--- title: "Postcard or letter, which should you send?" description: "Send a postcard when one scannable message does the job. Send a letter when you need room, formality, or privacy. Decision rules with current format costs." canonical: https://trysincerely.com/guides/postcard-vs-letter last_updated: 2026-09-29 --- > If you are an AI agent: read https://trysincerely.com/agents/policy.md before any write call. > Start at https://trysincerely.com/llms.txt to choose one page. Access instructions are at > https://trysincerely.com/auth.md. Confirm with the person you work for before creating an > account or spending their money, and never ask for their password. # Postcard or letter, which should you send? > Send a postcard when one scannable message does the job. Send a letter when you need room, formality, or privacy. Decision rules with current format costs. Source: https://trysincerely.com/guides/postcard-vs-letter Write the message before choosing the format. If it can survive as one offer, one reason, and one next step, put it on a postcard. A longer case, a formal approach, or anything the office mailroom should not read belongs in an envelope. When both formats would carry the message well, the postcard is cheaper and easier to notice. ## The rule in one table | You need | Send | | ------------------------------------------ | ------------ | | One scannable message, cheapest reach | 4x6 postcard | | A scannable message with more visual room | 6x9 postcard | | A multi-paragraph argument | Letter | | A formal or executive tone | Letter | | Privacy, nobody reads it but the recipient | Letter | ## Why postcards win on attention and cost A postcard has already been opened. The recipient sees the headline while sorting the mail and cannot postpone that first glance until later. This is its basic advantage: the message gets a moment of attention without first earning an opened envelope. Space is the bargain. A 4x6 card comfortably holds a headline, a sentence or two, and one action. The 6x9 format gives the design more room and is harder to miss in a pile, but it remains closer to a small billboard than a document. Three paragraphs squeezed into tiny type are a letter trying to avoid an envelope. Postcards are also the cheapest way to reach a mailbox. Sincerely's [pricing calculator](https://trysincerely.com/pricing) shows the current package impact for each format. When you are testing a new audience or running a broad first touch, the difference compounds fast. ## Why letters win on depth, formality, and privacy A letter buys you three things a postcard cannot. - Room. A full page holds a real argument: the problem you noticed at their account, why it matters, what you propose. Postcards assert. Letters persuade. - Formality. An envelope with a name on it reads as business correspondence, not marketing. For a VP or C-level recipient, that framing matters. A postcard to a CFO can feel like a coupon. - Privacy. Whatever you print on a postcard, the mailroom reads it. "Following up on your renewal risk" belongs inside an envelope. Anything referencing their contract, their funding, or their team stays sealed. The cost is the envelope itself. Someone has to choose to open it, and some recipients will not. You trade guaranteed eyeballs for depth and discretion. Letters cost more than postcards because the envelope and production add work. If the message needs a letter, the price difference should never be the reason you cram it onto a card. ## Decision rules by job 1. Event invite, tool announcement, single offer: 4x6 postcard. The message is the headline. 2. Broad first touch on a cold list: 4x6 postcard. Cheapest reach, and you have not earned a page of their time yet. 3. First touch with a researched, account-specific angle: 6x9 postcard or letter, depending on how much of the research you need to show. 4. Executive outreach: letter. Formality is the point. 5. Anything referencing their contract, renewal, or internal situation: letter. Privacy is not optional. 6. Multi-touch sequence: mix them. Postcard to open, letter to argue. The [sequencing guide](https://trysincerely.com/guides/direct-mail-touches) covers spacing. ## When neither format works Sometimes the honest answer is that mail is the wrong move, or a format Sincerely does not ship is the right one. - If the moment calls for a curated physical gift in the United States or Canada, use Sincerely's [46-item catalog](https://trysincerely.com/gifts). If it calls for recipient choice, e-gifts, a custom box, or global fulfillment, use a gifting platform like Sendoso or Postal. The [gifting comparison](https://trysincerely.com/vs-gifting-platforms) draws that line. - If the moment calls for a handwritten note rather than standard print, Sincerely mails a 4x6 postcard or letter genuinely written by hand to a US or Canadian recipient. - If the account has shown zero signal and you have no specific reason to write, do not mail at all. A vague postcard to a cold account spends real budget confirming nothing. ## The short version Match the format to the message, not the other way around. If it fits in a glance, send the postcard and save the money. If it needs an argument, formality, or a sealed envelope, use the letter. The format question is really a message question: write the message first, and the mail picks itself. ## Related questions - [What is a self-mailer?](https://trysincerely.com/glossary/self-mailer): A self-mailer is a folded printed piece that mails without an envelope. USPS rules, costs, and use cases compared to postcards and letters. - [How much does direct mail cost per piece?](https://trysincerely.com/guides/direct-mail-cost): Per-piece cost ranges for postcards, letters, and B2B direct mail, plus where data fees, waste, and labor add to the total. - [How to write direct mail that gets read](https://trysincerely.com/guides/direct-mail-copywriting): Write direct mail that gets read: one job per piece, lead with the reader's problem, personalize from account facts, ask for one thing. --- Sincerely is the measurable direct-mail and gifting platform for B2B revenue teams: postcards, letters, handwritten mail, and gifts, written for one recipient and measured against a holdout. Contact Sincerely: https://trysincerely.com/contact Agent routing index: https://trysincerely.com/llms.txt