EDDM Printing and Mailing That Reaches Every Door in the Neighborhood
Reach every mailbox on a postal route without a single address on file. EDDM is the USPS program that saturates a neighborhood at a discounted rate, and 4OVER4.COM prints the postcards, flyers, and brochures to spec. Here is how the whole thing works, start to finish.
Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a USPS service that delivers your printed piece to every address on the postal routes you choose, with no mailing list needed. You pick carrier routes on a map, print an EDDM eligible flat like a postcard, flyer, or brochure, and pay a deeply discounted retail postage rate. Send it yourself through EDDM Retail up to 5,000 pieces per zip code a day, or scale with a permit through BMEU. 4OVER4.COM prints every piece to USPS spec so it drops without a hitch.
Start here
EDDM in one paragraph
Every Door Direct Mail lets you send a printed piece to every address on the USPS routes you pick, with no mailing list. Choose an EDDM eligible size, select your carrier routes on the postal map, and mail at a discounted retail rate through EDDM Retail or, at higher volume, through a BMEU permit. 4OVER4.COM prints the postcards, flyers, and brochures to USPS spec so the only thing left is the drop. Everything below walks through it in order.
Why Every Door Direct Mail still works
Most marketing now fights for a sliver of a crowded screen. A mailbox is quieter. When a well made postcard or flyer lands in every home on a street, it gets held, read, and often stuck to a fridge, which is why local businesses keep coming back to Every Door Direct Mail. It reaches a whole neighborhood at once, and it does it without a single email address or purchased list.
EDDM is a United States Postal Service program built for exactly this. You choose the carrier routes you want to blanket, print your piece, and the USPS delivers one to every address along those routes. At 4OVER4.COM we print the mail piece to spec and help you get it ready to drop, so the part that trips people up, the postal paperwork and prep, stops being a barrier.
This page walks the whole thing end to end: what EDDM is, the two ways to send it, the size rules that make a piece eligible, how to pick routes, how to design for the mailbox, and what it costs. If you already know the format you want, jump to our direct mail services and start a print.
What is EDDM, and how does it actually work
Every Door Direct Mail is a USPS service that delivers your printed piece to every address on the postal routes you select, with no mailing list required. Instead of naming individual recipients, you think in neighborhoods. You pick routes on a map, the post office counts the homes and businesses on them, and your piece goes to all of them at a heavily discounted postage rate.
The tradeoff is simple. You give up the precision of a targeted list and gain saturation and a lower cost per piece. For a pizzeria, a dentist, a church, a home services crew, or a political campaign, hitting every door in the right zip codes is often exactly the goal. Pair the mailed piece with a hand delivered door hanger and you can cover a neighborhood twice, from two angles.
Because you skip list rental and individual addressing, EDDM is one of the most affordable ways to reach a local audience at scale. The pieces themselves are still real print, so the same craft that goes into any direct mail service at 4OVER4.COM applies here.
Choose the format that fits your message
EDDM rewards a piece with presence. It needs to survive a busy mailbox and read in the two seconds before someone decides to keep it or toss it. Three formats do the most work, and all three are built for EDDM sizes at 4OVER4.COM.
Direct mail postcards are the workhorse: no envelope to open, the whole offer visible at a glance, and the lowest cost per piece, starting around $18.94. Direct mail flyers give you more room for a menu, a grid of services, or before and after photos. Direct mail brochures fold to hold the most, which suits a real estate listing sheet or a full service list. For a personal touch, direct mail letters read as one to one even when they go to a whole route.
Not sure which to send? Our roundup of effective direct mail formats lines them up by goal, and the direct mail services collection lets you compare stocks, sizes, and finishes side by side before you commit.
EDDM Retail vs EDDM BMEU: pick the right lane
USPS runs EDDM in two lanes, and the one you use depends on your volume and whether you want a permit. EDDM Retail is the simple lane. You need no permit and no mailing account, you bundle the pieces yourself in stacks of 50 to 100, and you drop them at the retail counter of the post office that serves your routes. The catch is a ceiling of 5,000 pieces per zip code per day.
EDDM BMEU, sometimes just called bulk EDDM, runs through the Business Mail Entry Unit. It requires a mailing permit, it has no 5,000 piece daily cap, and it can handle much larger drops across many routes. It suits franchises, multi location businesses, and anyone mailing tens of thousands of pieces on a schedule.
