Dan: Hi, everyone, Dan here. Thank you for joining me on this journey to learn the basics of the United States Postal Service’s EDDM service. We've looked at all the major stages of creating a direct mail campaign, including targeting your audience, creating your mailer, and getting it into the right mailboxes. So what's the next step? Results. You want to be able to measure the success of your mailer. Right? The good news is there are a lot of ways that you can do that. And some of them have to do with the information you put on the mailer itself. Joining me to talk about this is someone who has used EDDM to rally communities around live events. David. Welcome.

David: Hi, thanks for having me.

Dan: Thank you so much for joining us. Now you've had some experience with EDDM. Right?

David: I have. I have worked for a nonprofit for years, and we use EDDM to get the word out about our live events.

Dan: It's probably worth noting, since you work for a nonprofit, that while EDDM Retail has a standard rate for all campaigns, EDDM BMU actually has a special rate for nonprofits.

David: Yes. And I would definitely recommend EDDM to any nonprofit looking to spend as little as possible, while also seeing the biggest results they can.

Dan: I understand that you were the creative director for a very successful EDDM campaign. Can you tell us about that? 

David: Yes, I worked on a campaign recently for a series of live events. And we created this beautiful, bright campaign that we knew we had to get into the hands of people in the right communities. So we focused in on mail routes within those communities, and focused in on the right people.

Dan: Makes a lot of sense. How were you able to measure how well the campaign did?

David: Well, we love a QR Code. So we put a QR Code on our mailers. (QR Code is a registered trademark of Denso Wave Inc) And then we used our ticketing website to see what QR Codes were being used. And we had discounts applied to those, as well. The best part, I have to say, is when we would see those spikes because of those QR Codes that were out in the universe, on our mailers,

Dan: Those are definitely tangible results. Must feel good, right?

David: It feels great to know that you're reaching out to the communities you intended to reach out to
right at a critical point. It's also a great example of what info you want to include in your mailer. If you're running a political campaign, a call to action can be measured in increased donations, voter registration, or voter turnout. If you run a business or a restaurant, using coupons can send customers directly to your door. And as you were saying, a QR Code or vanity URL can help measure effectiveness and drive traffic to your website or to your live event. Because EDDM doesn't have to compete with your digital presence. Thank you so much for sharing your story.

David: Thank you. I hope it helps other nonprofits understand how easy and affordable this tool is, and how much they can benefit from it.

Dan: Absolutely. Well, we've had some great conversations with lots of other small business owners during this series. And for all of them, tracking and measuring results was really important. Let's look at their stories and maybe get some ideas for your business. Take a look. So, Abey, what concrete results have you seen from using the EDDM tool?

Abey: Because we’ve been so consistent with our campaigns, agents that I've worked for have become little miniature celebrities in their neighborhood, right? People would see them and say, “Hey, you're that person that sends me those mailers, right?” And it's an easy conversation starter, to segue into the real estate market. Another big thing, because we stuck it out for so long, and because you become the real estate expert by filling them in on the ins and outs of the homes that are selling, people are calling. We're now getting a listing a month. And those sales far outweigh the cost of the mail ad campaigns. It's such a huge return on investment. And it's such a great tool.

Katie: We've had great success with calls to action from our guests. So that would include from a Monday night burger night promotion, telling the guests to bring in the mailer so that we can track the success of those mailers. There's nothing more gratifying than seeing somebody walk in with their mail that they got for the special promotion. One of our concepts when we first opened was to attract customers that maybe weren’t in the surrounding area. We're in a college area. To attract some of our families and people that live in a different part of town, we were able to use the EDDM tool to customize those specific demographics and specific ZIP Code areas. And it was just awesome to see on our opening nights such a beautiful mix of families and professionals and college students really enjoying what we had built. (Data is based on prior reports of the U.S. Census Bureau)

Tammeca: I physically see my clients walking into my studio with the EDDM mailers in their hands. We're cutting through all the noise online and really meeting them at home where they need to see us and so we'd see them walk into our studio with the mailers in hand, sign up for a membership, and we always see that spike and increase in membership after we do a mailer.

Dan: A piece of mail can create a business-to-consumer connection in a way that no other medium can match. And I know this from experience. Believe it or not, I've run a successful EDDM campaign myself. Every month I hosted a different dog rescue event in New York City. Our campaigns targeted a demographic that was local to my neighborhood. It was completely affordable. We spent almost nothing to advertise to our community. People had fun and it helped make an impact. It's stories like these that are the best way to measure success. Well, that's a wrap on this series. Click on the links in the description to learn more about EDDM and thank you so much for watching.