Mailing list (targeted vs. saturation)

A targeted list is built from people you already know or have chosen on purpose: your past patients, lapsed customers, new movers in your zip code, or a purchased list filtered by income, homeownership, or household type. Because you control exactly who receives a piece, targeted mail is more relevant, easier to track per-person, and usually produces a better return for service businesses with a clear customer profile. A saturation list goes the other way — it covers every door on a postal route, which is what USPS EDDM is built for. Saturation makes sense for businesses whose customer is "anyone nearby": a new restaurant, a grand opening, a grocery store. The tradeoff is precision: you'll pay to reach plenty of people who will never become customers. Most recall, reactivation, and reminder campaigns — the core of local-service marketing — work best with a targeted list built from your own records.