Direct Mail That Prints, Addresses, and Delivers in One Job

The mailbox is the least crowded channel most businesses can buy. An inbox absorbs hundreds of messages a day and a feed scrolls past thousands; the physical mail pile holds a handful of pieces, each one handled, each one looked at for at least the second it takes to sort it. That second is real attention, and you can buy it: First Class postage on a 4 x 6 postcard runs $0.515 a piece.

Physicality does work a pixel cannot: a postcard on a counter keeps advertising for days, a menu goes into the drawer it will be needed from, a thick announcement signals that the sender is substantial. None of this requires the recipient to opt in, open, or click, the format clears those hurdles by existing.

What direct mail demands in exchange is logistics: printing, addressing, postal presorting, delivery windows. The service on this page exists so that chain is one order instead of your problem, and the rest of the page covers the targeting choices, the formats, the personalization lever, and the design rules that keep a piece deliverable at 4OVER4.COM.

Targeting is the first real decision, and it splits into two philosophies. List mailing sends to named people. The list can be yours, customers, lapsed customers, leads from the last trade show, or purchased and filtered: a radius around your location, income bands, homeowners, families with children, new movers, business types. Every filter sharpens relevance and trims waste, which is why the list is the strategy.

EDDM, Every Door Direct Mail, skips the list entirely and saturates postal carrier routes you choose: every mailbox on the route, lower postage, no names. It is the right instrument when the offer is inherently geographic, a restaurant opening, a salon, a service area, and the wrong one when only one household in ten could ever buy.

The two combine well: EDDM builds area awareness while a targeted list carries the personalized offer to the addresses that matter most. New movers deserve a special mention, people who just arrived need every local service at once, and a standing new-mover mailing is one of the most reliable programs in local marketing.

The postcard is the default for a reason: no envelope means no decision to open, the message is already read by the time the recipient decides what to do with it. Direct mail postcards come in nine sizes from 4 x 6 to 6 x 11 inches, on 14pt or 16pt gloss, matte or uncoated stock. It is the cheapest impression in the mailbox and the best fit for offers, reminders, announcements, and anything one image and one sentence can carry.

The brochure buys space: 8.5 x 11 up to 11 x 17 inches, in nine folds from half fold and trifold to gate fold. Folded panels give a considered purchase room to make its case, real estate listings, service menus, programs, restaurant menus that want to survive into the drawer. The flyer sits between: a full sheet of selling space at volume economics, the format promotions and events lean on.

The letter is the trust format: an envelope reads as personal or official, which suits financial, medical, nonprofit, and B2B messages, and it depends on personalization to work at all. Match the format to the job the piece must do, and when two formats tie, mail the postcard first and let response data settle it. A nonprofit that wants a card's reach before an envelope's formality can start with nonprofit postcards.

Mail design has a client the screen never had: the postal system. The address side must keep a clear zone for the address block, postage area, and processing marks, no dark backgrounds, no artwork creeping into it. Sizes follow postal categories, and staying inside standard postcard and letter dimensions keeps postage rates predictable; oversized pieces buy attention at a higher rate, a legitimate trade as long as it is chosen, not stumbled into.

Then design for the sort: the piece is seen at arm's length, moving, for about a second. The offer belongs on the side that faces up, in type that survives three feet of distance, with one call to action rather than four. Coupons should look clippable, codes should be short enough to type, QR codes need their quiet zone respected.

Stock choice does postal work too, a card sturdy enough to survive handling arrives looking like the sender meant it. Our prepress checks every mailing zone against postal requirements before the run prints, and the printing guides cover the file fundamentals of bleed, margins, and resolution.

A campaign has three cost lines. Printing behaves like any run, priced by format, stock, and quantity, falling per unit as volume grows: 500 direct mail postcards print for $89.68 and 5,000 for $241.51, and the live panel below shows the rest. Postage depends on size, weight, and sort: EDDM saturation earns the lowest rates, presorted list mail sits above it, and first-class personalization tops the scale. Mailer ideas for an EDDM campaign are collected in our direct mail marketing guides. On the order form, First Class runs $0.515 a piece on a 4 x 6 postcard and $0.705 on an 8.5 x 11 brochure, Standard $0.471 on the brochure, and the mailing service fee is $125.00 on 500 postcards or $250.00 on 500 brochures or flyers. The list is free if it is yours and priced per thousand records if purchased to a filter. Cards you hand out rather than mail sit in the postcards printing category, from runs of 50.

Ordering starts with the piece: configure postcards, brochures, or flyers with your artwork and quantity. Add the mailing layer, your list or your route selection, and the run ships into the postal stream instead of to your door. If you are torn between brochures or flyers for the mailer, compare the two formats before you configure. For a full-campaign quote including list and postage, route the brief through the services hub.

If the campaign leans personal, fold in variable data printing and mail pieces that know their recipients. If it leans local, start with EDDM and saturate the routes around your door. Either way, the measurement advice is the same: put a code on the piece, and let the mailbox report its own results.