Most local campaigns start with EDDM Retail because it is fast and needs no account. As you scale, BMEU takes over. Either way, the printed piece is identical, so you can begin small and grow without redesigning anything. If the postal steps feel daunting, our team can walk you through them, just reach out.
The size rules that make a piece EDDM eligible
EDDM has one firm rule that trips up first timers: your piece has to be a flat, not a letter. In practice that means it must be larger than a standard postcard in at least one dimension, taller than 6.125 inches or longer than 11.5 inches, so the post office classifies it as a flat mailpiece. Anything smaller falls into letter rates and does not qualify for EDDM.
The sizes people actually use are well established: 6.5 by 9 inches, 8.5 by 11 inches, 9 by 12 inches, 11 by 6 inches, and 12 by 9 inches are all common EDDM formats. Our guide to EDDM postcard sizes breaks down each dimension against the USPS rules so you can pick one with confidence.
Every EDDM eligible size is preloaded at 4OVER4.COM, so you cannot accidentally order a piece that the post office will reject. Choose the size, and the eligibility is handled for you.
Target the routes that match your customers
The real skill in EDDM is route selection. USPS breaks every zip code into carrier routes, each covering a few hundred to around a thousand addresses. On the EDDM route map you can see the count of residential and business addresses per route, along with rough age and income data, so you can aim your drop at neighborhoods that look like your best customers.
Start with a radius around your location, then trim. A lawn care company might keep routes with a high share of single family homes and drop dense apartment routes. A boutique might do the opposite. You are buying attention by the neighborhood, so a few minutes spent reading the map pays for itself.
Once your routes are picked and your count is set, you know exactly how many pieces to print. For a step by step version of this, our guide on the quick steps to send direct mail postcards covers the route and drop process in order.
Design for the mailbox, not the screen
An EDDM piece is seen in motion, usually over a trash can, so the design has to win in a glance. Lead with one offer in large type, keep the value obvious, and give a single clear next step. Crowd the piece with everything you sell and it reads as noise. The strongest pieces look more like a poster than a brochure.
There is also a postal requirement to design around. Every EDDM piece carries the EDDM Retail indicia, the printed stamp substitute that reads ECRWSS, and an address block that says Local Postal Customer, since there are no individual names. Leave clean space for both. Our templates place them correctly, and you can see finished examples in our roundup of direct mail that worked.
Give the piece a job you can measure: a coupon code, a QR code, a call this number line. When the mail drives a trackable action, you can prove what the campaign returned, the way this nonprofit doubled donations with a single well aimed mailing.
What EDDM costs, and how the price is built
EDDM has two costs: printing and postage. Postage is where EDDM shines, because the EDDM Retail rate is far below a first class stamp and you pay it only on the pieces you actually mail. USPS sets that rate and updates it periodically, so check the current figure before you budget, but it has long been one of the cheapest ways to reach a mailbox.
Printing is the part you control at 4OVER4.COM, and it follows the same simple levers as any print run: quantity lowers the unit price, and size, stock, and finish set the rest. Direct mail postcards start around $18.94, and the per piece price drops as your route count and quantity climb. Adjust each option in the configurator and the price updates live as you go.
Because you print exactly the number of pieces your chosen routes contain, there is little waste. Order free paper samples first if you want to feel the stock, then print the run that matches your route count.
Launch your EDDM campaign in five steps
The whole thing comes down to a short, repeatable sequence. First, pick your format and an EDDM eligible size. Second, open the USPS EDDM route map and select the carrier routes that match your customers, which gives you your exact piece count. Third, design the piece with one strong offer and clean space for the indicia and address block, or start from a template. Fourth, print the run at 4OVER4.COM on the size and stock you chose.
Fifth, mail it. For EDDM Retail, bundle the pieces in stacks of 50 to 100, fill out the simple facing slip, and drop them at the post office that serves your routes. For BMEU, submit through your permit account. That is the entire loop, and once you have run it once you can repeat it on a schedule.
Want a hand on any step? Start from the direct mail services collection, lean on our direct mail guides, or talk to our print experts and we will help you get the first drop out the door.
