Printed business envelopes assist in grabbing attention. In every area of life, if something looks good on the outside, people are excited to explore what is inside. The same is true for your business envelopes.

Decide how many business envelopes you need and choose a printing company to print your envelopes. For small businesses or those that do not use much stationery, consider purchasing a printer and acquiring envelope printing software to make your own. Come up with the envelope design with help from a designer, the printer or do-it-yourself. Then supply the printer with the information you want on your business envelopes. Consider the following:

1. Include your company name, address and telephone number in the return address section of the envelopes.

2. Place your company logo on your printed envelopes.

3. Print envelopes that include your motto or vision.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Consult a graphic designer for assistance creating your business envelope design

This is your opportunity to make an impressive first impression with your mailed items. If you want your envelope to have the most impact, it needs to be laid out in the most effective way. Those who are not confident in their ability to accomplish this on their own, or those who want cutting edge ideas incorporated in the design might utilize the services of a designer who specializes in corporate identity. The designer can create a logo for companies that do not have one, which can then be included on your printed envelopes.

I recommend: For ideas of creative use of envelope design, visit UPrinting.com. Their examples will get you started on a creative design of your own. Choose a Business Package from Artisan Design Studio for complete design solutions or contact them to design just your envelopes. View the portfolio, then talk to Burn Creative about creating a custom design for your piece. Businesses without a logo can use Nomadesign to get one fast.

Stock items you need to print your own business envelopes

Printing your own envelopes may be economical for businesses who do not send a lot of mail but still want to present a polished appearance for their business by using company stationery. To get set up, you will need to have a supply of envelopes and a printer to print them on. To make creating the envelope easy, use envelope printing software.

I recommend: The first thing you need to print your own envelopes is envelopes. Find any style of envelope you need at Action Envelope. Use Star Envelope Printer Pro, an inexpensive envelope or label creation software from Starre Enterprises to facilitate printing your envelopes. You can get a printer specifically for printing envelopes from Pitney Bowes that will make creating your mail pieces simple and the process seamless.

Find envelope printers online who can fulfill your order

For those who think printing envelopes should be left to the professionals, find a printer who specializes in corporate stationery printing. Choosing such a company may serve you better with seamless service due to their familiarity with the product. For some printers, all you have to do is enter your information into their online form, view the preview of your envelope, and process the order. For more detailed envelope printing designs, you will likely speak to a representative to correlate the specifics.

I recommend: BFC will print your envelopes for you and provide an online ordering option. For a choice of many different styles of envelopes, consider ordering from PrintingYouCanTrust.com. PrintingYouCanTrust.com also has an easy order feature for fast online ordering. Ohio Envelope offers various colored envelopes as well as specialty envelope printing options.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Pay attention to your incoming mail for business envelopes that stand out. Use these envelopes to give you ideas for your own design.

Envelope printing is something every business can benefit from. After all, the average American gets more than 500 pieces of unsolicited mail delivered to their home every year. It's anyone's guess as to how many of those get opened.

Printing envelopes with an eye-catching design can entice potential clients to open your mail. Print envelopes may get your message across even before they get opened. In the least, it will plant your company's name into clients' minds, making them more receptive to future mailings.

Regardless of your budget, you can print quality business envelopes that will get your message across more frequently.

As you plan out your mailing campaign, consider these points.

1. Have a budget together before you start seeking out business envelopes printing services.

2. Keep in mind that printing envelopes at the average local printer can cost $1 per envelope. Envelope printing online may cost less than 25 cents per envelope with bulk envelope printing.

3. Simple in-house designs can save help you save on envelope printing, but don't sacrifice quality to save insignificant amounts of money.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Use envelope printing services that offer design services as well

You can save some money by foregoing a graphic designer. Ask your envelope printer to include design services.

I recommend: Check out Staples online store, Overnight Prints, Nationwide Envelope Company, and VistaPrint. Each of these discount online envelope printing and design services handles large quantity printing. They offer simple design options for your envelope printing. Contact their customer service departments for more information.

Get some new equipment and print envelopes in-house

For small quantities of business envelopes, it may be more efficient to buy a good printer and print them in-house.

I recommend: Check out articles on PC World for updated information on the best laser printers available. Xerox, Brother, and Lexmark tend to make high quality large printers with high throughput capacity. Hewlett-Packard, on the other hand, tends to lead the market with its high resolution home-sized, inexpensive printers.

Save money by designing your own business envelopes and printing them off-site

With the right envelope printing software, you could design your own business envelopes in-house. Once designed, you can send them off to an online or local printer.

I recommend: Use MS Publisher, Adobe InDesign, or Adobe Illustrator. You can get free trials of Adobe products. Microsoft also has a free trial for MS Publisher. Save your work as a JPEG or as a PDF, and it can be uploaded onto just about any printer's website. Online printers, such as AllPro Color, GotPrint, and Action Envelope have design programs or templates for you to use and they can print your envelopes for you.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Make sure you save your in-house design to a format that the printer can use.
• •  Make sure you'll get your order in time. It may take up to one month to receive envelopes from a discount online printer.
• •  Get a printing proof. It will cost extra from a bulk printer, but a proof can assure you of the printer's quality before your credit card gets charged.

Envelope printing education and training is mostly about learning a few tricks that may not be immediately obvious based on your experience with your computer and printer. The Internet is a great place to find out the best way to print envelopes with the specific software and printer that you are working with.

There are many advantages to learning how to print envelopes. For business envelope printing, you may choose to print your own envelopes for the following reasons:

1. You may save money over purchasing commercially printed envelopes, especially for small quantities.

2. You can create a more professional look for business envelopes with printed addresses than you can with handwritten addresses.

3. You can save time by printing addresses instead of handwriting the same amount of addresses.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Learn how to print envelopes in Word

The most difficult part of envelope printing may be bulk envelope printing, due to the sheer volume of envelopes. You may need to print addresses from a mailing list onto a stack of envelopes. Learn the best way to do this and make sure you set up your mailing list correctly from the beginning.

I recommend: Read a tutorial on printing envelopes, part of a longer series on creating a mail merge, from For Dummies. Read steps to take to print envelopes for a mass mailing in Word from Microsoft.

Find educaional information on envelope printing with other applications

If you use a word processor other than Word, look for help online on find out how to use your application to print envelopes. You may even want to try a different word processor to see if it makes envelope printing easier. Your printer manufacturer's website may also have tips on using your printer to print envelopes.

I recommend: Learn all about printing envelopes in OpenOffice, a free open source word processing program available for computers running Windows, Linux or the Macintosh Operating System, from SearchEnterpriseLinux.com. Find tips and training on printing envelopes from Hewlett-Packard.

Get help from envelope printing software

If you have trouble with business envelope printing from your word processing software, try an application specially made to print envelopes. This type of program is well-suited to bulk envelope printing. You may be able to try the software for a limited time before you purchase it to make sure it works with your printer.

I recommend: Read the Frequently Asked Questions to learn how to use Easy Mail to print business envelopes. Download Easy Envelopes from Direct Logic Systems for a tree trial to see if it makes envelope printing easier for you.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Read the manual that came with your computer's printer to find out the best way to set it up to print envelopes. There may be a special tray or a specific orientation that works best, and also stick to the recommended maximum quantity you can load at one time.