The saying, ‘Do not judge a book by its cover', may not entirely be true – as far as letters are concerned. More often than not, your letters are judged by their envelopes. Before your target clients could even read your first printed word or even your first sentence, your envelope printing pieces can either make or break your promotional materials. Judging from how you package your letter, which includes of course the packaging – the envelope, you make an impression, an impact if you like, on your target readers.

Similar to your stationery or paper stock, your envelope printing material serves as your promotional billboard that markets the style and character of the sender. Just like a billboard, your envelope can literally grab the attention. On the other hand, it can be so run of the mill that it can go unnoticed, a pitfall you should make sure to avoid. With hundreds and thousands of promotional materials and advertising prints delivered to your household on a daily basis, the challenge is how to make your ads survive the initial scrutiny. It should be able to catch the attention of your prospect before it finds its way to the garbage bin.

A strategy that you might want to consider is to make your envelope printing materials appear to be from someone they know. It can look and feel like any ordinary mail that that they would think that it came from a distant relative or a long lost friend. The envelope can be addressed by hand which will make it look more personalized and authentic. Of course, a hand-addressed envelope not only makes a good impression, it also shows your personalized kind of service. It would certainly encourage your prospective clients to open your envelope if not for curiosity's sake.

You must be careful however, when using this strategy as it may backfire. Those who are in the know may resent your strategy and may attach this resentment on the label you are trying to sell. Remember that what you want to do is to establish a rapport with your client, a connection. If by any chance this connection is severed because of dubious circumstances, it would be very hard to reestablish that link.

The key here is to make your client open the envelope. The more personalized the approach, the better chances of it getting opened. And as they say, the rest is history.