4 USPS-Ready EDDM Print Products That Fill a Local Calendar With Bookings
Every Door Direct Mail is bought by carrier route, so the only thing you control is the piece that lands. These are the four formats that pass the USPS flat-size test, what each one is actually for, and where each one fails.
A USPS-ready EDDM set is four printed formats: oversized postcards, 8.5 x 11 in flyers, folded brochures, and addressed letters for the follow-up. The first three mail as flats, which means each one has to be taller than 6.125 in, longer than 11.5 in, or thicker than 0.25 in. That single rule is why a 4 x 6 in postcard is turned away at the counter and a 6.5 x 9 in one is not.
The picks
Four picks, from $89.68 postcards to $238.73 for 500 flyers
Buy the postcard first. Add the other three as the campaign earns them. Prices below are the starting point in our configurator and drop per piece as the run grows, which is why a four-route drop costs less per household than a one-route test.
- 1. Direct Mail Postcards, from $89.68. The piece that carries most EDDM drops. Order it at 6.5 x 9 in or larger so it clears the flat-size line, print it 14 pt or 16 pt so it survives a rubber band, and put the offer on the side the carrier leaves face up.
- 2. Direct Mail Flyers, from $238.73. An 8.5 x 11 in sheet when one offer is not enough. Use it when you need a price list, a service menu, or a before-and-after photo grid that a postcard cannot hold at readable size.
- 3. Direct Mail Brochures, from $238.73. The piece for a business with several services and a longer sale. It folds down to a flat that still qualifies, and the panels let you split financing, warranty, and service areas without crowding.
- 4. Direct Mail Letters, from $238.73. Not an EDDM piece. This is the addressed follow-up you send to the people who called after the saturation drop, and the one format that gets forwarded when a customer moves.
The eligibility gate
Which sizes clear the USPS flat-size rule
EDDM does not care how good your offer is. It cares whether the piece is a flat, and it measures the piece as it will be mailed, folded and all. Read the row, tap the piece to jump to its section, then order the size that already passes rather than the size you have artwork for.
| Piece | Sizes that work | What the rule does to it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Direct mail postcards | 6.5 x 9 in, 6 x 11 in, 6.25 x 11 in, 8.5 x 11 in | Height clears 6.125 in on every size listed. A 4 x 6 in or 5 x 7 in postcard does not, and has to mail with a list instead. |
| 2. Direct mail flyers | 8.5 x 11 in flat | Clears the height rule with room to spare. Print on a heavier text or cover stock so the sheet does not droop in a carrier tray. |
| 3. Direct mail brochures | 8.5 x 11 in folded to 8.5 x 5.5 in, or 11 x 17 in folded to 8.5 x 11 in | Measure the folded size, never the flat sheet. A tri-fold that closes to 3.67 x 8.5 in is a letter, not a flat, and drops out of EDDM. |
| 4. Direct mail letters | #10 envelope, 8.5 x 11 in insert | Outside EDDM by design. Letters carry a real address, so they need a list and they travel as First-Class or Marketing Mail. |
Start here
How the four pieces divide the work
Saturation mail is cheap reach with no aim, so the piece has to do the aiming. The postcard is the low-cost pass that finds the households who happen to need you this month. The flyer buys space when your offer is a list of prices. The brochure carries the proof a large purchase needs. The letter is the only one of the four that can say a name, and it is the one you send after the phone starts ringing. Below, each piece in order, with what it costs you and where it lets you down.
1. Direct mail postcards: the piece that opens the route
Most EDDM drops are postcards, and the reason is blunt: the card is read whether or not anyone wants to read it. There is no envelope to open and no fold to undo, so your offer lands face up in the hand between the electric bill and a catalog. Direct mail postcards start at $89.68 in the configurator and the per-piece price falls as the route count climbs.
Size is the part people get wrong. EDDM needs a flat-size mailpiece, which means taller than 6.125 in, longer than 11.5 in, or thicker than 0.25 in. A 4 x 6 in postcard fails all three and gets turned away at the counter. Order 6.5 x 9 in as the cheap entry, 6 x 11 in when you want a long panel for a coupon, or 8.5 x 11 in when the offer needs room. Our breakdown of popular EDDM postcard sizes lists what each one costs you in paper and what it buys you in space.
