How to Run a Shared-Cost Direct Mail Business in Australia (Australia Post Unaddressed Mail)

Everything you need to run a shared-cost postcard business with Australia Post Unaddressed Mail, from booking to lodgement

The shared-cost mailer model is simple: you sell ad spots on one large postcard to a group of local businesses, mail it to every home in a chosen area, and each advertiser pays a fraction of what a solo mailing would cost.

In the United States that runs on a USPS service called EDDM. Australia has its own equivalent, and it works just as well: Australia Post Unaddressed Mail.

This guide covers the parts that are genuinely different in Australia — the size rules, the booking deadlines, and how lodgement actually works. Every figure below comes from Australia Post’s own Unaddressed Mail Service Guide (March 2025 edition). Australia Post revises it periodically, so confirm the current rules at auspost.com.au/unaddressedmail before you book your first campaign.

First Question: Does a 9x12 Postcard Even Work in Australia?

Yes. This is the first thing most people ask, and the maths is comfortable.

Australia Post splits Unaddressed Mail into two size categories, Small and Large. A 9x12 inch card falls inside Large with room to spare:

A 9x12 inch card is 228.6x304.8mm. That leaves roughly 31mm of clearance on the short edge and 55mm on the long edge against the 260x360mm Large limit.

Weight is not close either. A 9x12 card on heavy 350gsm stock works out to about 24 grams, well under the 100g ceiling. You could print on the heaviest stock your printer offers and still not come near it.

If you would rather work in a local format, A4 (210x297mm) also sits inside Large, and Australia Post lists B4 (250x353mm) as a common example — larger than a 9x12 card. Big formats are normal here, not exotic.

Why Unaddressed Mail Suits the Shared-Cost Model

One rule in the Australia Post guide matters more than any other for this business:

All articles in a booking lodgement must be the same artwork / design and be within the same size and weight category.

For most advertisers that is a limitation. For a co-op mailer it is exactly the product — one card, one design, many advertisers sharing it. The service is built the way your business already works.

The rest of the fit is just as good:

• No mailing list required. The article must not carry the recipient’s name and address. You are buying coverage, not data.
• You can start very small. The minimum is geographic, not a article count — one suburb, one postcode, one delivery address type, or a single postal round.
• It reaches places other channels don’t, including secure apartment buildings and Post Office Boxes.
• You can target private addresses, business addresses, or both.

Step 1: Get Set Up to Book

You cannot walk a shared mailer into a post office unannounced. Every Unaddressed Mail delivery is booked in advance, and you have two ways to do it:

• Online booking tool. A one-off registration is required. Email a completed Unaddressed Mail Booking Tool Registration Form (on the Australia Post website) to [email protected].
• Customer Services team. Complete an Unaddressed Mail booking request form and email it to the same address.

The Unaddressed Mail Customer Services team can also be reached on 1300 223 571. If you plan to run campaigns regularly, get the online registration done before you start selling — it is a one-time step that would otherwise hold up your first campaign.

Step 2: Choose Your Delivery Area

You can target by suburb, by postcode, by delivery address type, or by individual postal round. For suburb and postcode bookings, Australia Post delivers to the best fit postal rounds.

Two service types affect what you pay:

• Regular service — you take, as a minimum, all available private and/or all available business street and roadside delivery points in a locality or postcode. You can add PO Box and counter mail and still qualify.
• Select service — you exclude some available street or roadside points, cap the volume with “deliver no more than”, or target specific postal rounds.

For a shared-cost card, Regular service across a defined suburb is usually the cleaner story to sell: every advertiser knows the whole neighbourhood is covered.

One thing to explain to advertisers up front: Australia Post maintains an advertising delivery point database that excludes any address displaying a “No Unaddressed Advertising Material” notice. Standard commercial campaigns deliver to that database, not to every letterbox in the suburb. The full delivery point database is reserved for community notices from government, religious, educational and charitable bodies. Quote coverage honestly and nobody is surprised later.

Step 3: Book Early — the Deadlines Are Strict

This is where Australian campaigns differ most from the US process, and it is the single biggest thing to build into your sales calendar.

In practice: close your ad spots at least three weeks before the delivery week. You need artwork finalised, printing done, and the booking locked before that ten-business-day wall. Premium exists for genuine rush jobs, but it is same-state only and cannot be amended at all once confirmed.

Also worth knowing: occasionally a locality or postcode reaches delivery capacity. Booking early protects you from that too.

Step 4: Design Within the Australia Post Rules

The creative rules are refreshingly light, but there are four that catch people out:

1. No recipient name or address. That is what makes it unaddressed.
2. Do not print a return address. Unaddressed Mail has no return-to-sender service, so a return address does nothing but take up space.
3. “To The Householder” is optional, not required. Include it if you like the look.
4. A “Postage Paid” imprint is optional. If you do use one, do not include the word “Priority” as part of it or near it.

If you are running a Reply Paid offer for an advertiser, the Reply Paid address must not appear on the outside of the article.

Irregular shapes — square, circular, die-cut — can be accepted, but need Australia Post approval before you book. For a first campaign, stay rectangular.

