Direct mail remains a surprisingly effective marketing channel. Digital marketing gets lots of attention, but direct mail, also known as snail mail, generates brand awareness more effectively. For instance, 80% of recipients notice direct mail compared to 50% who say they notice digital ads. The best direct mail services provide everything needed for your direct mail marketing campaigns, from design and printing services to mailing lists and delivery.
Here are the five best direct mail services for small business marketing that deliver high-quality at a low cost.
- Vistaprint: Best overall direct mailing and printing services for businesses of any size
- 48HourPrint: Most affordable direct mail marketing printing and mailing service for brochures
- Moo: Best service for brands that want top-notch designs and high-end marketing materials
- Overnight Prints: Super-fast turnaround times for business mail campaigns in a pinch
- PsPrint: Best direct mail service for more than postcards
Direct Mail Marketing Service Providers Compared
 |  |  |  |  | |
Starting Price for 100 Standard-size Postcards | $27.06 (printing only) $91.52 (with mailing service) | $31.60 (printing only) $203.94 (with mailing for 200 postcards) | $84 (printing only) | $34.95 (printing only) $111.95 (with mailing service) | $34.33 (printing only) $283.46 (with mailing service) |
Minimum Order Quantity | N/A | Printing: 25 postcards Mailing: 200 postcards | 25 postcards | 25 postcards | Printing: 50 postcards Mailing: 500 postcards |
Printing Service | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Mailing Service | ✔ | ✔ | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Prebuilt Templates and Designs | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Turnaround Time | 4 to 12 business days | 3 business days | 6 to 10 business days | 1 to 6 business days | 2 to 5 business days |
Postcards | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Brochures and Pamphlets | ✔ | ✔ | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Catalogs | ✔ | ✔ | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Folders | ✔ | ✔ | N/A | ✔ | ✔ |
Ability to Die Cut | ✔ | ✔ | N/A | N/A | ✔ |
Unique Features or Offerings | In-house graphic designers Targeted mailing lists | Mails more than postcards Three postcard sizes | Unique postcard sizes are available Multiple finish options | Custom photo printed cookies | Targeted mailing lists Multiple product types can be mailed |
Let’s take a look at the pros, cons, and unique features of each of the best direct mail marketing services for small businesses:
1. Vistaprint: Best Overall Direct Mail Service
Vistaprint
What We Like
- Thousands of postcard designs
- Multiple product offerings
- Easy-to-use postcard design tools
- Targeted mailing list purchasing
- 24-hour customer support
- 16 different types of marketing materials
What's Missing
- Only offers mailing services for postcards, unlike PsPrint, which offers the most variety of mailed materials
What It's Best For
- Start-to-finish direct mailing services for postcard marketing campaigns
- Businesses with small mailing lists—no minimum quantity order requirement
Vistaprint is one of the best-known online printing services and the go-to for business card printing for many companies. Because Vistaprint offers an affordable, all-in-one direct mailing service for business postcards that’s easy to use from start to finish, it’s our top pick for best direct mailing service.
Choose from thousands of premade business postcard templates to customize with your branding and marketing message or upload your own design. Alternatively, you can also hire Vistaprint’s in-house design team. Next, upload your mailing list or buy a targeted mailing list from Vistaprint which then prints, addresses, stamps, and mails your postcard campaign.
Direct Mail Design Examples
Sample Pricing & Features
Standard Postcard | Trifold Brochure | 8-page Catalog | |
|---|---|---|---|
Specifications | Full-color, standard paper weight, glossy front paper stock | Full-color, standard glossy paper stock, 8.5”x11” (unfolded) | Full-color, budget glossy, saddle stitched |
100 Pieces | $27.06 | $104.70 | $355 |
250 Pieces | $42.06 | $165.74 | $530 |
500 Pieces | $50 | $215.37 | $833 |
1,000 Pieces | $68.75 | $275.19 | $1,080 |
5,000 Pieces | $183.40 | $614.19 | $4,680 |
Our Expert Opinion
Vistaprint is the best direct mailing service for any small business’ postcard marketing campaign. It’s especially good for direct mail newbies because it provides everything you need, including mailing lists, at an affordable price and with discounts on postage. Vistaprint is also ideal for designing and printing other materials, like brochures and catalogs. However, it only handles direct mailing for postcards, unlike PsPrints, which mails a variety of materials.
