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The Magical Combination That Makes EDDM Postcards an ATM Machine for Your Business

If you’ve tried (or want to try) EDDM postcards and not getting the results you expected, there are two things you need to get right before anything else.

Not the headline. Not the offer. Not the design.

I’m talking about the size of your postcard and how many you mail.

I know. Not what you were expecting. You thought it would be some magical headline or design layout.

But after 15 years of putting together winning EDDM campaigns for local business owners — plumbers, dentists, chiropractors, realtors, contractors, you name it — I can tell you with absolute certainty that these two things will make or break your campaign before you even think about design.

I broke it all down in my latest video. You can watch it below. But here’s the overview.

Thing #1: Size Matters — And Bigger (Within Reason) Wins

Every EDDM postcard is big compared to regular mail. That’s part of what makes them great. But if you want the best possible results, the size that consistently outperforms everything else is the 6.5 by 12.

Here’s why: it stands out in the mailbox both in height and width. Most mail is neither that tall nor that wide. Your postcard isn’t just getting noticed — it’s getting noticed twice.

Now, a 6.5 by 9 is still a solid card and will still get results. If you’re a pizzeria and the cost difference doesn’t justify it, go 6.5 by 9, no problem. But if you’re in a high-ticket business — kitchen and bath remodeling, home services, insurance, anything where one extra customer pays for the whole campaign — that larger size could be the thing that catches the eye of the one person who calls you this month. Go 6.5 by 12.

Don’t go to the gigantic 12 by 15 cards either. That crosses into annoyance territory fast. Bigger isn’t always better — 6.5 by 12 is the sweet spot.

Thing #2: Quantity Is the Gas in the Tank

This is the one most business owners get completely wrong — and honestly, I even got it wrong early on.

Think of your postcard as a car. You can spend months building the most beautiful, perfect car — amazing design, great headline, killer offer. But if you only put a few drops of gas in it, it’s going nowhere. That’s what happens when people send out 500 or 1,000 pieces and wonder why nothing happened.

The answer I give every single time someone asks me “how many should I mail?” is 5,000 to 10,000 pieces.

Here’s the math behind it. At a realistic response rate of one-tenth of one percent, 10,000 pieces gives you an expected 10 responses. Even if results swing a little low due to statistical variance, you’re still getting calls. At 1,000 pieces? Your expected result is one response. One bad week and you get zero, declare direct mail dead, and never try it again.

I actually pulled data from our own CRM recently — 30% of all the campaigns we print are 1,000 pieces or less, and almost none of those customers ever mail again. When you remove realtors (who are a special exception I explain in the video), everyday business owners who mail 1,000 pieces almost never come back for a second campaign. That’s not a coincidence.

10,000 also unlocks something most people never think about: split testing. Because printing is so cost-efficient at 5,000 pieces, doing 10,000 essentially gives you two full campaigns for not much more money. Run two different offers, two different headlines, race two cars. You’ll clearly see which one wins, and that information is worth its weight in gold for every campaign after.

What If You Can’t Afford 5,000–10,000 Right Now?

Two options.

If you’re a realtor, you’re actually the one exception to all of this. You don’t need big quantities — you need consistency. Pick a neighborhood, mail 500–1,500 pieces, and do it every single month for a year. The listings will come. Every realtor I’ve ever seen commit to a full year of this has never stopped doing it.

For everyone else — look into the shared postcard format (what we call an M3 or M6). You share the card with two or three other non-competing businesses, they pay their share, and you ride along for a fraction of the cost. I did this for years with my own window and siding business and was getting 50,000 pieces a month out the door essentially for free.

Watch the Full Video or Listen to the Podcast.

I go through all of this with actual postcards in hand, the real numbers, and the reasoning behind every recommendation. If you’re even thinking about running an EDDM campaign, watch this before you spend a dime.

And if you want to run your campaign by me, or just want to know what it would cost — text me or reach out to me or my team will get back to you fast. We’ve seen thousands of these campaigns.