Marketing · How-to

Postcards and door hangers for contractors: how to market to the neighbors of every job

After each job, mail a postcard to the few hundred homes around it with USPS Every Door Direct Mail, or have your crew hang door hangers on front doors (never in or on mailboxes, which federal law and USPS rules reserve for stamped mail). Use a real photo from the job, one dated offer, and a phone number used only on that card. Retail EDDM postage is 26 cents a piece, printing extra.

By Eric Smith, founder of Outfitter AI and a former general contractor · Prices checked October 4, 2026

Why “we just worked on your street” mail works

The homes around a job you just finished are the warmest strangers you’ll ever market to. They saw your truck. Their houses were built the same year, by the same builder, with the same furnace, the same roof and the same 25-year-old water heater. If one house on the block needed it, the next three probably will soon.

A neighbor mailing is a postcard or door hanger sent to the 50 to 500 homes around a job, within a week or two of finishing it. It works for nearly every trade:

• Roofing and siding: after a hail or wind job, the whole subdivision took the same storm.
• HVAC and plumbing: same-age equipment, same water, same failure points.
• Lawn, snow and cleaning: one more stop on a street you’re already on costs almost nothing in drive time.
• Painting, fencing and remodeling: a finished job is a showroom the neighbors walk past every day.

A simple rhythm that fits a small shop:

1. While the job is running: ask the homeowner if you may mention their street, or their house number, on a card. Most say yes; some prefer you don’t, and that’s fine.
2. On the last day: take a clean “after” photo from the street, the angle a neighbor would see.
3. Within a week: door hangers on the closest 30 to 60 homes, or order the postcard for the surrounding routes.
4. Three to four weeks later: a second card to the same homes with a different photo. A single card is easy to miss; the second one is often when the call comes.
5. Each month: pick your best two or three jobs and repeat. Don’t mail around every job; mail around the ones you want more of.

You have two ways to reach those homes: the Post Office, through Every Door Direct Mail, or your own crew walking door hangers. Each has its own rules. Mail is stage six in the full contractor marketing guide, and it works best alongside a referral program aimed at the same street.

How Every Door Direct Mail works, step by step

With Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM), USPS delivers your card to every address on the carrier routes you choose. There’s no mailing list to buy; pieces are addressed to “Postal Customer” [1].

1. Find the routes. In the EDDM Online Tool, type the address of the job you just finished. The map shows carrier routes around it, and you can choose residential-only routes and filter by age, household size and income [2].
2. Pick the routes that match. The tool shows how many homes each route has. Choose the route the job is on plus the next one or two over, not the whole ZIP.
3. Check the count. A Retail EDDM mailing needs at least 200 pieces and can’t go over 5,000 per day per ZIP Code [1][2].
4. Print to an EDDM size (see the next section) with the EDDM Retail indicia, which USPS says has no set size but must be larger than half an inch square [1].
5. Bundle the cards in stacks of 50 to 100, no taller than 6 inches [1].
6. Pay and drop off online or at the Post Office, then bring the bundles to the Post Office that serves those routes [1].

If you’d rather skip the bundling, many printers will print, bundle and deliver to the Post Office for you, for a higher per-piece price.

EDDM size rules

A standard 4x6 postcard won’t go out as Retail EDDM. The piece has to qualify as a flat. Here are the Retail EDDM requirements from USPS [2]:

In practice, a 6.25x11 or 6x11 card clears the length rule, and an 8.5x11 or 9x12 card gives you room for photos. Use the Mailpiece Size Checker on the USPS EDDM page before you print [1].

Door hangers: the rules, and the mailbox is off limits

Door hangers skip postage entirely, which is exactly why the mailbox is off limits. Federal law makes it an offense to knowingly put mailable matter with no postage paid, including circulars and sale bills, into a letter box approved by the Postal Service, with intent to avoid postage; violators are fined [3]. USPS rules go further: mail receptacles may be used only for matter bearing postage, and that covers items placed on, attached to, hung from or put inside the box [4].

• Not in the mailbox, not on it, not tucked in the flag. Hang it on the front door handle.
• Respect “No Soliciting” signs. Skip those houses.
• Check your city. Some towns and HOAs limit handbills, require a solicitor permit or ban flyers on cars. Call the city clerk once and write down the answer.
• Don’t leave litter. No loose flyers on steps or windshields that blow into the street.
• Walk it in daylight, in company clothes, with the truck parked where people can see the name.

