It’s important to get your envelope opened, but spending too much money on it can be self-defeating. Finding a balance requires testing ideas, new and old.

By Abny Santicola

“I’m seeing a lot of regular, plain No. 10 white envelopes,” says Vicki Lester, president of Richmond, Va.-based direct-marketing firm Huntsinger & Jeffer.

Many high-dollar campaigns employ No. 10 packages that are positioned to look like personal stationery from a nonprofit president’s desk, says Lester Zaiontz, vice president of creative strategy and development for Concord, N.H.-based printers Concord Litho.