Where the artwork comes from

Inside the 9x12 Agency CRM you get a layout template for the card itself and a Canva ad-design library your advertisers can pick from. Canva designs can be resized to any dimensions, so an advertiser’s ad can be produced at whatever slot size your Australian layout uses — you are not locked to US measurements. Set your campaign up in Australian dollars and your advertisers book and pay in their own currency.

Step 5: Print and Assemble the Card

This part is the same everywhere: collect artwork from each advertiser, drop it into your layout, check bleed and safe margins, and send one print-ready file to your printer. Our guide to designing and printing a shared postcard covers the layout mechanics in full.

Two Australian notes:

• Print quantity should match your booked delivery points as closely as you can. Australia Post cannot guarantee an exact delivery point count, and your booking form asks you to nominate in advance what happens to a surplus or shortfall — by default, a shortfall is delivered at Australia Post’s discretion and a surplus is disposed of at their discretion.
• Ask your printer for a small overs allowance so you are not short on lodgement day.

Step 6: Bundle, Sort and Lodge

Your booking confirmation comes with the paperwork that governs this step: a Booking Confirmation Advice, a Mail Preparation Advice, label files for bundles and trays, and a lodgement document.

Prepare the mail as follows:

1. Sort the articles to delivery offices according to your Mail Preparation Advice.
2. Bundle them as the advice specifies — usually lots of 50 or 100, secured with two bands. Australia Post prefers rubber bands.
3. Face all articles the same direction and place them into correctly labelled Australia Post letter trays. Trays and blank label stock come from your lodgement office.
4. Label each tray on the front, and slide a second label under the bands of the front bundle in each tray.

When you lodge, bring three things: the lodgement document, a copy of the Mail Preparation Advice, and a sample of your article.

Payment is due at the time of lodgement. Sort out how you are paying before the day — if you use an Australia Post Business Credit Account, you generally need to lodge at the office where the account is held unless you arrange otherwise in advance.

Step 7: Delivery Week, and What to Tell Advertisers

Unaddressed Mail is delivered between Monday and Friday of your nominated delivery week. The specific day is at Australia Post’s discretion.

So never promise an advertiser a delivery date. Promise a delivery week. Tell them the card lands that week and their tracking should be live before the Monday — QR codes, a dedicated number, or a coupon code, as covered in how to measure campaign success.

What It Costs

Australia Post does not publish Unaddressed Mail rates in the service guide. Pricing varies by size category, weight step and service type, and current rates are listed at auspost.com.au/unaddressedmail. You can request a quote for a specific booking from the Customer Services team — do that before you set your ad spot prices.

Three things that move the number:

• Same state lodgement. Articles lodged in the same state as their delivery attract same state prices. For charging, the ACT counts as part of New South Wales, and South Australia does not include the Northern Territory.
• Regular vs Select service, as described in Step 2.
• Contract pricing may be available above 100,000 articles per year — worth a conversation once you are running several markets.

Australia vs the United States at a Glance

The business is identical. The paperwork and the calendar are what change.

Running an Australian Agency on the 9x12 CRM

The 9x12 Agency CRM supports agencies outside the United States:

• Set your campaigns and ad spot pricing in Australian dollars
• Your own white-labelled agency website and booking page
• Layout presets for the card, with ad slot sizes you control
• Canva ad-design templates for premium users, resizable to any dimensions
• Online booking and payment, so advertisers pay before you print

→ Try it free at crm.9x12agency.com

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need an ABN to run this business in Australia? To operate as a business and invoice advertisers, yes — get an ABN through the Australian Business Register, and register your business name with ASIC if you are trading under anything other than your own name. Our guide to legally starting an agency covers the setup in more detail.

How many homes do I have to mail? There is no minimum article count. The minimum is geographic — one suburb, postcode, delivery address type or postal round. You can genuinely start with a single round and grow from there.

Can I mail a 9x12 card, or do I need to redesign for Australia? A 9x12 inch card (228.6x304.8mm) sits inside the Large category limit of 260x360mm, so it mails as-is. A4 also works if you prefer a local format.

Can I choose the exact delivery day? No. You nominate a delivery week and Australia Post delivers Monday to Friday within it. Sell the week, not the day.

What if I print too many or too few? Your booking form asks you to nominate this in advance. By default a shortfall is delivered at Australia Post’s discretion and a surplus is disposed of at theirs; alternative surplus handling can be arranged in writing, with additional fees, in exceptional circumstances.

Does this work in New Zealand, Canada or the UK too? Yes, with different names and rules — NZ Post and Reach Media, Canada Post Neighbourhood Mail, and Royal Mail Door to Door respectively. The business model is the same everywhere, though the format rules differ: a 9x12 card mails as-is in Australia, sits exactly on the limit in Canada, and will not fit flat in the UK at all.

Ready to run campaigns like a real agency? Start free at crm.9x12agency.com, or read the rest of the free course starting with why this business model works.

Next read: how to sell ad spots to local businesses · what to charge advertisers