It’s important to get your envelope opened, but spending too much money on it can be self-defeating. Finding a balance requires testing ideas, new and old.

By Abny Santicola

“To me, direct mail works because it sounds like it’s from me to you, not from me to a million people,” Kinch says. “One of the ways I can do that is have it look like I actually wrote this letter to you.”

The Sierra Club tested a gray No. 10 with “Immediate Action Required To Preserve Endangered Species Act. Petitions Enclosed” copy on the outer against its three-year control: a closed-face, gray-wove No. 12. The closed face, Kinch says, won and it remains unbeaten.