What it actually costs to advertise on Staten Island in 2026
Mailing your own postcard to 5,000 Staten Island addresses costs roughly $3,000 or more all-in using USPS Every Door Direct Mail. A single ad slot on The Local Vibe, a shared 9x12 card, runs $569 to $689 and mails with an edition addressed to about 5,000 homes in its market. The first market, Founding Market No. 1, is founded and accepting advertisers on Staten Island. This page walks through both sets of numbers honestly, including when mailing solo is the right call.
USPS postage below is checked at usps.com (July 2026) and slot prices come from the live cards. Print costs are retail estimates: quotes vary widely by spec, volume, and printer, so get your own.
How much does it cost to advertise on Staten Island?
For a physical mail campaign there are really two paths: run your own EDDM mailing, or take a slot on a shared card. Here is the same 5,000-address mailing, priced both ways.
| Cost item | Your own 9x12 EDDM mailing | One slot on The Local Vibe |
|---|---|---|
| USPS postage | $1,300 (5,000 pieces at $0.26 EDDM Retail, usps.com, July 2026) | Included |
| Printing | Retail estimates start around $1,700 for a one-off run (a 9x12 on heavy uncoated stock; quotes vary widely by spec, volume, and printer) | Included |
| Design | You hire it out or do it yourself | You design your ad with the AI Ad Builder, included |
| Prep and drop labor | Bundling in packs of 50 to 100, facing slips, PS Form 3587, post office drop. Plan on the better part of a day. | Handled |
| Total | Roughly $3,000 or more, plus design and labor | $569 to $689 |
| Cost per address | About 60 cents or more | About 11 to 14 cents |
The honest caveat on that comparison: mailing solo buys you the entire card, front and back, all to yourself. A slot buys you one ad among sixteen, with one business per industry, on a card built to be read and kept rather than tossed. Cheapest cost per address is not automatically the cheapest customer; the right question is what a piece of mail has to do for your business before it earns its postage.
Is direct mail still worth it on Staten Island?
Direct mail is the one channel where you buy the whole neighborhood, not an auction. The piece goes out to every active residential address on the route. No algorithm decides the audience, no bid gets outspent by a national chain, and a 9x12 card physically does not fit in the junk-mail fold.
The catch is that mail punishes weak offers at full price. If the piece goes out with no clear reason to call, the postage is spent either way. Which is why the math above matters before printing, not after: the channel works, but only when the numbers and the offer are decided up front.
If you want the mechanics of running your own mailing, I wrote up the whole workflow, USPS rules included, at What Is EDDM?. I teach it straight: it is genuinely doable yourself.
When mailing solo is the right call
A shared card is not always the answer, and I would rather tell you that here than have you find out after. Run your own EDDM mailing when:
- You have one dominant offer that deserves the entire canvas, front and back.
- Your budget covers the full run comfortably, including a second mailing (repetition is where solo mail pays).
- You want total control of timing, creative, and route selection.
- Your customer is so specific that you need hand-picked carrier routes, not a market-wide edition.
If that list does not sound like you, splitting a card that people actually keep is the smarter first dollar into the mailbox.
The first market is founded
Staten Island is where The Local Vibe starts, and it is a region, not a single market. The first market, Founding Market No. 1, is founded and accepting advertisers, with its boundary being drawn around its founding sponsor's own front door. Each market covers about 10,000 households, split into two rotation groups of about 5,000 addresses; four editions mail per year, alternating between the two groups, so each edition is a 9x12 card mailed to about 5,000 addresses. Every card carries sixteen ads with one business per industry, and Savino Marketing donates 9% of this card's gross revenue to the card's charity partner. The first edition is slated to mail in November 2026.
A market officially opens when its founding sponsor signs, and the market is drawn around that sponsor's business. Further Staten Island markets open when their own founding sponsors step up.
Open the next market as its founding sponsor
We were not going to ask anyone to go first, so we went first. Savino Marketing is the founding sponsor of Founding Market No. 1, drawn around our own front door, and the same money every sponsor is quoted applies to us: the ad slot economics, the $199 sponsor fee, and our own $500 pledge to the card's charity partner, which is being finalized now. The founding sponsor is the business a market opens around: the map is drawn around your location, and founding the market is permanent, a fact about the market's history that stays yours. If you want the next market drawn around your business, the sponsor page has the full picture.
Become a Founding SponsorNot sure which market fits your business?
Tell me what you do and where your customers are. I'll tell you which market fits, whether your industry slot is still open, and what it costs. No pressure either way.
Staten Island advertising, answered plainly
How much does it cost to advertise on Staten Island with direct mail?
Mailing your own 9x12 postcard to 5,000 Staten Island addresses runs roughly $3,000 or more all-in: about $1,300 in USPS EDDM Retail postage at $0.26 per piece (usps.com, July 2026) plus printing, which for a one-off retail run starts around $1,700 before design and prep labor. A single ad slot on The Local Vibe shared card runs $569 to $689 and mails with an edition addressed to about 5,000 homes in its market.
Is direct mail still worth it on Staten Island?
Physical mail goes out to every active residential address on the route with no algorithm and no bidding, and a 9x12 card is hard to miss in a stack of envelopes. The honest catch is cost and follow-through: solo mail only pays when the offer is strong and the math is done before printing, not after.
How is The Local Vibe organized on Staten Island?
Staten Island is a region, not a single market. The first Local Vibe market, Founding Market No. 1, is founded and accepting advertisers, with its boundary being drawn around its founding sponsor's business. That founding sponsor is Savino Marketing itself. Each market covers about 10,000 households, split into two rotation groups of about 5,000 addresses. Four editions mail per year, alternating between the two groups, so each edition mails to about 5,000 addresses and each half of the market gets two editions a year. Further Staten Island markets open when their own founding sponsors step up.
What does an ad slot on The Local Vibe cost?
Back-of-card slots run $569 to $599 and front-of-card slots run $659 to $689, with one business per industry on each card. Each edition mails to about 5,000 addresses in its market, which works out to roughly 11 to 14 cents per address.
Do I need to run my own EDDM mailing to advertise on Staten Island?
No. EDDM (Every Door Direct Mail) is the USPS program behind both paths on this page. You can run your own mailing yourself, the full workflow is in our EDDM guide, or claim one slot on The Local Vibe, which is already an EDDM mailing shared by sixteen businesses.
Sources
- USPS Every Door Direct Mail, EDDM Retail pricing and daily limits: usps.com/business/every-door-direct-mail.htm (checked July 2026)
- Print cost: retail estimates for a short-run 9x12 flat on heavy uncoated stock; quotes vary widely by spec, volume, and printer, so get your own
- Slot pricing and market structure: the live card pages linked above