I attended a business training recently and connected with a fabulous group of like-minded successful business owners. One of my favorite parts was exchanging information with them via business cards.
My cards were fresh off the press, designed and sent off to my “printing-guy” in a matter of minutes. I had everything done about 2 days before I had to leave to travel to the business training. So I had to be decisive and act quickly. The ideas I had in mind was to be clear about what I do, convey the main contact information and invite people to my website in a call-to-action.
As somewhat of a marketing geek, I enjoyed seeing the fabulous business card creations of the wonderful business owners I met.
So I am going to share a few tips around designing business cards that work.
1) Readability – It may seem like overstating the obvious I know. However, this gets overlooked sometimes. Make sure that you use a font size and type that is easily read. You can get fancy with font type but skew towards clarity. If you are printing in white or other color font against a dark background, be careful that the end result is easy on the eyes. Use a font size that can be read
comfortably by someone who may be nearsighted and that should cover everyone else.
2) Company Name & Tag line – Be sure to include your company name and a results-oriented tag line.
For instance:
Company Name & Tagline 1: ABC Business Services – Business Cards, Flyers, Posters for your business.
Company Name & Tagline 2: ABC Business Services – We provide you with the marketing tools to be seen, heard and remembered.
Company Name & Tagline #2 is more results-oriented and speaks directly to the prospective client.
3) Wow Factor – OK, so this is a little subjective. This part requires a little creativity which can be fun. What can make your business card really “pop” and stand out? It could be a play on graphics as it relates to what you do. For instance, I met someone who creates APPS and her business card was in the shape of a phone. The front of it looked like the home screen of the phone and the back looked like the address book with her information: phone, email, website, etc. filled in. Very cool!
Another card I really liked was a Coaching Practice with the name of the company, results-oriented tag line on the front, plus the relevant contact information. The back had a positive, rare quote and the website address at the bottom. He had about 5 variations of quotes in his array of business cards.
Another way to create “Wow” factor is by varying the size of your card. So it could be the size of a
Postcard for instance. Your cards could also be a different shape from the usual rectangular shape to match your personality or some aspect of your business.
The possibilities are endless here and you can just have fun with it.
4) Call to Action – If you are serious about driving traffic to your website, building your list and attracting leads, this is important. In my case, I use the back of my business card to promote my free video series. So I state the headline copy and ask the reader to visit my website to claim their free access.
Some people use the back to ask persons to visit their website or call them for a free consultation.
The idea though is to invite people to do something other than file your business card away.
Here are some resources for business cards that I believe are worth looking into:
Most importantly though, if you are a serious business owner, you need to have business cards. Remember too that you can change the design in between prints until you find a design that you are comfortable with and works!
What are your thoughts on maximizing your business cards’ role as a marketing tool? Would you like to share yours? Go ahead and leave a comment with an image link of your business card.
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