What Makes A Great Business Card?

A great business card is an asset to your business, but it’s difficult to know which details to include. So what makes a great business card?

Your business card gets passed to your new contacts as a long term reminder of briefly meeting you in person… are you leaving your prospects with a good impression of your business?

Is it a lead generation tool that delivers a return over and over or a useless piece of card that gets filed in the waste bin after your new contact has given it a cursory glance?

So today, let’s take a look at the individual elements that convert this small piece of card into a profitable bit of marketing… is yours an asset or a liability?

Quality:

I know it can be tempting to save money, and opt for the free or very cheap business cards available, especially when you’re just starting out in business, and it feels like there is a never ending stream of costs. But although the design and print of good quality business cards can be a sizeable investment, scrimping on your business cards is never a good idea.

Note the word I used in the previous paragraph… ‘investment’. Good quality cards should not be viewed as a cost, but an investment in the longer term marketing of your business.

After all, there is little value in paying to attend networking events, ensuring you’ve dressed smartly, making a good impression in the room, but then your cheap scrappy business card lets you down at the last hurdle.

Your connections will be making a judgement of your business credibility based on the card you hand over at the end of the meeting. Cheap business cards give the impression of a “hobby business”, or in other words, deem you not to be serious about your business. Why would you work with someone who doesn’t take their own business seriously?

Photo:

You know, I do like photos on a business card. When you meet a lot of people, it can be really hard to relate the name to the person you may have only spoken to for a couple of minutes. So, by adding a nice clear head and shoulders image of yourself to your card, your contacts will be reminded of you every time they look at your card.

It goes without saying that the photo you use should be of good quality too… it’s worth investing in professional head shots that you can use on your cards and elsewhere in your marketing.

“Remind me… what is it that you do”?

Does your card clearly state what your business is about? If I was given your card but didn’t look at it again for several months, could I understand what your area of expertise is even if I can’t remember you?

It might sound obvious, but there are many business cards that don’t actually state what the business offer… or are ambiguous at best. I invite you to take a look at your card now and make doubly sure that it clearly answers the “what do you do?” question for anyone who picks it up.

Contact details:

As a minimum requirement, your card should clearly show your website, email and telephone details. You may also want to include your social media links or Skype username too?

But don’t go overboard here… you don’t want your card to look over-cluttered and full of useless information. I would suggest that if visitors can connect to you on social media directly from your website, you don’t need to include this information on your card… avoid clutter.

This brings me nicely to my next point…

White space:

Leaving a small amount of white space on the card allows the recipient to scribble down a little note to remind them about you, or where they met you.

If they are attending lots of events, it can be difficult to remember where you met.
They might want to jot down something that they associate with you to help them remember you after your meeting.
Give them space to do this on your card so they can easily find the information again when they need to.

Call to action:

What do you want your contacts to do next? Does your card state a clear call to action… an invite to take the next step with you?

If you offer a free eBook or other freebie in return for email addresses, showing this on your business card will encourage people to take that step.

And it is a positive return on your investment too… you’ve converted one business card into one new person joining your community.

Whatever the action that you’d like your new connections to take with you, make it easy for them to do so by clearly showing your call to action on your card.

How did your business cards fare against this list? What is the best business card you’ve ever been given? Are there any that stick out in your mind as being particularly memorable?