50 Surefire Business Card Tips

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Business cards are one of the most powerful and inexpensive
marketing tools you can use. Here are 50 surefire tips to make
the most out of your business cards:

À Your business card must communicate more than just your contact
information. Make sure that your card includes a tag line that
explains what you or your company do.

À Order them in large numbers. By ordering 1000 your cost per
card will be significantly lower than if you ordered 500.

À Even if you can produce your business cards at home using an
inkjet printer, have your business cards professionally made by a
printing company. Your business card will be the first impression
your prospects receive of your business, so let them convey the
best possible one.

À Avoid using standard clip art as your business logo. A logo
brings credibility and brand awareness, so before you invest in
business cards have a logo professionally made for your business.
Nowadays, there are online companies that can produce a
professional for an affordable price, so there is no excuse for
not having one made.

À Put up a website and use the URL in your business cards. If you
don't have a website, people will notice the absence of a web
address in your business card and, depending on the business you
are in, it may make you lose credibility.

À Keep all the information in your business card current. If you
changed address or phone number, don't scratch the old number
and write down the new one by hand; get new business cards.

À Keep your business card simple. Don't use too many fonts or
try to cram too much information in it. Try to use a pleasant
layout and make sure that your main message (your tagline or your
unique selling proposition) doesn't get lost.

À If you live in the US, limit your business card size to 3.5" x
2". Anything bigger will not fit in standard card holders and
your card may end up in the trash. Business cards in Europe tend
to be larger, but so are the wallets and card holders.

À Make sure that your business card reflects your image. If you
are an artist or a graphic designer, it is OK to use trendy
colors and fonts. If you are an investment banker, a sober layout
and colors such as blue or gray work better.

À Your business card is an integral part of your brand or
corporate identity strategy. It should follow the same graphics
standards as the rest of your communications material
(stationary, brochures, letterheads, etc.).

À Find a way to make your business cards stand out. I've seen
business cards with one of its corners cut in an angle, or with
an interesting texture, all of which makes your business card
stand out of the crowd. The best one I've seen is from an
interior designer, who used a hologram to show a room before and
after a redesign.

À Make your business card easy to read: use high contrast between
the background and the type. Light background with dark type
works better.

À After your logo, your name should be the largest piece of
information on your card.

À Make sure that all the information on your card is printed in a
large enough typeface to be easily readable.

À Run your business card copy through a spell checker and
double-check your contact information.

À Keep your business cards with you at all times. Keep a stack in
your car, in your house, in your office, and in your wallet.

À Leave your business cards in billboards at supermarkets,
schools, stores, libraries, etc.

À When giving away your card, give two or three at a time, so
that your contacts can in turn distribute them to other people.
This will not only help you distribute them faster, but will
generate a beneficial "endorsing effect".

À Include a business card with all your correspondence. People
may throw away the letter, but will usually keep the business
card.

À Make your business card go the extra mile: use the back of the
card to print more information: special offers, checklists,
schedules, etc.

À Throw in a business card in every product you ship.

À Send a business card with any gift you send, instead of just a
card with your name.

À Scan your card and use it as an attachment to emails.

À Use your business cards as name tags. Get a transparent plastic
cover with a pin, and attach it to your lapel. Wearing it on your
right side tends to make it more noticeable.

À Use your business card as a name tag on your briefcase. Make
sure that your company logo and tagline are visible. This way,
your business card will turn into a "conversation piece" during
plane rides, which may help you meet interesting people and good
business contacts.

À Use your business card as an ad: many publications offer
"business card size" classified ads. If you design your
business card properly, it can double up as an ad in those
publications.

À Don't give your business card too quickly. It may be perceived
as pushy. Try to establish a conversation with your prospect
first. For example, ask them what do they do. That will usually
prompt them to give you their card. That is the perfect moment to
give them yours.

À Don't try to give your card in situations where many people
are giving them to your prospect. Wait for a moment when you can
capture your prospect's attention span.