Stock matters more here than on a mailed-in-an-envelope piece. EDDM bundles are strapped in stacks of 50 to 100 and ride in a carrier satchel, so a light card comes out of the bundle with a curl across the middle. Print at 14 pt for a standard drop and 16 pt when the card carries a tear-off coupon that has to survive a pocket. Uncoated or matte on the back is worth the small upcharge if you want a customer to write an appointment time on it.
Leave the address panel alone. EDDM uses simplified addressing, so that side carries a "Local Postal Customer" line and the ECRWSS endorsement instead of a name, plus a clear zone the post office will check. The rules for what can sit in that space are in our guide to the postcard address side layout, and the full submission walkthrough is in how to do an EDDM mailing.
2. Direct mail flyers: when one offer is not the whole story
A postcard holds one offer well and two offers badly. When your business sells a list of things at a list of prices, a dental practice with six procedures, a lawn service with four packages, a restaurant with a menu, the 8.5 x 11 in direct mail flyer is the piece that fits. It starts at $238.73 and clears the EDDM height rule without any thought about size.
The failure mode on a flyer is paper weight, not layout. A single sheet of light text stock stands up fine on a counter and droops badly in a mail tray, and a drooping flat arrives creased down the middle. Print at 100 lb gloss text at the lightest, and move to a cover stock if the drop lands in a wet month. The extra half cent per piece buys a flyer that still looks new on the fridge in March.
Use the back. A flyer that prints one side and leaves the other blank wastes half the postage you already paid, and the reverse is where a map, a service-area list, or a set of before-and-after photos does real work. If you are building the layout yourself, start from a dealership-grade layout in our design templates rather than a blank page, and read how to design flyers for the hierarchy that keeps a full sheet readable at arm's length.
3. Direct mail brochures: for the sale that takes longer than a coupon
Some purchases do not close off a discount. A roof, a kitchen remodel, a hearing aid, a private school: those buyers want proof, a warranty, a financing line, and a photo of a finished job before they call anyone. That is what a direct mail brochure is for, and it starts at $238.73.
Here is the trap. EDDM eligibility is measured on the folded piece, not the flat sheet you printed. An 11 x 17 in sheet folded once to 8.5 x 11 in is a flat and it mails. That same sheet tri-folded down to 3.67 x 8.5 in is a letter, and it drops out of EDDM entirely. Decide the fold before you decide the sheet size, and check the folded measurement against our EDDM size requirements before the job goes to press.
Seal the open edge even though nobody made you. EDDM bundles go straight to a carrier rather than through the automated sorters, so the tabbing rules that govern machinable self-mailers do not bite the same way. A brochure that flops open in a tray still arrives creased, and two wafer seals cost less than reprinting a route. More on the mechanics in how to mail brochures.
4. Direct mail letters: the follow-up EDDM cannot do
This is the piece in the set that is not EDDM, and it is here on purpose. Saturation mail buys a route. It cannot say a name, cannot reference a past job, and cannot reach one specific person twice. Direct mail letters do all three, and they start at $238.73.
The trade-off is real and it goes both ways. A letter needs a list, which costs money or takes work to build, and it needs a mail class. First-Class costs more per piece than saturation mail, and in exchange it gets forwarded when a customer moves and returned when the address is dead, so your list cleans itself. Marketing Mail is cheaper and does neither unless you pay for an endorsement. Our comparison of postcards against letters lays out where each format wins, and building or renting a mailing list covers where the names come from.
The sequence that actually fills a calendar looks like this. Drop EDDM postcards across three or four routes with a dated offer. Log every call with the route number. Then mail an addressed letter to the callers who did not book, and to the customers you served two years ago and never heard from again. The saturation drop finds strangers cheaply. The letter is what turns a warm name into a booked appointment.
