Guide to Envelope Printing

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.

The official source of Envelope Printing is the Envelope Printing page at Business.com