What the published numbers say
| Measure | Result |
|---|---|
| Advertising pieces read by a household member | 51% |
| Set aside to read later | 10% |
| Discarded without being read | 39% |
| Advertising mail as a share of household mail | 62% |
| Advertising pieces received per household in 2025 | 393 |
Source: USPS 2025 Household Mail Survey. It covers all advertising mail and does not break out EDDM.
The same survey asked how likely people were to respond. Recipients said they were very likely to respond to 25% of advertising mail from companies they already buy from, and to 3% of advertising mail from prospects. That is stated intention, not actual response, but it shows how much a prior relationship matters. An EDDM mailing is mostly to people who do not know you yet.
About the benchmarks you will see quoted
The ANA publishes the best-known direct mail response benchmarks, split between house lists (existing customers) and prospect lists. The report is available to ANA members and we do not republish its figures. Many sites quote percentages from it, and when we compared them they disagreed with each other, so we do not repeat any. Two things are true of every such benchmark: it is an average over a sample of marketers, and it is not a forecast for your business. There is no response-rate benchmark for EDDM specifically.
“Response rate” itself needs a definition. USPS’s tutorial defines it as a measure of how many customers reacted to the mailpiece, counted through tracking such as a dedicated phone number or QR code. We use: responses you can trace to the mailing, divided by pieces mailed. See how to track results.
Work out your own break-even instead
Take our 5,000-home mailing at $2,337.20 all in. The table shows how many new customers it must win to cover its cost at different profits per customer (what you keep after your costs, over the life you count), and the response rate that implies. This is arithmetic on your own numbers, not a forecast.
| Profit per new customer | Customers needed to break even | Response rate needed |
|---|---|---|
| $50 | 47 | 0.94% |
| $100 | 24 | 0.48% |
| $250 | 10 | 0.20% |
| $500 | 5 | 0.10% |
Customers needed is the mailing cost divided by profit per customer, rounded up. Response rate is that number divided by homes mailed.
The point is the shape: a business that makes $250 on a new customer needs about one household in 500 to become a customer; a business that makes $50 needs far more. EDDM works for businesses whose customers are worth a lot and live close by.