Direct Mail Campaign Services: What Actually Works

Why Direct Mail Is Back (And Why Most People Still Do It Wrong)

Let me be straight with you: direct mail never really died. It just got ignored while everyone piled into cold email and paid ads. Now that inboxes are saturated and click costs are insane, physical mail is one of the few channels where you can actually stand out. A physical piece of paper sitting on someone's desk gets attention in a way that email number 47 in their inbox does not.

The numbers back this up. 84% of consumers read direct mail the same day they receive it. Physical mailers have an average lifespan of 17 to 20 days inside a home or office - no email sits in a visible spot on someone's desk for three weeks. And 78% of B2B marketers report that their analog touchpoints, including direct mail, have been outperforming where they were previously. The channel is not dead. It is underused, which is exactly why there is still an opportunity in it.

But here's the thing - most people who try direct mail fail because they treat it like a magic bullet. They buy a bloated list, send one generic postcard, and wonder why nothing happened. That's not a direct mail problem. That's a strategy problem.

This guide covers how direct mail campaign services actually work, what they cost, which providers are worth using, and - critically - how to build the list that makes or breaks the whole campaign before you spend a dollar on printing.

What Direct Mail Campaign Services Actually Include

When you hire a direct mail service or agency, you're typically buying some combination of these components:

• List sourcing and targeting - either they pull a list for you, or you bring your own
• Design and copywriting - creating the physical mail piece (postcard, letter, brochure, dimensional mailer)
• Printing - the actual production of the pieces
• Mailing and postage - getting it into the postal system and delivered
• Tracking and analytics - call tracking numbers, QR codes, response measurement

Full-service agencies handle all of that under one roof. Self-serve platforms let you manage pieces of it yourself. Neither is universally better - it depends on your volume, budget, and how much you want to be hands-on.

EDDM vs. Targeted Direct Mail: Which One Do You Actually Need?

Before you pick a vendor or format, you need to answer one foundational question: are you blanketing a geography, or targeting specific people? That answer determines everything else about your campaign.

Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) is a USPS program that lets you send mail to every address on a carrier route without needing a mailing list. You pick a ZIP code, select your routes, and USPS delivers to every door on those routes. There is no individual addressing required. The postage rate is extremely low - currently around $0.178 to $0.247 per piece depending on format - making it one of the cheapest ways to saturate a local area. The minimum is 200 pieces and you can send up to 5,000 per ZIP code per day through the retail option.

EDDM works well for businesses where almost everyone in a given area is a potential customer: restaurants, pizza delivery, gyms, home services, grand openings, real estate agents working a neighborhood. If your offer has broad appeal and your target is geographic, EDDM is a cheap and fast way to get coverage.

The tradeoff is that you cannot segment, personalize, or exclude non-buyers within a route. Every address gets the piece - renters and homeowners, the right income bracket and the wrong one. And EDDM pieces cannot be individually tracked once they leave the post office. The average response rate for EDDM campaigns sits around 1%, compared to 2-4% or higher for targeted direct mail campaigns with a curated list.

Targeted direct mail is what most of this guide is about. You bring (or build) a list of specific individuals or businesses who match your ideal customer profile, and you mail only to them. The postage costs more per piece, and you have to source and maintain a list - but the targeting precision typically delivers meaningfully higher response rates and ROI, especially in B2B.

For B2B outbound, there is essentially no scenario where I'd recommend EDDM. You are not trying to reach every business on a route - you are trying to reach specific decision-makers at specific company types. That requires a targeted list, period.

