There are two ways to put a postcard in front of strangers: mail every address on a carrier route, or buy a list of the specific people you want. They cost different amounts, they fail in different ways, and picking the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in small-business direct mail.

EDDM wins when your customer is simply nearby

If anyone within three miles could plausibly buy from you — a pizzeria, a gym, a lawn service, a new dental practice — then the cheapest possible customer is the one who already lives on your delivery route.

EDDM removes the list entirely. You pick routes on a map, the carrier walks your card to every address in walk sequence, and the per-piece postage is the lowest available. There is nothing to buy, clean, dedupe or keep current.

A list wins when the wrong household is wasted money

If your product only makes sense for homeowners over a certain property value, for people who own a particular vehicle, or for lapsed customers you already have records on, then mailing every apartment on the route is money burned.

A list also lets you personalise, and personalisation only works when the data behind it is right. A card addressed to the wrong name is worse than a card addressed to nobody.

The size rules are different, and they surprise people

EDDM pieces must be larger than a standard postcard — 6.5 by 9 and 6.5 by 11 are the common sizes. You cannot run a 4 by 6 card through EDDM, which catches out buyers who designed their card first and chose the channel second.

Decide the channel before the design. It is a five-minute conversation that saves a reprint.

Cadence beats cleverness in both cases

One drop teaches you almost nothing. Three drops to the same route across a season is what produces a measurable pattern, because recognition compounds and most people are not in the market the week your first card lands.

Change one thing at a time between drops — the offer, or the headline, or the size — and keep the rest fixed, or you will not know what moved.

A practical starting split

Local service businesses: start with EDDM on your two densest routes. Specialist or high-ticket offers: start with a small list and a jumbo card. Either way, print a test quantity first — our minimum is twelve cards, specifically so you can hold the thing before you commit a route to it.

What we handle either way

We set the address panel, indicia and clear zones for the channel you choose, and for EDDM we ship the cards faced, banded and slipped in route bundles so the post office visit is a counter transaction rather than an afternoon.