Anyone use Every Door Direct Mail for mailing?

[Brian Compton]

Good morning, BP

I'm curious about the USPS Every Door Direct Mail program. Is anyone using this for their direct mail campaign? As a new wholesaler, I'm looking for the most cost-effective way to do direct mail.

If I understand EDDM correctly, it seems like this mails to specific areas / neighborhoods? And you can't hand pick the addresses you want to mail to? I'm currently mailing to pre-foreclosures so I feel like this wouldn't be an option?

I buy bulk envelopes for cheap on Amazon prime, print letters at my day job (free paper and ink) so my only real costs are the list itself and stamps that I'm buying by the roll a few times a week at the post office. I'm stuffing the envelopes and hand addressing them.

I'm sure there are more time-effective ways of doing this (click2mail.com?), but I'm hoping someone can share their experiences using one of these services and can shed some light on whether or not they're worth it (time vs money)? Or if EDDM is of any value for someone in my position?

As always, thanks for your time!

[Michael Nicholson]

I haven't used EDDM, but I have looked into it. There are a couple of good videos on Youtube that explain the process, but basically, you supply the mail pieces and drop it off at the designated post office (gotta fill out some forms and pay for it online first), and then those mail pieces will go out on the respective mail routes that you picked, hitting every mailbox along that route. 

It is cheaper because you basically are only paying 15 cents per mail piece versus 47 cents for a stamp. Yet, like I have heard a few people say, it is more of a shotgun approach. You may hit a wide area for less money, but it may not be that effective. I think it is good in those circumstances where you know that most of the neighborhood is going to hit your criteria (war zones for examples where all of the houses need some love). It is also good if you don't mind wasting money on non-targeted leads that may or may not generate anything of value to you in the long run.

As far as lists go, if you are trying to save money, and you are mailing to absentee owners, you can save money by looking up the streets in your target areas on your county website and finding all of the owners who have different mailing addresses than the street address. You can save your time by paying a Virtual Assistant in the Phillipines 3$ an hour to do this for you. It will more than likely be a lot cheaper than buying a list from list source or rebogateway.