Door hangers vs postcards: count postage and walking time

Walk door hangers to homes on blocks you already drive. Mail postcards if those homes are spread out or you don’t have time to walk. To compare door hangers vs postcards, count your walking time and postage. Addressed mail goes to the homes you choose. Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM) costs less per piece but goes to every address on a carrier route. Before you order, count how many of those homes you could serve.

Treat published reply rates as someone else’s results

In a 2021 LawnSite thread, a lawn owner reported calls from about half a percent of his EDDM cards, or a little less. He said he booked around 40% of those callers. In a 2023 thread, another operator suggested about a 1% call rate for door hangers.

Don’t put either figure into your job forecast. Count calls, quotes and bookings separately for your own drop. If nobody responds, you still paid for print and postage or spent the afternoon walking.

Check the EDDM route before you print

USPS sends EDDM to every address on a carrier route you choose. EDDM Retail postage is $0.26 per piece as of September 29, 2026, with a 200-piece minimum. An EDDM piece must be flat-size, larger than a standard postcard. Check the size rules on the USPS page and get a printing quote for that size. The USPS route tool can filter by age, income and household size, but it can’t pick only homes that need your service.

Before buying print, count the fitting homes on the routes you would select. If your count shows one fitting address in eight, you will print and mail to the other seven too. EDDM can still make sense, but compare its full print and postage bill with the cost of addressing those homes or walking the blocks.

When a street crosses two carrier routes, you cannot buy EDDM for just that street. Look up both route totals first. Write down the number of usable homes on each route as well as the number of addresses. A route with fewer pieces can still cost more per pool home if only a handful of its houses have pools.

Track three counts: pieces printed, homes that fit your work and replies from those homes. Total replies divided by all EDDM pieces shows the reply rate. It won’t tell you what you spent to reach the specific homes you wanted. Compare that cost with addressed mail too.

Mail only the addresses you pick

For addressed mail, pay for a card at each home on your list rather than each address on a carrier route. A standard retail postcard stamp starts at $0.65 as of September 29, 2026. Check the card dimensions and your mailer’s quote before comparing prices; commercial mail has its own rates and requirements.

Start with houses beside current stops. Inspect which ones could use your service rather than assuming every house on a block fits. A lawn company described mailing customers’ immediate neighbors with a price on the card in a trade association interview. Only quote a price you can stand behind for that property.

Get a price for the whole job before choosing addressed mail. Add the print quote, mail-house setup charge and postage. Make sure each address is deliverable before printing. If your crew is on those blocks this week, price walking them too. Ask for quotes on the same artwork and paper where mail rules allow. Then you can see what each delivery method costs.

Walk hangers when the truck is nearby

A hanger costs printing plus the time it takes to walk the street. Hang it on the door, never in the mailbox: 18 U.S.C. § 1725 makes it a federal offense to knowingly and willfully put unstamped circulars in a mailbox to avoid postage. Also check local solicitation rules and skip “No Soliciting” doors.

Time one block on a day you’re already there. Divide the minutes you spent by the hangers you actually placed, then divide by 60 to get hours per hanger. Multiply by what an hour of your work is worth, then add the print cost per hanger. If the pace changes on a street with long driveways or locked gates, use that street’s pace for the next estimate.

Count crew time as well as your own walking. Whoever carries hangers can’t mow or clean a pool at the same time. If you have an open hour, that time may be easier to spare than it is during a full week. Note doors you skipped because of signs or blocked entry. No hanger was delivered there, so leave those doors out when you calculate the reply rate.

Find out which mailing brought a call

Use a different phone number or QR code for each version if you want to compare them. Keep a simple list of which streets got which piece and when. Ask callers how they heard of you; some will dial the number without scanning. Keep the record through the season instead of treating every late call as unattributed.

With the RouteLeads mail export, each postcard or hanger gets a QR code for its home. The code opens your branded quote page. Compare scans with quote requests by mailer and street. You get contact details only when the homeowner submits the form.

Send before the service days fill

Work back from your first scheduled service week to allow time for printing, mailing and replies. For mowing, send your first drop before the cuts start in your area. If you have room on a particular day, start with houses near that day’s stops. If one drop gets few replies, check what you mailed and whom it reached before sending the same piece again.

Put the service you offer and a way to request a quote on the piece. For nearby homes, include the actual day you work on that street if it is true. Don’t put a fixed price on an uninspected pool or yard just to fill the postcard. If you can give a price after a street-side inspection, note what it includes so a caller knows what they are asking about.

Compare the next drop with your numbers

Fill in this sheet before printing. Put the booking and reply counts in afterward.

	EDDM	Addressed postcards	Door hangers
Pieces	All addresses on selected routes	Selected addresses	Doors you can walk
Postage per piece	USPS EDDM Retail rate cited above	USPS retail postcard rate cited above	None
Print per piece	Your quote, at flat size	Your quote	Your quote
Your time	Bundling and drop-off	Addressing or mail-house setup	Minutes spent walking
Replies and bookings	Count after delivery	Count after delivery	Count after the walk

Example: you want to mail 500 homes on carrier routes with 2,000 addresses in all. At the retail rates above, EDDM postage for all 2,000 is $520. Addressed postcard stamps for the 500 selected homes start at $325. EDDM also needs 2,000 flat-size printed pieces rather than 500 postcards. Hangers need no postage but take walking time.

Postage alone won’t settle it. Add printing and setup fees to each mailing total. For hangers, multiply the hours you walk by what an hour of your work is worth. After the drop, divide each total by the accounts that booked from it. If none booked, record the cost without calculating a cost per account. Note where each new customer lives. A weekly stop next door affects your route differently from a one-off across town.

For a weekly route, compare the drive from each new stop as well as the cost of winning it.