Infographic
How Every Door Direct Mail works
One map, one drop, a whole neighborhood. Save this as a checklist for your next EDDM run.
EDDM in seven moves: choose a format and size, map your routes, design one clear offer, print to USPS spec, bundle, and drop. 4OVER4.COM handles the print so you can focus on the message.
Specs and pricing
EDDM postcard specs and live pricing
Once your routes are set, the printing decisions come down to size, stock, and finish. Here are the live specs and price per unit for direct mail postcards at 4OVER4.COM, straight from the configurator.
| 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 |
Print it
EDDM ready pieces to print at 4OVER4
Wally explains EDDM
One drop, a whole neighborhood
Wally thinks of EDDM as mailing by map instead of by name. You color in the postal routes you want, print a piece big enough to mail as a flat, and the carrier leaves one at every door along the way. No list, no addressing, just a discounted rate and a neighborhood full of mailboxes. Pick the size, and 4OVER4 prints it to USPS spec so it drops without a snag.
Print your EDDM postcards →See it in use
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Print your postcards, flyers, or brochures at 4OVER4.COM on an EDDM eligible size, ready for the mailbox. Adjust every option and watch your price update live.
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By the numbers
Direct mail you can count on at 4OVER4
Common Questions
Common questions about EDDM
What is EDDM?
EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Mail, a United States Postal Service program that delivers your printed piece to every address on the carrier routes you choose. You do not name individual recipients or supply a mailing list. Instead you pick routes on a map, the post office counts the homes and businesses on them, and your piece goes to all of them at a discounted retail postage rate.
Do I need a mailing list for EDDM?
No. That is the whole point of EDDM. You target by neighborhood rather than by name, so there is nothing to rent, buy, clean, or address. Every mailbox on your selected routes receives one piece, addressed simply to Local Postal Customer. If you already have a list and want one to one targeting, standard direct mail is the better fit, and our direct mail services collection covers both.
What sizes qualify for EDDM?
To qualify for EDDM, a piece has to mail as a flat rather than a letter, which means it must be larger than 6.125 inches tall or longer than 11.5 inches. Common EDDM sizes are 6.5 by 9 inches, 8.5 by 11 inches, 9 by 12 inches, 11 by 6 inches, and 12 by 9 inches. Every EDDM eligible size is preloaded at 4OVER4.COM, so you cannot order a piece the post office will reject.
What is the difference between EDDM Retail and EDDM BMEU?
EDDM Retail needs no permit and no mailing account. You bundle the pieces yourself, drop them at the post office that serves your routes, and pay at the counter, with a cap of 5,000 pieces per zip code per day. EDDM BMEU runs through the Business Mail Entry Unit, requires a mailing permit, has no daily cap, and handles much larger volumes. Most local campaigns start with Retail and move to BMEU as they scale.
How much does EDDM cost?
EDDM has two costs: printing and postage. Postage is charged at the discounted EDDM Retail rate, which USPS sets and updates periodically, and you pay it only on the pieces you actually mail. Printing follows the usual levers of quantity, size, stock, and finish. Direct mail postcards start around $18.94, and the per piece price drops as your route count and quantity climb. The configurator updates the price live as you adjust each option.
Can 4OVER4.COM help with the USPS paperwork?
Yes. We print every piece to USPS spec with the EDDM indicia and the Local Postal Customer address block placed correctly, so the piece is ready to drop. If the postal steps feel unfamiliar, our print experts can walk you through route selection, bundling, and the facing slip. Reach out through our contact page and we will help you get the first drop out the door.
How do I choose which routes to mail?
USPS breaks every zip code into carrier routes, each covering a few hundred to around a thousand addresses. On the EDDM route map you can see the residential and business address counts per route, along with rough age and income data, and select the ones that match your best customers. Start with a radius around your location, then trim routes that do not fit. Your final selection sets exactly how many pieces to print.
Legal Disclaimer
Gold Standard guarantees apply to all standard orders placed through 4over4.com. Price match requires verifiable proof of a competitor's published price for an equivalent product with matching specifications and turnaround time. Satisfaction guarantee covers manufacturing defects and print quality issues. Contact support with order number and documentation. On-time delivery rate based on tracked orders 1999 to 2026. Individual results may vary based on shipping carrier performance.
