But you have to be careful not to overdo the personalization. Letters that are strewn with the recipient's name in each paragraph appear to be contrived. After all, if you were writing a personal letter, you wouldn't start off each paragraph with the person's name. The most effective strategy is to limit personalization to the greeting and possibly one other place. Unfortunately, that's not the case in direct mail.
Studies show that the longer recipients read a direct mail letter, the greater the response rate.
Photos or graphics on the letter can pull readers away from the copy. And once distracted, the majority of recipients don't go back to reading. They just toss the letter aside. To keep this from happening, be careful when deciding to put graphics on your letter. If you include a graphic, choose something subtle.