Everything we'd want to know.

We're a Cincinnati-based shared-postcard advertising service for real, local, independent businesses. One card, one slot per trade, delivered to every mailbox in a target neighborhood. You get the reach of a standalone postcard at a fraction of the cost because you share the card with a handful of other non-competing local businesses.

EDDM stands for Every Door Direct Mail — a USPS program that delivers a piece of mail to every residential address on a chosen postal carrier route. No mailing list needed, no addressing, no postage stamps. It's the cheapest way to get physical mail into every home in a specific neighborhood. We handle the paperwork, facing slips, and drop-off to USPS for you.

We're a small, independent Cincinnati print shop that also runs this service. We print every card ourselves on our own 16pt gloss press — no middlemen, no drop-shippers from another state. The same person who answers your email is running the press. We're building this because we're tired of watching local shops hand their ad budgets to Facebook and Google for 'reach' that might not even be real people. Direct mail is honest: you know exactly how many homes saw it.

Independent, locally-owned home-services and consumer businesses in the Cincinnati suburbs. HVAC, roofing, plumbing, electricians, landscapers, painters, concrete, pest control, cleaning, pet services, handyman, windows, gutters, tree work, and similar. If you live or work in the neighborhoods you serve, this is built for you.

National chains and franchises — even if the specific shop is locally owned. This card is a promise to homeowners that every business inside is a real neighbor. We break that promise the moment we let in a corporation with a local address.

Businesses targeting a national or even regional audience. If your customers aren't coming from Mason, West Chester, Loveland, Montgomery, Indian Hill, or the surrounding ZIPs, we're not the right fit. You'd be wasting your slot on homes that'll never call.

B2B-only services with no residential demand. We mail to homeowners — not to office buildings or commercial strips.

Small slots (coupon-style) start at $300. Medium (standard anchor) is $600–$750. Large/Double is $1,000–$1,100. Featured (our largest slot, and the only one that appears on BOTH sides of the card) is $1,500–$1,800. Exact pricing depends on the card size for that specific drop. Full pricing matrix is on the /pricing page.

No. Every slot is a one-time purchase for a specific card drop. We don't auto-renew. We don't auto-charge. When your card mails, your obligation is done. If you want another slot on the next card, you opt in again — nothing renews automatically.

Those are opt-in. If you know you want to run for 3, 6, or 12 months straight, you can commit upfront and save 10%, 15%, or 20%. A 12-month commitment also locks in 'right of first refusal' — if we run a card in your neighborhood and you're committed, your slot is held for you.

Context helps. $600 / 10,000 homes = 6 cents per homeowner. Run the same budget as a Facebook ad and you'd pay ~$15–30 per thousand impressions — except those are scrolled-past pixel views, not physical mail a homeowner holds in their hand.

One booked job (HVAC service call, roof inspection, plumbing fix, painting estimate) typically pays for the entire slot multiple times over. Our ROI calculator on the home page lets you plug your ticket price in and see projected return.

No. The slot price includes ad design, dynamic QR code, scan analytics, proof rounds, and press-ready printing. The only extra is postage — and postage is already baked into our pricing. When we say a slot is $600, the total is $600.

Those are national operations. They stuff 30+ generic ads from anyone who paid — often including your direct competitors on the same page. Homeowners mostly toss them because they feel like junk mail.

We're neighborhood-first, one-business-per-trade, independently owned, and locally printed. Our cards have 8–16 slots max, every advertiser is vetted, and every one is a real local. The homeowner picks ours up because it's a mix of familiar local names, not a pile of coupons.

A solo 10,000-piece EDDM run costs $3,500–$5,000 all-in (design, print, postage, labor). You also do all the design work yourself or hire a freelancer. Shared cards give you the same reach for ~1/6 the price because costs are split across multiple non-competing businesses.

No. That's the whole point. Send us your logo, your offer details (e.g. '$49 tune-up' or '20% off interior painting'), your contact info, and where you want the QR code to send people. We design a clean, readable ad that fits the card's aesthetic. You approve the proof before anything prints. Zero design work required from you.

You can upload your own artwork and we'll work with that — but we'll also tune it to match the card's layout and ensure it hits EDDM print specs (bleed, trim, safe zone, readable at a glance). If your existing design breaks the card's vibe, we'll flag it.

Always. Nothing goes to press without your sign-off. When your proof is ready, you'll get an email with a portal link. You either click Approve, or send us notes and we revise. Unlimited revision rounds within reason.

16-point gloss cover stock, full-color (CMYK), both sides, 300 DPI press-quality. We're printing on our in-house press — no drop-shipping. Cards feel premium in hand, not flimsy.

The printed offer is locked once we press. But your QR code is dynamic — you can change where scans land (your landing page, a different promo, whatever) any time from your portal. No reprint needed. So the 'see our current deals' flow can evolve every month even if the printed card doesn't.

It depends on which card you reserve. Each campaign has a target drop date shown on its listing.

Typical timeline once you reserve: Day 0 — reserve and pay. Day 1–2 — we design your proof. Day 2–4 — you approve (or request revisions). Day 4–6 — full card approved and goes to press. Day 7 — dropped off at USPS. Day 9–15 — USPS delivers to homes. So the normal range is 10–15 days from reservation to mailbox.

