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A: No question direct mail can get pricey, especially with always rising postal costs. Also consider that your response rate will probably be well below one percent. Still, direct mail is a classic, proven form of marketing. Your direct mail piece––be it a postcard, sales letter, or brochure–should state your main benefit in a headline. I follow with a view of the reader's life once the product or service has solved the pressing problems it is designed to alleviate. Follow that with a paragraph that shows what will happen if they do nothing about the problem, how bad things will get, trip them down the path.

The next few paragraphs should detail the features of the product, showing the reader what benefits will come from those features. Include a P.S. at the end. Because 60% of readers look at the P.S. before they read the letter, it is a very good place to restate your offer.