Published · By Hello Local · Direct Mail & EDDM
EDDM vs. Shared Postcard Advertising: What’s the Difference?
EDDM and shared postcard advertising can both reach local households, but the cost, workload, creative process, and amount of space you purchase are very different.
EDDM vs. Shared Postcard Advertising: What’s the Difference?
Both approaches can put a business into local mailboxes.
The biggest difference is who pays for the campaign and who handles the work.
With a traditional solo EDDM campaign, one business usually pays for the entire postcard, print run, postage, design, and mailing.
With a shared postcard, several businesses appear on one larger piece and share those larger campaign costs.
Traditional EDDM
Running your own postcard gives the business the entire mail piece.
That can make sense when you need a lot of space or have a campaign that justifies carrying the full expense.
But it also means managing:
- strategy
- copy
- design
- printing
- postal requirements
- postage
- mailing preparation
You are paying for the entire piece whether you need all of that space or not.
Shared Postcard Advertising
A shared postcard takes a different approach.
Each participating business receives its own advertising space while sharing printing and postage with businesses from other categories.
With Hello Local, a Standard placement reaches 5,000 households for $550, while the Standard 3-Pack brings that down to $500 per mailing.
The business gets its own message and custom creative without funding the entire postcard.
What About Competition?
This is an important distinction.
Hello Local protects categories on each mailing.
A plumber is not placed beside another plumber. A detailing company is not sharing the card with another directly competing detailing company.
Restaurants are handled by concept. A pizza business and Chinese restaurant may appear together, while directly competing concepts are kept apart.
Which Is Better?
It depends on what the business needs.
A solo campaign gives you the entire piece.
A shared campaign makes sense when you want local direct mail exposure without taking on the full cost and workload yourself.
For many small businesses, that tradeoff can make the economics much easier to justify.
Compare Hello Local placements: View pricing here