How Much Does a B2B Direct Mail Campaign Cost? A Budget for 100, 500 and 1,000 Accounts

A B2B direct mail campaign to 500 companies costs about $700 USD in postcards if you send one 6×9 card to one person at each. Send to two people at each company, and it's about $1,230. Most first campaigns land somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand dollars.

That's the short answer. The longer one depends on how many accounts you pick, how many people you mail at each, and how many times you mail them. Below is current Yotru pricing, three sample budgets, and the costs that don't show up in the card price.

What a 6×9 postcard costs per card

Prices below are for our 6×9 Signature postcard, per card, excluding tax. Orders start at 100 cards, and the price per card drops as the order grows.

Mailing in the Netherlands? Cards there run from $2.42 USD each at 100 cards down to $1.24 at 5,000.

The three numbers that set your budget

Your card count is simple multiplication:

• Accounts. How many companies you want to reach.
• Contacts per account. One person, or the two or three people involved in the decision. More on how many decision-makers to contact.
• Waves. How many times you mail the same list. A short sequence of two or three cards often lands better than one, because you rarely know the perfect week.

Accounts × contacts × waves = cards. Then match each wave's card count to the price table.

Sample budgets for 100, 500 and 1,000 accounts

These use US pricing and assume each wave is ordered separately.

100 accounts: a test you can afford to learn from

A hundred well-chosen accounts is enough to test a message and see who responds. It's the right size when each customer is worth a lot, or when you're not yet sure which offer will work. Expect to judge it on conversations started, not on a statistically clean response rate.

500 accounts: the most common first campaign

Five hundred accounts gives sales a steady stream of follow-ups without burying them. Mailing two people per company pushes you into the 1,000-card tier, where the price per card drops to $1.23.

1,000 accounts: when your list is proven

A thousand accounts makes sense once a smaller test has shown you which message and which roles respond. Scaling before that mostly scales your guesses. Here's when it makes sense to scale.

Costs that sit outside the card price

The card is the easy part to price. These are the parts teams forget:

• The list. Finding the right companies, the right people and verified addresses takes time or money. You can bring your own list, or have Yotru build it.
• The offer. If your card promises a free review, audit or sample, that's real time your team spends on every person who says yes.
• Follow-up. Someone has to call or email the people who scan, ideally the same day. Budget the hours, not just the cards.
• Tax. All prices above exclude tax.

Is it worth it? Compare cost to one customer

Price per card is the wrong number to stare at. The question is what one new customer is worth. If a customer is worth $20,000 a year, a $2,460 campaign only needs one win to pay for itself many times over. If a customer is worth $200, a postcard to cold accounts probably isn't the right channel. We walk through the math in how to calculate B2B direct mail ROI.

How many customers a campaign brings in depends on the campaign, the industry and the offer. Response rates of 1–5% are common for B2B and 2–10% for B2C, and fast follow-up on each scan is what turns responses into meetings. To see estimates for your own numbers, try the ROI calculator on our homepage.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a B2B direct mail campaign cost?

For a 6×9 postcard, a first campaign usually costs a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in cards. With Yotru, 500 cards cost $700 USD and 1,000 cards cost $1,230 USD, excluding tax.

What is the cost per postcard for B2B direct mail?

Yotru's 6×9 Signature postcard ranges from $2.07 USD per card at 100 cards to $1.05 at 5,000 in the US, and from $2.95 to $1.50 CAD in Canada.

What is the minimum order for a postcard campaign?

Yotru orders start at 100 cards, which is enough for a focused test on a small, high-value list.

How many accounts should a first direct mail campaign target?

Many teams start with 100 to 500 accounts. That's enough to learn which message works without spending heavily on a list or offer you haven't tested.

Should I mail one person or several people at each company?

Two or three relevant people per company usually gives your card a better chance of being discussed. It doubles or triples the card count, so plan for it in the budget.

Is direct mail more expensive than email?

Per message, yes. Per conversation started, it can be competitive, because a short, targeted list of named people tends to get more attention than another cold email.

What costs should I budget for besides the postcards?

Building and verifying the list, delivering whatever your card offers, your team's follow-up time, and tax.

References

• Canada Post: Smartmail Marketing increases the impact of your direct mail
• JICMAIL: Measuring how mail is engaged with
• Yotru Knowledge Base: How large should a direct mail campaign be?