The Real Cost Breakdown

Here's what you're actually paying for:

• Design: If you outsource creative, expect to pay anywhere from $100 to $300/hour for freelance design, or bundled creative packages from agencies that run roughly $200 and up per campaign. Some platforms include template-based design for free.
• Printing: Print costs range from about $0.05 to $1.00 per piece depending on format, paper weight, and quantity. Postcards are at the low end; thick letters, dimensional mailers, and catalogs are at the high end. Bulk orders get cheaper per unit. As a real-world reference point, a 4x6 postcard run of 1,000 pieces typically runs around $80 to $100 in print cost alone through major online printers, while a 6x9 postcard at the same quantity runs closer to $230.
• Postage: USPS Marketing Mail (formerly Standard Class) is the discounted bulk tier - it's slower but cheaper and only available when mailing 200+ pieces. First-Class is faster with better tracking but costs more. Postage alone typically runs $0.15 to $0.45 per piece depending on format and volume. For a 1,000-piece 4x6 postcard campaign using presorted First Class, postage alone is roughly $505.
• Mailing service fees: Most platforms charge a flat mailing service fee on top of print and postage - typically $150 to $340 depending on quantity. This covers address processing, CASS certification, postal sorting, and drop-shipping to the postal system.
• All-in cost: A solid 1,000-piece direct mail campaign - decent design, standard postcard, bulk postage - will typically run between $1,500 and $2,500 total. Scale up to 5,000 pieces and you're looking at $3,000 to $5,000 depending on format. That's not cheap, which is exactly why your list has to be tight.

The biggest mistake people make is obsessing over print cost differences between vendors when postage is the dominant expense. A penny cheaper per print doesn't matter if you're mailing to the wrong people.

Direct Mail Service Providers Worth Knowing

Here's a practical breakdown of the services out there, organized by use case:

PostcardMania - Best All-Around for SMBs

PostcardMania is the workhorse option for small and mid-sized businesses. They handle design, print, and mail from one dashboard, and their optional "Everywhere Small Business" add-on automatically runs matching Google, Facebook, and Instagram ads to the same audience you mailed - that multi-touch approach is genuinely smart. If you're doing your first campaign and want turnkey execution, this is the starting point.

Gunderson Direct - Best for B2B and Complex Campaigns

Gunderson Direct is a full-service direct marketing agency that handles strategy, creative, list sourcing, production, and analytics. They've been focused on direct mail for over two decades and work across B2B, financial services, and healthcare. If you're running a serious B2B account-based campaign and want a real partner rather than an order-taker, this is the caliber of firm you want. Pricing is custom - you'll need to request a quote.

Lob - Best for Developers and Automation

Lob is an API-first direct mail platform built for teams that want to trigger physical mail programmatically - think CRM-integrated sequences, transactional mail, or automated follow-up campaigns. They get campaigns from idea to mailbox in days, not weeks, and they integrate with Salesforce, HubSpot, and similar tools. If you want to automate direct mail the way you'd automate an email drip, Lob is the right call. The fact that 76% of B2B marketers say buyers are less likely to engage with digital touchpoints than before makes this kind of automated physical mail trigger genuinely interesting for B2B teams.

NextDayFlyers - Best for Fast Turnaround and Transparent Pricing

NextDayFlyers is one of the more transparent options when it comes to pricing. They publish full cost tables for postcards and brochures - print, mailing service fees, and postage broken out separately - so you know exactly what you're paying before you commit. Their 2-4 business day print turnaround with Presorted First Class delivery (3-5 business days) is solid for time-sensitive campaigns. If you want predictable all-in costs and a fast cycle, they're worth comparing against PostcardMania.

VistaPrint - Best for Low Volume and Design Flexibility

VistaPrint is the no-contract, no-upfront-payment option. You get access to thousands of postcard templates, can upload your own list or buy one in-platform, and filter by demographics, income, location, and B2B industry. It's not the most sophisticated targeting, but it's easy and there's no commitment - good for testing. One useful feature: purchased lists can be reused within the same calendar year at no additional charge, so if you run multiple campaigns to the same geography, you're not re-buying the list each time.

PsPrint - Best for Format Variety

PsPrint covers postcards, brochures, letters, and more. They can source a mailing list in under 15 minutes if you don't have one, and turnaround is two to five days post-print. They also do mail list processing including CASS certification and postal resorting, which keeps your list clean and your postage costs down. PsPrint also has a full EDDM service if you want to run a geographic saturation campaign through the same vendor.

