How it works
A direct mail campaign you can afford to run twice.
Printing and mailing a 9 × 12 in postcard to a whole neighbourhood costs the same whether one business is on it or sixteen. We put sixteen on it and split the bill. That is the whole idea, and it is why a slot starts at $249 instead of several thousand.
Everything below is what happens after you say yes.
Start to mailbox
Six steps
01
Check the category
One business per category per card, so the first thing we do is confirm yours is free on the next issue of the edition you want. If it is taken, we say so and tell you when it opens.
02
Pick a size
Five sizes, from a business card at $249 to a whole side of the card. The bigger the ad, the lower the per-slot rate — the size, not a package, is what you are buying.
03
Send three things
A logo, an offer worth cutting out, and one good photo. That is enough for us to lay out the ad. If you already have artwork at the right size, we will take it as it is.
04
Approve the proof
We send a PDF of your ad in place on the card. Nothing goes to the printer until you have said yes to it, and changes at that stage cost nothing.
05
The card mails
Printed both sides, addressed as USPS Every Door Direct Mail, and dropped on whole carrier routes. Every deliverable home on those routes gets one.
06
You find out what happened
The QR code on the card carries a source tag and your offer has to be mentioned or shown, so the response is countable. We tell you what came in.
The object itself
16 slots on one 9 × 12 in card
Eight ads a side. The centre band on the address side carries the postal indicia USPS requires, which is why the back is the only side that can be sold whole.
The full side is the back of the card only, one per issue. The front carries the postal indicia and address block the Postal Service requires, so it is never for sale. A sold back keeps a slim Spotlight credit along its bottom edge.
What's included
Everything except the offer
The price on the rate card is the price. There is no design fee, no setup fee and no postage line.
Category exclusivity
One plumber, one dentist, one roofer per card. Your closest competitor cannot buy the slot next to yours, because there is no slot next to yours.
Design, done for you
No design fee, no setup fee. Send a logo, an offer and a photo and we lay the ad out, then you approve a proof.
Whole routes, not rented names
EDDM buys carrier routes, so every deliverable address on the routes in the drop gets the card. There is no list to be left off.
No contract
Buy one card at a time. No minimum number of mailings, and nothing renews on its own.
Straight answer
What this is not.
It is not a coupon book that arrives with forty other businesses in it. Sixteen slots is few enough that a reader can look at all of them, and one business per category means nobody is comparison-shopping your ad against the identical ad beside it.
It is not a targeted list. EDDM covers whole carrier routes, so you reach every home in the neighbourhood — including the ones no database has a name for. If your customer is defined by something other than where they live, this is the wrong tool and we will say so.
It is not instant. A card takes a few weeks from artwork to mailbox, and the businesses that do well on it treat it as a standing presence in a neighbourhood rather than a one-off blast.
Not sure it fits? Call 210-570-7708 and ask. A short conversation is cheaper than a card that was never going to work.
FAQ
Questions businesses actually ask
What am I actually buying?
Space on a 9 × 12 inch card that goes to every home on a set of USPS carrier routes in one neighbourhood. Your ad is one of sixteen slots on it. The price covers design, printing and postage — there is nothing else to pay.
Why share a card instead of mailing my own?
Cost. A solo mailer to five thousand homes runs into thousands of dollars in printing and postage before anyone has designed anything. Sharing the card splits that fixed cost sixteen ways, which is the only reason a business-card slot can cost $249.
Will my competitor be on the same card?
No. One business per category per card. One plumber, one dentist, one roofer. Once your category is taken for an issue it is taken, which is also why categories sell before the card fills.
Do I have to design the ad?
No. Send a logo, an offer and a photo and we lay it out. You approve a proof before anything goes to the printer. If you already have artwork, we will take it at the size on the rate card.
How is the mailing list built?
It is not a list. USPS Every Door Direct Mail buys carrier routes, so the card goes to every deliverable address on the routes in the drop — no names rented from a database, nobody skipped.
Is there a contract?
No contract, no setup fee, no minimum number of mailings. You buy one card at a time. Most businesses that stay do it because the card worked, not because they were locked in.
How do I know it worked?
Every card carries a QR code with a source tag on it, and every ad can carry an offer that has to be mentioned or shown. Those are the two things that produce a countable response, and we tell you what came in.
My neighbourhood isn't listed. Can I still advertise?
Tell us where you are. Editions open where there is enough demand from businesses to fill a card — an interested advertiser in a neighbourhood that isn't printing yet is exactly the signal that decides which one is next.
Ready to check your category?
Tell us the business and the neighbourhood and we will tell you whether the slot is open, and what it costs.