I noticed that recently someone did a search within our blog for “envelopes vs postcards” and I thought it’d make for an interesting post topic.

Obviously, both formats are more ideal than the other for certain situations so it’s hard to pick an absolute winner…but if I HAD to pick one, I’d choose envelope packages.

Yes, postcards are much cheaper and they throw your marketing message right out there for your prospect to see…but envelope packages allow you to use curiosity and I think that’s extremely valuable.

“What exactly is in this envelope? I should at least open it to find out.”

And there are also many variations you can test with envelope packages. Ballantine’s main area of expertise is printing and mailing, not creative strategy…but I see so many different outer envelope variations pass my desk that it enables me to list a bunch of test ideas.

Here are some:

• Different size OE’s – #10, #14, 6×9, monarch, etc.
• Label on OE or faux label
• Window or no window
• Different window size or positioning
• Stickers or stamps on OE
• Teaser copy on OE
• Colored paper

I could rattle off more, but I think the items above are enough to get you brainstorming.

So that’s my 2 cents – what do you think? If you’d like to express YOUR opinion on this topic, we would love to hear from you…just comment below.

And if you’d like me to send you envelope samples through the mail, please email me, Ryan Cote, at: ryan (at) ballantine.com.

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There was an article in DM News by Chantal Tode that talked about how Xerox released a new digital paper that is eco-friendly.  Specifically, the paper is considered green because it’s made from 90% of the tree versus the 45% common to most digital printing paper.  So less tree is wasted in making the paper.

This green movement that is sweeping the automotive and utility industry is now fully making it’s way into the direct marketing industry…

…there’s recyclable paper in traditional printing and now eco-friendly paper for digital printing.  We even did a postcard campaign recently for New Hope Natural Media that used recyclable paper containing actual organic flower seeds that you could plant.

If every industry does their best to go green, the accumulative gains for the environment should be huge.