Those of us in business often get too comfortable in our little worlds. We do the same thing all the time and think we are pretty good at it. But sometimes it helps to get an outsider’s view of things.

My company, Color-Logic, produces software that lets graphic designers and printers prepare complex files that print metallic special effects. We send samples to printers and designers to let them see firsthand what we can do. Our problem is that our samples, too often, are simply seen as one more piece of unwanted direct mail. In the worst case, they are tossed unopened or never reach the right person.

When we saw how Western States Envelope & Label promoted their own products, we decided perhaps they knew more about getting recipients to open their mail than we did. Not only did they understand what we were about; they gave us a number of tips that ensured we didn’t run into trouble with postal services around the world.

The resulting envelope, shown here, does a phenomenal job of putting our story in the proper hands and persuading recipients to open it. We like to think it is because people can see the results of our software right on the envelope, but WSE&L put everything together much better than we were doing before.

You can see an animation of the finished envelope below: