It’s no fun being the bearer of bad news, but you should know that EDDM, the US Postal Service’s new local neighborhood discount program, may not be your best choice for your next bulk mailing.

Yes, the popular EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) program has plenty of good things going for it, as we mentioned in our prior post : EDDM: USPS Every Door Direct Mail .

But alas, you should consider some facts before jumping on the EDDM bandwagon for your postcard magnet mailings.  Here are our 4 issues with EDDM:

1) with EDDM there is no name and no address added to your mailing piece. There are plenty of studies that show mailings are more effective if they are personalized for the recipient. Items are more likely to be looked at if they are addressed personally. Without that, your EDDM mail becomes junk mail.

2) EDDM mail is packed into the pile of circulars and other non-addressed mail when its delivered to a mailbox. The pile is considered to be ‘junk mail’ by many. There’s a good chance that, upon arrival, it gets tossed.

3) you need to properly prepare your EDDM items. There’s a USPS site that you’ll need to learn, select from online maps, complete online forms, bundle your EDDM materials with ‘facing slips’ , and deliver your mailing pieces to your local post office.

4) EDDM can cost you more. Sure, the EDDM rate is a low 18 cents per mailing piece. But because EDDM requires a large mailing piece — at least 6-1/8″ x 11″ — the costs for making a postcard magnet go up significantly ($.30 or more). Moreover, these large, plastic laminated postcard magnets need to be shipped to you so you can bring them to your local post office; and freight can add up ($.10 or more).

The good news is that you can solve all these problems by using one of our standard magnet mailers and a saturation mailing list. A saturation list provides addresses for every home or business in a Zip Code or Carrier Route, similar to the coverage you’d get with EDDM. The name and address can be rented for one-time use, for a couple of pennies each. And the post office provides a low rate for saturation, Standard non-automated bulk mailings: about $.23 ea. (as of 6/2015).

When you order your postcard magnets from us at magnetbyMail, we handle the mailing prep for free.  This includes ink jetting the addresses on to each postcard, sorting and bundling your mail, completing the USPS bulk mail forms, using our bulkmail permits, and delivering the mail to the Post Office.

So would you want your postcard magnet to arrive unaddressed, in the middle of the circulars? Or would you rather have it personalized to the recipient and address, delivered as an independent mailing piece, without any hassle on your part, and at far less cost?

We thought you should know.