Both are a fraction of a solo First-Class postcard. They are not the same mailing. One goes to every door on the route; the other goes to the 25,000 households in the valley that own their home.
| Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) | Best in Business shared-mail pack | |
|---|---|---|
| Who receives it | Every active address on the carrier routes you choose — single-family, apartments, renters, vacant rentals | 25,000 verified owner-occupied homes across seven Gallatin Valley communities |
| Targeting | By carrier route; “residential only” still includes renters | Owner-occupied, $100K+ household income, ~$1M average home value |
| Postage | About 26¢ per piece (USPS EDDM Retail), you pay all of it | Split across roughly twenty advertisers — included in your rate |
| Print & design | Your printer, your designer, your proofing | Included: 16pt gloss, full color, designed and proofed with you |
| Logistics | Bundle by route, fill out the forms, deliver to the post office; up to 5,000 pieces per ZIP per day at retail | None — we print, pack, mail and confirm delivery |
| Competitors | No limit; your competitor can mail the same routes the same week | Two per category, maximum; the first two reservations close it |
| Tracking | Whatever you build in | Tracked phone number and/or QR code on every card, reviewed with you after the drop |
| Format in the mailbox | A loose oversize flat, alone or with the day's other mail | A cellophane-wrapped pack of heavyweight cards people flip through |
| Rough cost to cover the valley | 26¢ postage × 25,000 = $6,500, plus print and design — about $7,500 and up, all yours | About 90% less than a solo postcard; exact rate by category — see the full breakdown |
EDDM is a good tool when every address is a potential customer and you're happy to run the project yourself: a pizza place announcing delivery to a new neighborhood, a grand opening within a two-mile radius, a dry cleaner, a church, a political campaign. The audience is the route, and the route is the point.
It is a poor tool when your customer has to own the building. In Bozeman roughly four in ten households rent. A roofer, a window company, a landscaper, a foundation contractor, a mortgage lender or an estate attorney who mails EDDM is paying to put a card in front of people who are not allowed to say yes.
When you sell to homeowners, when you'd rather not become a part-time mail house, and when you'd like your competitor locked out of the mailing instead of in it. The list is already filtered, the design is done for you, the postage is split twenty ways and someone who answers his own phone shows you the results afterward.
Co-op EDDM postcards — several businesses sharing one oversize EDDM card — sit in between: cheaper than solo EDDM, still delivered to every address on the route, still renters and all. If renters are a fine audience for you, that can be a sensible buy. If they aren't, the per-piece savings is an illusion.
No. EDDM selects by carrier route, and the most you can do is exclude business addresses. Every residential address on the route gets the piece, owner-occupied or not. Reaching only homeowners requires an addressed list, which is what the pack uses.
USPS lists EDDM Retail at about 26¢ per piece for postage. Printing an oversize flat, designing it and getting it bundled and dropped are on top of that, and on you.
No — that would be a co-op EDDM card, and those exist. The pack is an addressed mailing to a verified owner-occupied list, with category caps, included design and tracking. Different list, different mailbox, different result.
Census figures put the Bozeman city renter share at roughly 40%, higher near campus and downtown and lower in Belgrade, Manhattan and Three Forks. On a saturation EDDM route in town, a meaningful share of your postage goes to renters.
Two advertisers per category, and the first two reservations hold them. Reserve by October 23 for the next drop. Design is on us.
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