Designing A Business Card: 5 Things You Need To Know
While the information that goes on a business card may have changed over time, the card itself is still a critical part of a real-world networking strategy. You can’t squander face-to-face opportunities to strengthen professional bonds. And as with your website or Facebook page, when you’re meeting contacts in person, your business card is both the first thing they see and the impression you leave after your first meeting. A thoughtfully designed, compelling business card can help you make a real connection and bring more business in the door.
Want to design a card that helps you make – and keep – valuable connections? Here are five things you need to know.
1. Dress for the occasion.
Image is everything – and your business card is no exception. You need to make sure that like you and all the other vital elements of your business, it’s dressed for success. Make your business card ‘dresses appropriately’ for the kind of customers you want to attract. Like it or not, a potential customer will form an opinion about who you are and what your company is based on specific visual attributes of your card: Paper thickness, typography choice and color scheme. These days, we even see variations on size, shape and orientation.
It’s important to use everything available to you – the paper, the type, the feel, the shape – to help tell your story.
2. Never use clip art.
Clip art is the number-one design element that can ruin a business card. In fact, you should only add graphics to your business card if you are 100 percent sure it will help reinforce your branding rather than confuse it. Even one little piece of bad clip art on your business card will make your business seem small, inexperienced and devoid of marketing savvy.
Clip art doesn’t help your card communicate anything and, in most cases, makes it worse. People will assume you take a “good enough” approach to business and will be less likely to choose to work with you.
3. Consider including a QR code.
A QR code is a matrix barcode that is readable by smartphones and can be a great way to make a connection between your real life and online marketing materials. You can use this code to create special, memorable features on your website and reward those you meet in person for reaching out to you.
QRs make for great conversation starters and gives you an opportunity for a clever marketing moment if your code leads to a special landing page on your website. Just make sure to test your QR code with as many smartphones as possible before you go to print.
4. Resist overcrowding your business card.
The two most important pieces of information on an effective business card have remained the same for almost two decades: your phone number and email address. This very simple card might not work for everyone, and including elements like a personal cell phone number and company website address is often smart. Social extras you can be introduced to the relationship once it is solidified.
5. Don’t be cheap.
If you don’t want your card to get shoved into a wallet, a desk drawer or tossed into the recycling bin, you need it to stand out, and a couple of cents won’t be enough to cover the cost of true distinctiveness. You need to invest time and money into producing a quality business card that has a chance of remaining on someone’s desk, and better yet, a chance of making someone check out your website, send an email, pick up the phone or visit you in person.
Invest some dollars upfront into creating the kind of image that will appeal to the kind of customers you want to attract. Partner with a designer or agency who understands your business and knows how to communicate your unique selling proposition through the print medium.
Contact us if you would like a professionally designed business card.
Tags: business card, design, impression, professional, QR code
Categorised in: Did you know, VoiceMailTel