2. 48HourPrint: Best for Affordable & Flexible Direct Mailing Services
48HourPrint
What We Like
- Mailing services for postcards, brochures, and folded cards
- Dozens of printable products
- Design tool with integrated stock image search
- Every Door Direct Mail® (EDDM) postcard mailing service available
What's Missing
- 200 minimum for postcard direct mail services
- Outdated design tool and no design templates, in stark contrast to Moo
- No for-hire design team like Vistaprint
What It's Best For
- Affordable printing and direct mail services, including EDDM
At 48HourPrint you can get a myriad of printed marketing materials including postcards, catalogs, tradeshow displays, and business cards—just to name a few. It’s one of the most affordable small business printing services, especially for brochures. In addition to direct mailing services for postcards, 48HourPrint also prints and mails business brochures and folded cards.
48HourPrint has a design tool, but it’s outdated compared to other printers and direct mail services, like Moo. Since it doesn’t have premade templates, you’ll have to source postcard, catalog, and brochure design ideas online to design your own. Alternatively, you could hire one of Fiverr’s professional graphic design artists to create a design for your marketing campaign.
Direct Mail Design Examples
Sample Pricing & Features
Standard Postcard | Trifold Brochure | 8-page Catalog | |
|---|---|---|---|
Specifications | Full-color, standard paper weight, glossy front paper stock | Full-color, standard glossy paper stock, 8.5”x11” (unfolded) | Full-color, budget glossy, saddle stitched |
100 Pieces | $31.60 | $66.68 | $236.34 |
250 Pieces | $53.41 | $133.36 | $463.59 |
500 Pieces | $63.22 | $179.68 | $507.02 |
1,000 Pieces | $76.30 | $275.55 | $582.77 |
5,000 Pieces | $185.32 | $680.78 | $1,112.01 |
Our Expert Opinion
48HourPrint’s pricing is comparable to Vistaprint’s, and products like catalogs and brochures even cost less. Like PsPrints, 48HourPrint provides direct mail services for materials other than business postcards. It also offers Every Door Direct Mail, which is an affordable way for a small business with no mailing list to target every address in a city or ZIP code.
Note: Your first purchase at 48HourPrint includes a promo code of up to 65% off that can be used for most products and is good through 2024.
3. MOO: Best for Top-notch Design of Direct Mail Marketing Materials
MOO
What We Like
- Hundreds of beautifully designed templates
- Print up to 25 different designs in the same run of postcards
- Low minimum product quantity
- Multiple luxury finishes available
What's Missing
- No mailing services, unlike Vistaprint and PsPrint
- Some templates only available for specific finishes
- Limited variety of products
- Expensive—more than double the price of Vistaprint
What It's Best For
- Small businesses that want to impress with high quality and beautifully designed marketing materials for direct mail campaigns
- Luxury brands
Moo may be best known for its unusual printed card sizes. You can get mini or square business cards, square postcards, half-sheet postcards, and oversize postcards up to 6”x9”.
Moo also offers modern, slick templates to give you a jump-start on your direct mail marketing campaign designs. Other direct mail services and printers give you options for paper stock thickness, or weight, but Moo offers luxurious materials meant to make people notice the feel and look, such as layered stock with a bright color in the center.
Another unique feature of Moo is the option to print up to 25 different designs in each order (e.g., 25 different designs for 100 postcards would be four postcards of each design). Unfortunately, you’ll have to take care of the addressing, postage, and mailing, since Moo only provides printing services.
