Flanagin’s Bulk Mail Service: Every Door, Every Time

Flanagin’s Bulk Mail Service: Every Door, Every Time

There is a phrase in the mailing world called Every Door Direct Mail, or EDDM. The U.S. Post Office tweaked this style of mailing for the average business to use it in the last few years, however, Donna Flanagin of Flanagin’s Bulk Mail Service and her staff have been providing that service for years.

The service allows for businesses to mail an item to every single household. It goes to every door, and the mailer cannot pick and choose, Flanagin explained. That said it is really good for some businesses and not helpful for others.

So, would it be a good type of mailing for the local pizza chain sending out flyers of its special, tasty toppings, the dry-cleaners, the car-wash shop?

“Yes,” Flanagin said. “A pizza place would be great for EDDM because most people might love pizza.”

The “every door” means each door within a carriers’ route will receive this piece of mail, which usually includes from 400 to 1000 deliveries.

If using the EDDM service at the Post Office, the limitations on the mail can be prohibitive, Flanagin added. The Post Office has specific size requirements and has restrictions on how many items can be mailed at once. All mail must also be taken to the post office of delivery, Flanagin added, which means if you are doing the mailing yourself you have to drive the mail to the city you are mailing to. This can be very time-consuming.

“We have been doing it for years, but for us as a Mail Service Providers (MSP), we have no quantity limits and the delivery to the post office is handled by us,” she said. “That is the advantage of using an MSP.”

Confused about what qualifies?

Look through your daily mail. If there are any items without a direct address, and instead have the words, “Local Post Customer” where your name should be, that was sent via EDDM or a variation.

With EDDM, the mailer does not need the addresses because it is placed in every mailbox, which saves the cost of purchasing a mailing list.

So why use this method?

The savings to use EDDM are quite high, Flanagin said.

A large flyer could cost $1.16 in postage but with EDDM, that postage amount drops to as low as 16.8 cents, which saves the customer about a dollar per piece.

With 400 to 1000 items mailed, that is a huge savings, she said.

EDDM is only one type of service provided by Flanagin’s.

“We do all kinds of mail, EDDM is just one aspect,” she said.

“Targeted mail is mailing to a direct address…I mean we do all things that have to do with bulk mail.”

That includes mailing magazines, letters, postcards, EDDM, and years ago, the Flanagin’s staff mailed flip flops, she said. It was a flip flop and on it was written the ad for a local clothing store.

For the Porter County Parks and Recreation Department, Flanagin’s saved them about $56,000 on one mailing, which included EDDM type of mailing.

For the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, Flanagin’s saved them about $23,000 on one mailing.

“There’s huge money that can be saved with EDDM,” she said. “It’s a great way to mail.”

To learn more about Flanagin's Bulk Mail Service, visit http://mybulkmail.com/.