How to Send Mail to an Entire Neighborhood

You’ve got a message you want to get out to a specific neighborhood or local area. Maybe you’re opening a new business, promoting a local event, or offering services in a particular part of town. Whatever your reason, getting your message into every home in your target area is a powerful marketing approach – when you do it right.

In the past, reaching every home in a specific area meant tediously addressing hundreds of individual mail pieces or hiring people to go door-to-door with flyers (and hoping they actually completed the task). Today, there’s a much better solution. The U.S. Postal Service offers a specialized service designed specifically for geographic targeting, making it easier and more cost-effective to reach every home in your chosen area.

In this guide, we’ll walk through how to effectively mail to an entire neighborhood or specific geographic area. We’ll explain the most efficient approach, what you need to know before you start, and how to get the best results from your mailing campaign.

Understanding Your Options

When it comes to reaching every home in a specific area, it’s worth understanding your options so you can see why one method clearly stands out from the rest.

The traditional approach would be to individually address mail pieces to every home in your target area. While this is technically possible—you could gather all the addresses and create individual mailers—it’s time-consuming and unnecessarily expensive. You’d pay full postage rates for each piece and spend countless hours on address collection and preparation.

This is exactly why the U.S. Postal Service created Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM). This service lets you reach every home along specific postal routes without needing individual addresses. You simply choose your target area, and your mail piece is delivered to every active address along those routes. It’s more cost-effective than traditional mail, requires less preparation time, and ensures comprehensive coverage of your chosen area.

Related: Learn more about how EDDM works in our detailed guide

Think of it this way: if you want to water every plant in your garden, you wouldn’t fill hundreds of individual cups with water. You’d use a sprinkler system designed for broad, even coverage. EDDM works on the same principle – it’s a system specifically designed for reaching every door in your target area efficiently.

How to Target Your Area

The first step in your neighborhood mailing campaign is choosing exactly where you want your mail pieces to go. EDDM works by postal routes, which gives you precise control over your targeting.

Selecting Your Target Area

You don’t need to know the specific postal routes ahead of time. Instead, you start by choosing your geographic area using an online mapping tool. You can target based on:

• Specific zip codes
• Individual postal carrier routes
• A radius around your business location
• Particular neighborhoods or business districts

The USPS mapping tool lets you see exactly how many addresses are on each route and important demographics like household income and age ranges. This helps you make informed decisions about which areas to target for the best return on your investment.

Understanding Coverage and Costs

Each postal route typically includes 400-800 addresses. You can select multiple routes to cover larger areas, or just one route for a more focused campaign. The minimum requirement per mailing is 200 pieces, and you can send up to 5,000 pieces per day per zip code.

Pricing is straightforward – you pay a per-piece rate that’s significantly lower than traditional mail because you’re delivering to every address on a route. This makes budgeting simple: just multiply your per-piece cost by the number of addresses on your selected routes.

Preparing Your Mail Piece

Once you’ve selected your target area, you’ll need to prepare your mail piece according to USPS specifications. Getting these details right ensures your mailing will be accepted and delivered smoothly.

Size and Format Requirements

EDDM has specific size requirements that are different from regular mail. Your piece must be:

• Rectangular with square corners (or rounded corners within a specific small radius)
• At least 10.5″ in length, OR at least 6.125″ in height, OR at least 0.25″ thick
• No larger than 15″ long, 12″ high, and 0.75″ thick
• Minimum thickness of .007″ (about three sheets of paper)

Common formats that meet these requirements include:

• Oversized postcards
• Standard flyers
• Tri-fold mailers
• Menu-style pieces

There’s also a weight limit of 3.3 ounces when submitting at your local Post Office.

Design Elements

Every EDDM mail piece must include specific postal markings that vary depending on how you’re submitting your mailing:

For Local Post Office Submission:

• The “EDDM RETAIL” marking
• The text “Local Postal Customer”
• A retail indicia (postage mark) in the upper right corner

For Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU) Submission (typically used by high-volume commercial mailers):

• The “ECRWSS” marking
• The appropriate recipient line (“Postal Customer”, “Residential Customer”, or “PO Box Customer”)
• A standard permit indicia in the upper right corner
• Additional “EDDM” marking for pieces over 10.5″ in length

These technical requirements might sound complicated, but working with a direct mail provider means you don’t have to worry about these details. They’ll ensure your piece meets all specifications while focusing on creating an effective design that gets results.

Bundling and Delivery

Your mail pieces need to be properly bundled for USPS processing:

• Pieces are bundled in groups of 50-100
• Each bundle needs a facing slip with the piece count
• All pieces must face the same direction
• Bundles are secured with rubber bands

For example, if you’re mailing 426 pieces, you might have eight bundles of 50 pieces and one bundle of 26 pieces.

Again, while you can handle this yourself, a direct mail company like The Printed Image will manage all these details for you, saving time and ensuring everything meets USPS requirements.

Making Your Campaign Successful

Knowing how to reach every home in your target area is just the first step. To get the best results from your neighborhood mailing campaign, timing and execution are crucial.

Timing Your Mailing

Consider these factors when planning your campaign:

• Most mail is delivered Tuesday through Saturday
• Holiday seasons can affect delivery times
• Local events or seasonal changes might impact response rates
• Allow 2-3 business days for delivery once your mailing is submitted

For example, if you’re promoting a weekend event, you’ll want your pieces to arrive early in the week. This gives recipients time to plan while keeping your message fresh in their minds.

Design That Gets Results

Your message needs to stand out in the mailbox. Focus on:

• A clear, compelling headline that speaks to your audience
• Strong visuals that grab attention
• An obvious call to action
• Your contact information prominently displayed
• A special offer or incentive when appropriate

Remember, you’re reaching everyone in your target area, so make your message relevant to a broad audience while still being specific enough to drive action.

Tracking and Measuring Success

While EDDM doesn’t include individual mail tracking, you can measure success by:

• Using unique phone numbers or QR codes
• Creating special landing pages for your campaign
• Asking customers how they heard about you
• Tracking response rates by area
• Monitoring business activity during and after the campaign

Getting Started

Sending mail to an entire neighborhood used to be a complex and time-consuming process. Today, EDDM makes it simple and cost-effective to get your message into every home in your target area. With the right preparation and attention to requirements, you can launch a successful neighborhood mailing campaign that reaches exactly the audience you want.

Ready to reach your target neighborhood? We handle everything from design to delivery, ensuring your mail piece meets all USPS requirements and gets the best possible results. Contact us to learn more about our EDDM and direct mail marketing services.