SalesHive - Best for B2B High-Touch Outreach

SalesHive takes a different approach: instead of standard mailers, they focus on sending physical gifts and handwritten letters to high-value B2B targets - think C-suite executives who never respond to cold email. Their view is that when you're going after a small list of priority accounts, a thoughtful physical gift followed by a personalized follow-up will book meetings that standard outbound channels simply can't. It's expensive per contact, but the use case is real.

The Part Everyone Skips: Building the Right List

None of these services matter if your list is garbage. I've watched people spend thousands on beautiful mailers sent to irrelevant addresses and get zero back. The list is 70% of the campaign - it determines whether the right decision-maker even receives the piece.

For B2B direct mail, you have a few options:

• Your own CRM data - If you already have prospect or customer addresses, start here. It's free and highly targeted.
• Purchased lists from the service provider - Every major service (PostcardMania, PsPrint, VistaPrint) can sell you a list segmented by industry, geography, company size, and income. Quality varies. These lists can get expensive the more targeted you get.
• Build your own list from B2B data tools - This is the approach I prefer for outbound-focused campaigns. You can use a B2B lead database like ScraperCity's to filter prospects by job title, seniority, industry, location, and company size - then export the ones you actually want to mail to.

The advantage of building your own list is precision. You're not renting a generic "CEOs in Ohio" segment. You're pulling, say, 500 specific VP-level contacts at manufacturing companies with 50-200 employees in the Midwest - people who match your ICP exactly. That targeting difference is the difference between a 1% response rate and a 4%+ response rate on the same piece of mail. Targeted lists consistently outperform untargeted blasts, and the data is clear on this - roughly 70% of the campaigns that produce meaningful results use targeted prospect lists, not untargeted geographic blasts.

Once you have physical addresses from your prospect list, you can also use this people finder tool to fill in contact gaps for individuals where you only have partial information. And if you're targeting a list where you have names but need to verify or supplement physical addresses, a skip trace lookup can surface address data from partial records - useful for going after hard-to-reach decision-makers.

For local B2B prospecting - say you want to mail to every HVAC contractor or medical practice within a specific radius - ScraperCity's Google Maps Scraper pulls local business data including addresses directly from Maps listings. That's a cleaner starting point for local campaign lists than most purchased list vendors.

Want a systematic approach to sourcing leads before any campaign - direct mail, cold email, or otherwise? Check out my Free Leads Flow System for the full framework.

List Hygiene: Don't Skip This Step

Even a well-sourced list degrades over time. People change jobs, businesses move, addresses change. Mailing to bad addresses is not just a waste of postage - it can hurt your sender reputation with the postal service if your undeliverable rate climbs too high on bulk mailings.

Before you drop a campaign, run your list through address verification. Most major direct mail platforms will do CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) certification automatically, which standardizes addresses to USPS format and flags undeliverable records. If you're managing the list yourself, make sure whatever vendor you use processes CASS before print. Some platforms also run NCOA (National Change of Address) processing, which updates addresses for people who have moved and filed a forwarding order with USPS - that alone can save you meaningful postage on a large campaign.

On the B2B side, the contact data issue is different. You are less worried about addresses changing and more worried about whether the person you are mailing is still at that company and still in that role. Cross-referencing your list against a current B2B contact database before a big campaign drop is a simple way to validate that your decision-maker data is still current.

The Format Question: What Should You Actually Send?

