Direct-Mail Primer: How to Get Your Envelope Opened

“To the Order of ,” cries one envelope. “To be opened by Addressee only,” cries another. “Personal information,” peeps through the window of yet another.

Direct mail — or junk mail, as most of us call it — has grown into an industry that generates more than $350 billion a year in sales and hits Americans with an average of 1.7 pieces of mail every day.