Direct Mail Design Examples
Sample Pricing & Features
Standard Postcard | Trifold Brochure | 8-page Catalog | |
|---|---|---|---|
Specifications | Full-color, standard paper weight, glossy front paper stock | Full-color, standard glossy paper stock, 8.5”x11” (unfolded) | Full-color, budget glossy, saddle stitched |
100 Pieces | $148 | N/A | N/A |
250 Pieces | $370 | N/A | N/A |
500 Pieces | $740 | N/A | N/A |
1,000 Pieces | $1,480 | N/A | N/A |
5,000 Pieces | $7,400 | N/A | N/A |
Our Expert Opinion
Although Moo isn’t an all-in-one direct mailing service like Vistaprint, Moo is a great choice for those wanting high-end designs, unique sizes, and luxury finishes. Even with a promo code, it’s still more expensive than budget-friendly competitors Vistaprint or 48HourPrint. But if your top concern is sleek design and high-quality finishes, consider using Moo for direct mail postcards.
4. Overnight Prints: Fastest Turnaround for Direct Mail Materials
Overnight Prints
What We Like
- Quickest turnaround, as fast as next day
- Low minimum order requirement
- More than two dozen different printed products
- Hundreds of templates
- Cookie printing—get your logo or message printed on edible cookies
What's Missing
- Limited direct mailing services
- Pricier than Vistaprint and 48HourPrint
- Doesn’t feel as high-end as Moo
What It's Best For
- Quickest production of printed materials for direct mail campaigns
If you need high-quality direct mail marketing materials ASAP, Overnight Prints can literally have them printed and to your door the next day. It also offers more than two dozen types of printed marketing materials, including sugar cookies and macarons for a truly unique marketing campaign.
Overnight Prints’ direct mail services are limited to postcards and oversized mailers. Plus, if you choose Overnight Prints for mailing, you will need to provide your own mailing list as it doesn’t rent or sell mailing lists.
Direct Mail Design Examples
Sample Pricing & Features
Standard Postcard | Trifold Brochure | 8-page Catalog | |
|---|---|---|---|
Specifications | Full-color, standard paper weight, glossy front paper stock | Full-color, standard glossy paper stock, 8.5”x11” (unfolded) | Full-color, budget glossy, saddle stitched |
100 Pieces | $34.95 | $110.47 | $365.12 |
250 Pieces | $76.45 | $141.86 | $546.99 |
500 Pieces | $92.45 | $164.38 | $577.72 |
1,000 Pieces | $128.85 | $239.02 | $939.05 |
5,000 Pieces | $462.95 | $646.70 | $4,727.01 |
Our Expert Opinion
Choose Overnight Prints for your direct mailing marketing campaign when it needs to be printed and sent quickly. Overnight Prints works with you to ensure you get your order when you need it—even if that’s tomorrow. It offers direct mailing services only for postcards and oversized mailers, so if you need to send out something other than postcards, consider PsPrints.
5. PsPrint: Best for Variety of Products for Direct Mail Services
PsPrint
What We Like
- Largest variety of products to ship via direct mail
- Offers targeted mailing lists
- Ships extras to you free (if they fit in one box)
- Multiple sizes of most products available
- Choose production time (1 to 7 business days)
What's Missing
- High printing minimums for postcards, unlike Vistaprint (no minimum order requirement)
- More expensive mailing service than 48HourPrint and Vistaprint, especially with faster production times
- Limited design platform with simple templates
What It's Best For
- Full-service direct mailing solution that ships postcards, brochures, greeting cards, booklets, catalogs, newsletters, and invitations
- Small businesses needing a rush order can choose a fast production time (but at a premium cost)
PsPrint offers direct mail services for seven different types of products, making it a good choice for a small business that wants to send marketing materials other than postcards to customers. Plus, if you don’t have a mailing list, you can purchase a targeted list from PsPrint. And PsPrint will send you any extra prints leftover at no charge, as long as they all fit in one box.