Format drives response rate more than most people realize. Here's how to think about it:

• Postcards - Highest read rate (no envelope to open), cheapest to produce, best for high-volume campaigns with a simple offer or single call-to-action. Great for local businesses, real estate, and events. Standard postcard response rates run around 4-7% for targeted lists, which outperforms most digital display advertising.
• Letters in envelopes - Feel more personal and formal. Better for B2B, financial services, and offers that require explanation. Handwritten addressing on the envelope dramatically increases open rates. According to the Association of National Advertisers, oversized envelopes actually achieve the highest response rate of any direct mail format - above postcards - so do not automatically default to the cheapest option if you're going after a short, high-value list.
• Dimensional mailers - Boxes, tubes, unusual packages. Expensive per piece but impossible to ignore. SalesHive-style physical gifts fall into this category. Use these for a short list of high-value targets where the math justifies the cost.
• Brochures and catalogs - Best for complex products where the prospect needs detail before deciding. Heavier format means higher postage, so make sure the lifetime value of the customer justifies it. Brochure campaigns run higher per-piece costs - a 1,000-piece trifold campaign can run $1,250 to $1,400 all-in on the low end, scaling up from there.

For B2B cold outreach, I'd start with a high-quality letter - not a postcard. A postcard screams mass marketing. A personalized letter in an envelope with a handwritten name (or at least a printed name that reads personal) signals effort and specificity. Adding the recipient's actual name to the piece can increase response rates by up to 135% compared to generic addressing - that's not a small lift.

What Good Direct Mail Copy Actually Looks Like

Most direct mail copy is terrible. It leads with the company, talks about features, and buries the offer in the last paragraph. Here is the framework that actually works:

Lead with a problem or outcome, not your company name. The first line your prospect reads should immediately communicate that this piece is relevant to them. "If you're a [specific role] dealing with [specific problem], this is for you" beats "Introducing [Company Name]" every time.

One offer, one CTA. Direct mail is not a brochure. It is a trigger. The goal is one specific action - scan this QR code, call this number, visit this URL. Multiple CTAs dilute response. Pick one and make it obvious.

Personalization matters. Beyond just adding their name, the best-performing B2B direct mail references something specific to the recipient's situation - their industry, their geography, a trigger event (new funding, expansion, hiring surge). You cannot do this at scale with a purchased list, but you can with a well-built ICP-targeted list where you have enough context on the prospect.

Short body copy for postcards, longer for letters. A postcard has maybe 50-100 words of effective real estate. Use them on the offer and the CTA, not the company backstory. A letter can go longer - three short paragraphs is the sweet spot - but every paragraph has to earn its place.

The PS line is always read. In letter format, the postscript at the bottom gets disproportionate attention. Use it to restate your single strongest benefit or create urgency around the offer. It is not an afterthought - it is prime real estate.

Pairing Direct Mail with Digital Outreach

Direct mail works best as part of a multi-channel sequence, not as a standalone push. Campaigns integrating direct mail with online ads have shown dramatically stronger sales performance compared to online-only campaigns - the physical-plus-digital combination creates the kind of multi-touch presence that builds genuine familiarity in a way that a single channel simply cannot. 84% of marketers report that direct mail improves multichannel campaign performance when layered with digital.

Here's a sequence that works:

1. Send a targeted physical letter to your prospect list - something short, specific, and benefit-driven with a clear CTA (book a call, scan a QR code, visit a URL).
2. Follow up with a cold email sequence referencing the letter: "I sent you something last week - did it land?"
3. If they visit your tracking URL but don't convert, trigger a digital retargeting sequence via Google Display or Facebook.

The combination of physical + email + digital creates the kind of multi-touch presence that builds genuine familiarity. One postcard does almost nothing. A coordinated three-channel sequence over 2-3 weeks moves people.

For the cold email side of this sequence, tools like Instantly or Smartlead handle the email automation so you're not managing that manually.

If you want a structured strategy for the outbound side of this, grab my Best Lead Strategy Guide - it covers how to sequence channels for maximum impact.

Timing and Frequency: When to Mail and How Often

Timing is an underrated variable in direct mail campaign performance. B2B response rates tend to peak toward the end of quarters when budgets are being evaluated and spending decisions are getting made. B2C campaigns peak around the holidays. If you are running B2B outbound, dropping your first campaign in the final month of a fiscal quarter - and following up with email in the same window - can meaningfully lift response versus mailing at a random point mid-quarter.

