Every Door Direct Mail in US survey research: An anonymous census approach to mail survey sampling

Abstract

Mail surveys remain a popular method of eliciting attitudinal information, but declining response rates motivate inquiry into new, lower cost methods of contacting potential respondents. This work presents methodological findings from a medium-sized (~12,000 addresses) mail survey testing a United States Postal Service direct mail product called Every Door Direct Mail as a low-cost approach to anonymous mail survey distribution. The results suggest that under certain conditions, Every Door Direct Mail can be a useful approach for mail survey distribution, with response rates similar to those observed with analogous first-class mailing approaches but lower cost per response. As a tool for postal carrier-route saturation mailing that does not use names or addresses, Every Door Direct Mail is potentially useful for researchers who work in small, specific geographies or value or require anonymity. The results from this work suggest good performance on demographics and socially undesirable answers for Every Door Direct Mail relative to addressed mailings. The major disadvantages include an inability to conduct household-level probability sampling, an inability to customize nonresponse follow-up, and minimum mailing sizes associated with the postal carrier route saturation requirement. Every Door Direct Mail is unlikely to become a major tool for survey researchers, but it could be useful in niche applications. This study introduces Every Door Direct Mail to the survey methodology literature and presents empirical data intended to help researchers considering using Every Door Direct Mail.