With any PsPrint product, you choose the production time (typically one to seven days), but the cost increases as you shorten production time. You can upload your own design for your direct mail materials or use PsPrint’s design tool and its simple, somewhat limited templates. For more sophisticated designs, consider customizing one of the many premade templates available on Canva.
Direct Mail Design Examples
Sample Pricing & Features
Standard Postcard | Trifold Brochure | 8-page Catalog | |
|---|---|---|---|
Specifications | Full-color, standard paper weight, glossy front paper stock | Full-color, standard glossy paper stock, 8.5”x11” (unfolded) | Full-color, budget glossy, saddle stitched |
100 Pieces | $34.33 | $102.73 | $253.93 |
250 Pieces | $53.56 | $188.96 | $380.41 |
500 Pieces | $59.30 | $221.06 | $401.74 |
1,000 Pieces | $74.86 | $249.23 | $447.97 |
5,000 Pieces | $218.67 | $517.11 | $1,089.32 |
Our Expert Opinion
Like many direct mail services, PsPrint promises high-quality products with a quick turnaround time. However, there are two ways in which it differs from the other business printers, including our top pick, Vistaprint.
PsPrint lets you choose the production speed and will mail more than just postcards to your mailing list. Costs increase based on speed, so expect to pay a premium for PsPrint products and services if you need a rush order. Also, you’ll have to purchase at least 200 postcards to get direct mail services, so it might not be a good fit for budget-conscious small businesses.
How We Evaluated the Best Direct Mail Services
At the basic level, a direct mailing service will print (and usually mail) your business’ marketing materials in a timely manner. To be considered the best, a direct mail service should stand out for its affordability, design options, variety of products, or in-house mailing services. A low minimum quantity order of less than 500 is also important to keep the service affordable.
In addition to meeting our criteria, all the direct mail services here also give you control over design customization, and most offer templates to help you get started. Here are the criteria we used to determine the best direct mail services:
- Affordability
- Minimum order quantity
- Product offering
- Product quality
- Customization capabilities
- Printing and mailing services
- Ease of use
- Turnaround time
All of the best direct mail services we recommend here are excellent options depending on your company’s needs. For example, if the cost to design, print, and mail your marketing materials isn’t your top concern, turnaround time may be, and one service offers next-day delivery. Or you might want an especially high-end design for your direct mail marketing campaign, but don’t mind doing the mailing yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What are examples of direct mail?
Direct mail refers to a physical piece of mail with an advertising or marketing message that’s delivered to your mailing address, usually by the U.S. Post Office (USPS). Booklets with coupons, postcards announcing a grand opening, and credit card offers are all common examples of direct mail. Find more inspiration with 25 direct mail ideas for marketing your business.
Does direct mailing still work?
The short answer is yes. In a recent study, those surveyed said direct mail influences how quickly they make buying decisions. Direct mail influences 83% of shoppers regarding what they buy. Also, shoppers tend to spend more when they receive direct mail—about twice as much as those who don’t get mail. Learn more about email marketing in this guide.
How much does direct mail cost?
When you break down the cost of direct mail, pay attention to costs for ad copywriting and design, mailing lists, postage, and printing. If you have your own mailing list and can do the design yourself, costs for printing and mailing could be less than $1 per piece mailed. With professional design services and high-quality finishes, costs could be as much as $10 per piece.
What is Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM)?
An affordable alternative to using a targeted mailing list for your direct mail marketing campaign is to use an EDDM service. While you won’t be able to target specific demographics like age range or salary, you can target cities and ZIP codes. Read about more local advertising ideas here.
Bottom Line
Direct mail services are an easy, affordable way to advertise your business. The best offer both printing and mailing, as well as templates and design tools. Many also give you the option to buy targeted mailing lists so you can reach your ideal customer. We recommend Vistaprint as the best overall direct mail service for small businesses. It’s affordable and has an intuitive design platform with thousands of business mailer templates to get you started.
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