs: EDDM Retail, EDDM BMEU, and EDDM Nonprofit. 

EDDM Retail is a program for individuals and small businesses to print, prepare, and mail their Every Door Direct Mail campaigns themselves to a local post office. 

EDDM BMEU is for mail service providers like us, Print Shoppe, who print, prepare, and mail Every Door Direct Mail campaigns on behalf of their clients. Generally, mail service providers are not entering the mail into the postal system at the local post office (although they can) but rather at a BMEU or Business Mail Entry Unit. Hence the name, EDDM BMEU. 

EDDM Nonprofit is the same as EDDM BMEU but for nonprofits who are approved by the USPS to mail at deeply discounted nonprofit rates. 

Read this article for the most comprehensive explanation of EDDM postage rates. If you’re a nonprofit organization, read this article about EDDM postage rates for nonprofits. 

Entry Discounts for Every Door Direct Mail

The EDDM Retail program only allows you to enter mail at a local post office or, in USPS official lingo, DDU (Destination Delivery Unit). 

Not just any local post office, however. The EDDM campaign must be entered at the post office that serves and delivers the mail that your campaign is destined to be delivered. 

As a general rule, most post offices serve a zip code. Therefore, if your EDDM campaign is destined for multiple zip codes, you’ll have to drop the mail off at multiple different post offices. 

With EDDM BMEU and EDDM Nonprofit, mail service providers can enter an Every Door Direct Mail campaign destined for anywhere in the country into BMEU’s (Business Mail Entry Units). 

There is a large network of BMEU’s throughout the country and there broken up into two broad categories: DNDC’s and DSCF’s. 

While mail service providers can submit mail into BMEU’s anywhere in the country, they can achieve an entry discount on postage if they submit the mail to the local BMEU or DDU that services the zip codes where the mail is destined to be delivered. 

For example, if a mail service provider was submitting an EDDM campaign destined for Miami at the Dallas BMEU, they would not receive an entry discount and would pay $0.291 per piece. 

If they were to enter that same campaign at the local Miami BMEU, they would pay $0.253 per piece. 

If they were to enter it at the local post office, they would pay $0.242 per piece. 

Quantity

You can achieve deep discounts for printing and mailing larger quantities at one time. Why? Two reasons: set-up costs and material costs. 

Set-up Costs

Every print job requires a certain amount of setup time and labor. The more you print and mail at one time, the more the number of pieces that set-up cost is divided. 

It takes a similar amount of time to set-up a print job for 100 quantity as it does 10,000 quantity. 

Material Costs

If you’re ordering a large amount of printing at one time, your print service provider can negotiate lower costs on materials with their vendor (mainly paper cost) and pass that savings onto you. 

Bulk Printing: Secret Cost Saving Strategy

If you’re planning on doing a series of mailings, consider printing all of your mailpieces at once instead of for each mailing. For example, if you plan on sending 100k postcards in the spring, broken out over weekly mailing batches, print all 100k postcards at once. You’ll save a lot.  

Size and Format

The vast majority of Every Door Direct Mail campaigns are oversized postcards but they can also be newsletters, magazines, letters and more. These are what we refer to as formats with postcards being the most common and most affordable. 

Size is obvious. It’s the physical dimensions of the mail piece to include width and height but also thickness. 

This is pretty straightforward, the smaller the your mailpiece is the lower the cost will be. 

Every Door Direct Mail does have a minimum size, however. The rules regarding minimum size can be a bit convoluted but in general, 6.25”x9” or 4.25”x11” are the smallest postcards allowed by the USPS for EDDM’s. 

Due to the unique characteristics of each print service provider's printing presses and paper sizes, there can be a significant difference in cost of printing with even a ¼” difference in size. Therefore, it’s best to consult with your print and mail service provider as to the most cost efficient size of your mailpiece before designing to save on cost. 

Many mail service providers who specialize in EDDM have standard sizes that they offer that are already optimized for their unique capabilities. It’s more cost effective to choose those formats sizes. 

For instance, at Print Shoppe, our standard sizes for Every Door Direct Mail postcards are: 

• 6.25”x9”
• 4.25”x11”
• 6”x11”
• 8.5”x11”

While smaller postcards are more affordable, one of the key benefits of Every Door Direct Mail is that it allows you to send huge, beautiful mail pieces for one low flat rate. While it may be more expensive to send a larger piece, it may be more effective to send a larger piece that literally sticks out of the mail stack and demands to be seen. 

Here is the official documentation from the USPS on Every Door Direct Mail dimensions and physical standards for reference. 

Paper Choice

The most affordable paper choice for EDDM postcards is 7pt gloss coated paper. This class of paper goes by many names such as “80lb Gloss Coated Cover”. 

This is due to the United States Postal Service’s regulations on the minimum thickness of an EDDM postcard. 

An EDDM postcard must be a minimum of 7pt in thickness. 