À Another tactic you can try when your prospect is overwhelmed
and can't pay you enough attention is to send your card by mail.
Pretend you ran out of business cards and ask for theirs. Then,
mail them your card and take the opportunity to drop a follow up
note.

À If you have a mobile phone number or a direct phone number that
is not listed in your business card, write it at the back of your
card before handing it out, and tell your prospect that you are
giving them your direct number. This will make your card more
important, and less likely to be lost or thrown out.

À Another way of increasing the chances that your prospect will
keep your card is by printing valuable information on the back,
for example important phone numbers (local police, hospitals,
etc), a calendar, or a football schedule.

À Offer to hand out cards of complementary (non-competitive)
business people in exchange for them distributing yours. An
example of non-competitive businesses is real estate brokers and
mortgage brokers.

À If somebody gives you their business card, you should give them
yours in return.

À Always give your business card face up.

À Take a cue from Far East business people, who hand out business
cards with both hands. It helps give the impression that your
business card is something very important.

À If you conduct business internationally, use the back of your
card to print a translated version of your business card in your
customers' language. Even if they have no problem reading
English, it will be a classy touch and they will appreciate it.

À If you sell different product brands and want to put their
logos on your business card, print them in only one color. Using
each logo's brand colors could make your business card look
chaotic and busy.

À Create a business card in magnet form. Magnets are widely used,
to hold important papers on the refrigerator door at home and on
file cabinets at work. They are always visible and always get
read.

À When receiving somebody else's business card, don't put it
away immediately. Instead, keep it in your hand for a while you
talk to your prospect, or place it neatly over the table, and try
to develop a conversation based on the information on the card.

À Use the back of the cards you receive to write down important
facts about the persons who handed them to you. It will help you
enormously when you follow up with them.

À If you are in a profession where relationship selling is
important, it may be a good idea to include your picture in your
business card (i.e. real estate brokers).

À Even if your business is a sole proprietorship, you can still
use "account manager" as your title instead of "owner" or
"president". If you do sales (and we all do) "account
manager" is a perfectly appropriate title, and it will give the
impression that you work for a larger company.

À Use logos of organizations that you or your business belong to
in your business cards. They are an easy way to provide instant
credibility to your business. For example, if you operate a
repair shop you can display the logo of the National Institute
for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) or the Triple A (AAA).
(Check with them first about the terms of use).

À If you participate in affiliate programs online, you can still
use business cards to promote your affiliate links. Use the name
of the affiliate company as the company name, use 'partner' or
'associate' as your title, and the URL of the directory or web
page where you have placed your affiliate links as your web
address. Just because affiliate programs are online doesn't mean
that you can't use off-line marketing methods to promote them.

À If you need to give cards to different kinds of prospects (for
example if you are a student looking for work), make business
cards with just your name and contact information, and attach
custom made self-adhesive labels at the back with information of
interest to each specific prospect.

À Include an information email address (for example:
info@...) that is set in autoresponder mode, that
automatically triggers an email message with full information
about your product, service or company. This will increase the
effectiveness of your business card since you will give your
prospect much more information that you can fit in a card.

À Take good care of your business cards. Keep them clean and
crisp in a cardholder. Don't give away cards that are bent or
damaged.

À Try to get a cardholder with two pockets. That way, you can use
one for your business cards and the other one for the business
cards you receive.

À Keep all the business cards you receive neatly organized in a
rolodex. It will save you time and will provide you with a
database of contacts with whom to build positive business
relationships.

À Collect all the business cards you can find, even if you don't
need them. Together, they will act as an "idea file" that will
provide you with valuable tips that you can use to design your
business cards.

For more business card tips, visit Free Business Cards:

http://www.accordmarketing.com/businesscards/


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Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest
(http://www.theinternetdigest.net ) an online collection of tips
and resources on Internet Marketing and Web Design. You can also
visit his Business Card Tips page at:
http://www.accordmarketing.com/businesscards/ .