If a homeowner opens the door: “Hi, I’m with Peak Roofing. We just replaced the roof at 412, three doors down, and we’re letting neighbors know we’re in the area this week. I’ll leave this on the door. No pitch.”

Door hangers fit lawn, snow, gutter and window crews best: low cost per job, and a crew is already walking the street.

Design checklist for a card that gets a call

A postcard gets a few seconds between the mailbox and the recycling bin. Design for that glance.

• One headline that names the street or neighborhood. “We just replaced a furnace on Juno Avenue.”
• A real photo of that job, or one like it from nearby. Not stock.
• One offer, with a date it ends.
• The phone number large, on both sides, and a QR code for people who’d rather not call.
• Your face or your crew, with a first name.
• Proof: your Google rating and review count as they actually stand, years in business, license number where your state requires it on ads.
• Plenty of white space and type big enough to read without glasses.
• The back side leaves room for the indicia and the “Postal Customer” line.

Offers that fit each trade

The offer gives a homeowner a reason to call now instead of “someday.” Keep it small and specific. Some examples you can adapt:

HVAC: “Your neighbors’ furnaces on Linden Street are the same age as yours. Fall tune-up for Linden-area homes, booked by November 15.”

Roofing: “We’re replacing roofs on your block after the June hail. Ask for a roof inspection with photos while our crew is already here.”

Lawn care: “We mow four yards on your street every Thursday. Join the route and your first cut is half price.”

Plumbing: “Most water heaters in Oak Hills were installed in the same few years. Get yours checked before it leaks. Flush and inspection, this month.”

Painting: “See the Garcias’ house at 220 Elm? That’s ours. Exterior estimates on your street this month, with a color consult included.”

Price questions will follow. Have an answer ready; see how to answer price questions on the phone.

Track every card back to a booked job

1. Put a tracking phone number on the card, one that forwards to your normal line and isn’t printed anywhere else. Every call to it came from the mailing. Call tracking for contractors walks through the setup.
2. Make the QR code point to a page with a tag such as ?utm_source=postcard&utm_campaign=linden-oct, so the visits show up separately in your site stats.
3. Add an offer code (“mention LINDEN”) for people who call your main number anyway.
4. Log each mailing: date, routes, pieces, total cost.
5. Count for 60 days. Some homeowners stick the card on the fridge and call weeks later.

The cost math, with real USPS rates

USPS lists Retail EDDM postage at $0.26 a piece [1]. Printing is extra. PostcardMania, one large printer, publishes 6x11 postcard printing at $0.23 a piece at its low-volume tier, with orders starting at $300 [5]. Here’s a sample neighbor mailing using those two published prices:

An example with USPS and PostcardMania prices checked October 4, 2026, before tax, design and shipping. Your printer’s tiers and your profit per job will differ.

Ask one question before every mailing: if this brings two or three jobs, is that worth it? For a roofer, one job covers it many times over. For a lawn company, the math works only if each new customer stays for several seasons. For more ways to split your spend, see how to set a contractor marketing budget and every marketing option compared.

Common questions

Sources and how we compared

EDDM rates, limits and size rules come from USPS’s EDDM pages; mailbox rules come from 18 U.S.C. §1725 and the USPS Domestic Mail Manual; printing prices come from PostcardMania’s published price page; all were opened October 4, 2026, and the cost table and profit figure are examples.

1. USPS: Every Door Direct Mail
2. USPS: EDDM Online Tool, select routes (includes mailpiece requirements)
3. 18 U.S. Code §1725: Postage unpaid on deposited mail matter (Cornell LII)
4. USPS Domestic Mail Manual 508: Recipient Services, section 3.1 (mail receptacles) — Updated July 12, 2026
5. PostcardMania: Postcard printing prices — Printer’s own published prices

Last updated October 4, 2026. Prices change; if something here is out of date, call or text (507) 628-0400 and we’ll fix it.

Related: Marketing: the full guide · Every marketing option compared · Nextdoor for contractors · Referral programs for contractors