Many of your discount Every Door Direct Mail service providers conveniently leave out the type of paper they’re using and only advertise the final cost of their product. If you can’t find this information in their marketing, you can assume that it is this kind of paper. 

It pays to go a little more premium with your paper. Having a piece that is more rigid and heavy conveys significantly more value to the customers you’re advertising to. Even if only subconsciously. 

Mail is inherently more expensive and valuable than other marketing channels such as email or social media so it makes sense to lean into that fact and go cheap and lose that effect. 

Refer to this article “Using Neuroscience to Understand the role of Direct Mail” to understand why and how to use direct mail to better tie your message

I suggest a 12pt or 14pt thick coated board stock for an EDDM postcard campaign. Board stock is more rigid even at comparable thicknesses to coated paper and is much less prone to being damaged or folded in the delivery process. 

It’s important to remember that one of the main values of direct mail over other marketing channels is that people tend to keep it around for a long time. If you imbue your direct mail piece with perceived value, they're more likely to keep it. 

Printing Options

There is hardly an instance where you would do an EDDM campaign with anything less than full-color printing on both sides of the mail piece. Unless you’re doing an official notice of some kind rather than an advertisement. 

While the sky is the limit as to the amount of embellishment you could do on an EDDM postcard, the only print enhancement options that are generally used are coating options. 

Print coatings come in two flavors: 

• UV Coating
• Aqueous Coating 

Both coatings make your postcard more glossy, with UV coating being the most glossy, make saturated colors and images appear richer, and add an extra layer of protection to you mail piece. 

Depending on your mail service provider, these coatings can be quite affordable to add to your campaign and can add a lot of perceived value to your mail piece. 

Often, advertisers choose to do a coating on the back side (non-addressed side) of the mailpiece that typically features a big beautiful picture or image.

In Conclusion

Every Door Direct Mail is designed to be the most affordable and least complicated way to make a big impression with the cheapest postage rates available combined with it’s oversized “billboard” postcards. 

If you’d like to discuss your Every Door Direct Mail campaign with me or one of our team members, message us today to receive a free consultation with an expert. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How much does Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) typically cost?

A: Most EDDM campaigns cost between $0.45 and $0.65 per piece. However, the cost can be as low as $0.30 per piece for large-volume campaigns with minimal options, and can exceed $1 per piece for more expensive options.

Q: What factors affect the total cost of an EDDM campaign?

A: The main factors that influence the cost are:

• Postage Rate: This is often the largest single cost.
• Quantity: Mailing more pieces at a time can lower the cost per piece due to volume discounts.
• Size and Format: Larger mail pieces or different formats (e.g., newsletters instead of postcards) can increase costs.
• Paper Choice: Thicker, more premium paper will be more expensive.
• Printing Options: Adding embellishments like a UV coating can increase printing costs.

Q: Is it possible to get EDDM for as low as $0.30 per piece?

A: Yes, it is possible. This is achievable for a large campaign (25k+ pieces) using a small, standard-size postcard (e.g., 6.25"x9"), the thinnest paper available (7pt gloss coated cover), and a low postage rate (e.g., a nonprofit rate).

Q: What is the largest single cost in most EDDM campaigns?

A: Postage is the single largest cost, often accounting for over 50% of the total campaign cost.

Q: What are the different types of EDDM programs and their postage rates?

A: There are three main types of EDDM programs:

• EDDM Retail: For individuals and small businesses who handle the campaign themselves. It has a single postage rate of $0.247 per piece.
• EDDM BMEU: For professional mail service providers who handle campaigns for clients.Rates range from $0.242 to $0.291 per piece, depending on entry discounts.
• EDDM Nonprofit: For USPS-approved nonprofits. This offers the deepest discounts, with rates as low as $0.132 per piece.

Q: How can I save money on postage?

A: You can save money on postage by using a mail service provider that can achieve "entry discounts" by submitting the mail closer to its final destination. For example, a mail service provider can get a lower rate by entering your mail at a local Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) or local post office (DDU).

Q: How does the quantity of mail pieces affect the cost?

A: Printing and mailing a larger quantity of pieces at once reduces the per-piece cost. This is because setup costs for a print job are spread out over more pieces, and mail service providers can get bulk material discounts.

Q: What are the minimum size and paper thickness requirements for an EDDM mail piece?

A: An EDDM postcard must be a minimum of 7pt in thickness. The smallest and most affordable postcard sizes that meet the USPS requirements are generally 6.25"x9" or 4.25"x11".8

Q: Can a mail piece with a premium paper choice be more effective?

A: Yes. While thinner paper is more affordable, a thicker, more rigid paper (like a 12pt or 14pt board stock) can convey a higher sense of value to the recipient and is less likely to be damaged, which can lead to a longer shelf life for the mailer.

Q: Are printing embellishments, like coatings, worth the cost?

A: Coatings like UV or Aqueous can add a glossy finish, make colors appear richer, and protect the mail piece. Depending on your mail service provider, these can be an affordable way to add perceived value to your campaign.