Specs and pricing
Compare the two pieces most campaigns reorder
Postcards open the route and flyers carry the detail, so those two get reprinted far more often than the brochure or the letter. Postcards start at $89.68 for 500 on 14pt gloss cover in 4 business days, flyers at $238.73 for 500 on 100# gloss text in six. If you want the postage side of the math instead, read our breakdown of direct mail cost per piece.
| Quantity | Price Per Unit | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | 17.9¢ | $89.68 |
| 1,000 | 17.1¢ | $170.53 |
| 2,000 | 9.35¢ | $186.95 |
| 3,000 | 6.84¢ | $205.13 |
| 4,000 | 5.58¢ | $223.31 |
| 5,000 | 4.83¢ | $241.51 |
| 6,000 | 4.56¢ | $273.85 |
| 7,000 | 4.37¢ | $306.18 |
| Quantity | Price Per Unit | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | 47.7¢ | $238.73 |
| 600 | 41.1¢ | $246.31 |
| 700 | 36.3¢ | $253.88 |
| 800 | 32.7¢ | $261.47 |
| 900 | 29.9¢ | $269.05 |
| 1,000 | 27.7¢ | $276.63 |
| 2,000 | 17.3¢ | $346.10 |
| 3,000 | 13.9¢ | $415.57 |
Wally measures before he mails
The counter checks the ruler, not the artwork
Wally has watched more than one first-time EDDM drop get sent home from the post office, and it is almost never the design. It is a card that measured 6 inches tall instead of 6.125, or a brochure folded down into a letter, or bundles strapped in stacks of 200. Measure the piece as it will be mailed, bundle it in 50s, and bring it to the post office that delivers the routes you bought. Then let 4OVER4 print the set so all four formats share one look.
Shop direct mail printing →See it in use
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By the numbers
What a mail route can be printed on
Common Questions
Common questions about EDDM print sets
What is in a USPS-ready EDDM direct-mail set?
Four printed formats that cover a full saturation campaign: oversized direct mail postcards for the drop itself, 8.5 x 11 in flyers when the offer needs a price list, folded brochures for a longer purchase decision, and addressed letters for the follow-up that EDDM cannot do. The first three mail as flats through Every Door Direct Mail. The fourth carries a real address and travels separately.
Why does my 4 x 6 postcard not qualify for EDDM?
EDDM only accepts flat-size mailpieces, and a piece is flat-size when it is taller than 6.125 in, longer than 11.5 in, or thicker than 0.25 in. A 4 x 6 in card is 4 in tall, 6 in long, and paper thin, so it misses all three. The smallest common size that clears the rule is 6.5 x 9 in, which is why it is the standard EDDM postcard.
How much does the EDDM set cost to print?
Direct mail postcards start at $89.68, and direct mail flyers, brochures, and letters each start at $238.73 in our configurator. Those are printing starting points and the per-piece price drops as the run grows, so a four-route drop costs far less per household than a single-route test. Postage is separate and is paid to USPS when you drop the bundles.
Can I skip houses on a route I do not want?
No. EDDM is bought by carrier route, so every delivery point on a route you select gets a piece. You can choose residential only or residential plus business for the whole route, and you can filter routes on the USPS map by household count, average age, and average income, but you cannot exclude individual addresses. When your buyer is a narrow slice of a neighborhood, an addressed list beats saturation.
How many pieces can I mail without a permit?
EDDM Retail takes up to 5,000 pieces per ZIP Code per day with no mailing permit, paid at the retail counter with PS Form 3587. Above that limit you move to EDDM BMEU, which needs a permit and a drop at a Business Mail Entry Unit rather than the local post office. Most small businesses never cross the 5,000 line on a single day.
How should the bundles be prepared for the post office?
Strap the pieces in bundles of 50 to 100, all facing the same direction, with a facing slip on top of each bundle showing the route. Bring them to the post office that delivers the routes you selected, not your own branch, unless the two are the same. Getting this wrong is the most common reason a first-time EDDM drop gets sent home from the counter.
What weight and thickness limits apply to an EDDM piece?
An EDDM mailpiece has to weigh 3.3 oz or less and fit inside 12 in by 15 in by 0.75 in. That ceiling is generous enough for a folded brochure on cover stock but rules out anything bulky, so a sample, a magnet, or a small product goes out through a different mail class.
How many drops before I know whether a route works?
Plan three passes over the same routes before you judge them. Print a different offer code or phone extension on each drop and log which one every caller quotes, so you end the campaign knowing which route booked jobs and which one only cost postage. A single drop tells you almost nothing except whether the piece printed well.
Get Started
Order 500 direct mail postcards at $89.68 for the first route
Print the EDDM set as one branded run at 4OVER4.COM. Pick your sizes and stocks, watch every price update live, and drop the bundles at the post office that delivers the routes you chose.
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