On frequency: one mailer is almost never enough. The businesses that see consistent results from direct mail treat it as a sequence, not a one-shot event. A prospect who receives three coordinated touches over six weeks - a letter, a follow-up postcard, and a personalized email referencing the first two pieces - is dramatically more likely to respond than one who received a single piece and never heard from you again. Persistence and consistency are what separate direct mail campaigns that produce pipeline from the ones that get chalked up as wasted spend.

Most direct mail responses arrive within two to four weeks of delivery, with the highest concentration in the first week. For B2B and high-consideration purchases, you may see responses trickle in for six to eight weeks. Build your follow-up cadence around that window so you are catching people when they are most primed to respond.

How to Track Whether It's Working

One of the legitimate complaints about direct mail is attribution. Here's how to solve it:

• Unique landing pages or QR codes per campaign - Give each mailing a URL or QR code that only appears on that piece. Any traffic to that URL is attributable to the mail campaign. 82% of marketers who track direct mail response rates use online tracking mechanisms like QR codes or specific campaign URLs - it is the standard now, not an advanced move.
• Dedicated phone numbers - Use call tracking numbers (tools like WhatConverts handle this well) so inbound calls from the campaign are tracked separately.
• Coupon or offer codes - Unique codes on mail pieces make it easy to track redemption, especially in e-commerce or retail contexts.
• A/B testing - Split your list in half, send two different messages or formats, and compare response rates. This is how you iterate to a winning campaign rather than guessing.

Don't skip tracking. If you can't measure it, you can't improve it - and direct mail campaigns are too expensive to run blind. The good news is that the tooling to measure physical mail has gotten genuinely good. You do not have to guess whether it is working.

Industry-Specific Considerations

Not all industries perform the same with direct mail, and tailoring your approach to your specific vertical makes a real difference.

Real estate: Direct mail is one of the most reliable channels in real estate prospecting. If you are targeting homeowners, absentee owners, or expired listings, a property search tool can surface owner contact data including mailing addresses. For agent-to-agent or agent-to-buyer outreach, ScraperCity's Zillow Agents Scraper pulls agent contact information that you can feed directly into a mailing campaign.

Home services and contractors: EDDM works here if you want neighborhood saturation - every homeowner in a zip code is a potential customer for HVAC, roofing, or landscaping services. But for more targeted contractor-to-contractor or vendor outreach, an Angi scraper can pull contractor contact data segmented by trade and geography.

E-commerce and retail: Direct mail to existing customers with personalized offers (loyalty rewards, replenishment reminders, seasonal promos) consistently outperforms cold prospect mailings in this vertical. Response rates for house lists - meaning your own customers - run 5-9%, compared to 4-5% for cold prospect lists. If you have a customer base and are not mailing to it, you are leaving money on the table.

Local business prospecting: If you are building lists of local businesses to reach - restaurants, salons, medical offices, gyms - the Google Maps Scraper is the fastest way to pull a targeted, address-complete list by category and geography without paying for a list rental that may be stale.

The Bottom Line on Direct Mail Campaign Services

Direct mail is not a set-it-and-forget-it channel. The businesses winning with it right now are the ones treating it like precision outbound - tight lists, specific messaging, multi-channel follow-up, and disciplined measurement. The ones losing are blasting generic postcards at purchased lists and expecting magic.

The fundamentals are not complicated: build a targeted list of the right people, send them a piece that is relevant to their situation with one clear offer, follow up through a second channel, and track everything. Run that process consistently and it compounds.

If you're running direct mail for B2B lead generation specifically, start by building a clean, targeted list of decision-makers. Get their contact data from ScraperCity's B2B database, filtered to your exact ICP - then layer on direct mail as a high-attention touchpoint in a broader outbound sequence.

For a deeper look at how to build outbound systems that actually scale, check out the Daily Ideas Newsletter - I share tactical breakdowns regularly.

And if you want hands-on help building and executing this kind of multi-channel outbound strategy, I cover it inside Galadon Gold.