USPS typically delivers EDDM mail within 2–8 business days of drop-off at the local Post Office. We schedule drop-offs for midweek so most pieces hit mailboxes before the weekend, when homeowners are more likely to check mail and act on it.

Nothing goes to press without your approval, period. If you don't have time to review before the card's print deadline, we'll hold your slot for the next card (at no extra charge) or issue a refund. Life happens — just let us know.

We're running multiple campaigns per month across different neighborhoods. Not every ZIP gets a card every month — we start a new card in a ZIP only when enough advertisers are interested. You'll see the active + upcoming cards on the campaigns page of your portal.

Honest answer: it depends on your offer. Direct mail response rates for EDDM-style cards typically run 0.5–2% when the offer is strong and relevant. At 2%, 10,000 pieces = 200 inquiries. At 0.5%, 20 inquiries. Either way, even a single booked job usually pays for the slot.

What matters most: clear offer, low-friction response (phone number + QR), and relevance (we're already filtering by neighborhood + trade exclusivity for you).

We can't promise specific ROI — nobody can. We can promise every piece lands in a real mailbox and every scan lands in your analytics dashboard.

Every slot gets a dynamic QR code. Every scan lands in your portal with city, time, and date. You see 30-day trends, top cities, and time-of-day patterns so you can match response to your mailing date.

Beyond the QR: we recommend adding a unique offer code or phone number to printed ads so phone-call leads are traceable too. Mention us when you answer the phone: 'Where did you hear about us?' is still the highest-fidelity tracking that exists.

Strong: specific dollar amount or percentage off, clear end date, one obvious thing to do next (call, scan, visit). 'Free A/C tune-up with repair (ends June 30)' beats 'call for spring deals.'

Weak: vague ('professional service'), no price anchor, no deadline, no call-to-action. Homeowners are skimming — give them a reason to stop.

We'll coach you on this when we design your proof. We've printed enough cards to know what pulls.

We'll talk through why. Was the offer too soft? Wrong month (HVAC in Feb, landscaping in Jan)? Wrong neighborhood for your price point? We'll tune the next one. Most businesses that run 3 cards in a row see compounding recognition — the second and third drops pull 1.5–2x the first because homeowners are seeing your brand repeatedly.

QR scans start within 24 hours of delivery. Phone calls within 2–4 days. Booked jobs typically 3–14 days after delivery, depending on your trade's sales cycle. Roofing has long cycles (quotes, inspections, approvals); plumbing and A/C are often same-day. Budget 2–4 weeks before drawing conclusions.

One business per trade category, per card. So if you reserve as an HVAC company, no other HVAC company can get on the same card. Same for roofing, plumbing, electric, etc. The card the homeowner opens has exactly ONE option for your trade — you.

First come, first served. The moment one company reserves the HVAC slot, that slot is taken. The second company is offered the next available card in the same or adjacent neighborhood. We keep a short waitlist for high-demand trades so you know if you're queueing for future cards.

Adjacent-trade exclusivity is case by case. Pure electrician and pure handyman coexist fine. But if your handyman listing says 'also does electrical and plumbing,' we'd flag the conflict with our electrician advertiser. We default to keeping it clean — nobody wants to be that business on the card.

Allowed if the slots serve different offers. Some contractors buy a Featured slot for brand + Featured Cover exposure, then a small slot with a specific coupon. We don't stop you. You just can't double-up in a way that squeezes out a legitimate competitor.

Totally fine. The portal requires two actions total: (1) approve your proof (one click), and (2) optionally change where your QR link goes. That's it. If you can read an email and click a button, you can use this. We've helped 60-year-old plumbers with flip phones use it successfully.

Email us. If we haven't started design yet, we refund in full. If we've designed the proof but it hasn't printed, we refund minus a small design fee. If we've printed, the slot is used up — but we'll credit you on the next card if you want to reschedule. No games.

Yes. Email hello@theneighborhoodpros.com with your mailing address and we'll drop a physical sample in the mail to you. Looking at it in hand is very different from looking at mockups online.

Different game, same audience. Digital ads reach people who are searching for you or already interested. Physical mail reaches the 85%+ of homeowners who aren't searching but might consider you if reminded. The two stack — customers who see your Google ad AND your postcard convert at much higher rates than either alone.

Also: Facebook and Google are a race to the bottom on cost. Direct mail doesn't get bid up every quarter. Your $600 postcard next month costs $600 — not $750 because the algorithm got tighter.

Yes, and we encourage it. Repeated visual identity builds recognition. We'll archive your approved design and offer it as the starting point for the next card — you just update the offer details or swap the coupon code. Most advertisers iterate lightly each month rather than starting over.

We mail the card either way as long as a minimum number of slots are filled. An empty slot is replaced with a tasteful placeholder ('space for rent — next month?') so the card still looks intentional. Your ad never appears next to an obviously empty hole.

Good problem to have. Some of our advertisers graduate to solo EDDM runs once they have volume to justify $3k+ standalone postcards. We can print those for you too — same shop, same press. Graduating means you've made this work; we're proud of you.

Honest catch: direct mail takes patience. Your first card may under-perform because homeowners don't know your brand yet. The second, third, and fourth builds recognition and compounds. If you want instant gratification, Facebook ads will give you dashboard numbers faster — but those numbers aren't necessarily converting. Direct mail rewards consistency.