If you ask today’s small business owner to define their marketing strategy, they’ll probably reference online marketing (like PPC and SEO), add a dash or two of social media marketing, and ice the cake with an attempt at a viral video. However, some traditional forms of marketing are still relevant – one of which is the business card!
You remember that old thing, right? It’s 2×4 piece of cardstock you would drop into an empty fishbowl to win a free lunch for your office. Chances are you were never won that free lunch. Don’t worry though; your business card has far greater uses than a monetary-less transaction for free eats. The business card is usually the first impression you create with a potential new customer or partner in the real world. When you meet someone in a conference or a trade show, your first attempt as building a raport is by flashing them your business card, crossing your fingers, and hoping they’ll contact you. Don’t forget about these little wallet stuffers. They are stull useful and should be considered as important as turning up your website to enhance the UX or creating “the bomb” marketing materials to win over customers without even speaking to them. It is important to optimize the way you use your business cards. This post will explore some of the ways in which you can do it.
- Give easy access to information: Your business card should contain all necessary information about you and your business. This includes your direct number, website address, physical address, and your Twitter handle, LinkedIn and Facebook page address. You may use several other social media venues for your business, but these three are the most popular and chances are high that the recipient of your business card would be active in at least one of these places & could possibley engage you on one of those platforms. You don’t want too much clutter on that little space & no one really wants to know if you still have a MySpace or if you are still holding onto the AIM address you made in college ‘Loves2GetWasted’.
- Make it easy to hold & keep: While having an odd shaped card may initially grab some eye-balls, it will be difficult to retain in a standard card holder or even a wallet. It is best to stick to standard sizes when it comes to business cards. The eye doctor with the giant eyeball shaped business card will definitely make an impression, but the card will likely be fodder for the trashcan.
- Give someone a reason to keep it: So you’ve created this card that stows away neatly in the overhead compartment and lists all your vitals, but you still aren’t giving the contact a reason to retain your card. The goal of any card should be to give a person a reason to keep it to increase the chances they’ll contact you at some point. The best area to achieve this is to build some marketing houses on that piece of fresh real estate on the back of the card. Some of the ways to increase chances they won’t toss your card is by giving a coupon code (for a prospective customer) or a list of tips on using your product (for an existing customer). It is a bad idea to give a calendar at the back of your card, as it is only useful for a single year and is too impersonal. Plus, the calendar would be so tiny it may cause your prospects eyes to explode & no one wants to do that to a potential client. If you are using the space to dazzle them with an offer, make sure is unique to your company and also that it has a limited period validity so that the call to action is compelling enough. One great way to do it is to require someone to register on your site and make an initial purchase within a certain number of days, and then have an ongoing discount scheme every time they shop and provide the coupon code. This way, you not only initiate a response, but also work towards gaining customer loyalty. A free shipping code is another great offer you can include with your business card. Don’t forget about the one two punch by drawing the attention of the recipient to the offer by mentioning it when you give the card.
- Use it as a Marketing Tool: Today, getting a business card printed is not expensive. There are print houses online that will give you free cards less shipping and handling fees. Why are people giving these things away for free? Is it because they are worthless? No way! It is still extremely important to treat it as a marketing tool. Which means you need to do all the things you would do for a marketing campaign – start off with a goal, get multiple sets of business cards printed with different offers (to test which works best), distribute them to prospects, and finally track and measure the ROI by verifying how many people actually made use of the offers you gave. If you feel a great rapport with the recipient of your card, it is a great idea to hand over a few cards to them and request them to circulate it among their network to anyone whom they feel can benefit from your products or services.
Even in today’s highly digital world, small business owners cannot ignore the power of networking through face to face meetings and conferences. Your personality will directly reflect your business as much as your business card does, and your business card can go a long way in helping you create a lasting impression. Make sure your card is easy to carry, engaging, customized for each venue, and comes with a compelling reason to keep it. So go ahead and take that pile of 75 business cards you jammed under the foot of your desk to stop it from wobbling and put them to better use – building relationships in the real world.
Image by Lachlan Hardy
Nicolas DAlleva is the owner of Specialty Answering Service, an outsourcing provider of 24x7 phone answering for businesses. For more information, please visit their blog at specialtyansweringservice.net/telecom-blog/.
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You make a great point. While business cards are not normally required for online marketing, they are still needed when engaging in face-to-face introductions at seminars, workshops, and conferences. Your tips are fabulous. If I had been a skeptic in the beginning, I’m no longer one after reading this post.
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specialtytas Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 5:27 pm
Thanks for the feedback Anthony!
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There are still lots of great uses for having an up-to-date business card. Especially if you go to events like BlogWorld!
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Awesome tips! I would also like to add to make it where you can fit it in your pocket or wallet. I have seen some pretty awesome cards, if standing out is the goal, but most times at conferences I attend regularly for work, cards ends up in the bottom of their bag if they don’t fit in their wallet.
I think you just have to get creative with your message, design and goal you expect to come out of it. Some cards I see are so small that I lose them and not realize it. That’s a big miss if a prospect loses your card because it was so tiny. Cute is nice, but practical wins me over.
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specialtytas Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 5:31 pm
Thanks Sonia. The trick is to make the card accessable enough where it won’t end up at the bottom of your conference swag bag & get tossed like the 15 beer cozys you probably picked up going booth to booth.
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Sonia Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 5:50 pm
Now that was funny…after our last show we collected 1,000 business cards and the ones that too small to hold got lost.
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Nick DAlleva Reply:
June 19th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
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Hi Stacy,
When doing some offline work, giving out business cards even though really old school got great results. No one can dodge a business card. Online we remember the simple ads. Simple business cards work the best.
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I really need to order some for my blogs. When I tell someone I am a blogger it would be nice to be able to hand them a card with my info on it.
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The best feature of business card is, it’s physical and your potential customers can easily carry anywhere. And it helps them know all possible ways to connect with you. Like physical address, phone number, email id and so on.
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Alex Reply:
July 18th, 2012 at 9:03 am
Well said Aasms. However, make sure it stands out from the crowd, give it a better look. Laminate is and get ones that have round corners. This will maximize your exposure to people you handle your business cards to. What is your best finish of a business card?
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Business card is a great tool which have all knowledge about you and your business. Business card is very useful for marketing…
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I’ve never tried business cards before, even when I was working for a company. But I always liked experimenting with designs for print. I’m a full-time freelance writer now. Maybe I should give it a try.
Another blogger mentioned how she leaves credit cards in public bathrooms and trains. What do you think about?
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Thank you for reminding us that many of the seemingly perceived old methods still work.
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Hi Nick i read this review yes Business Card is very important to introdue to another person. when i read your review i fell uncomfortable it’s to much big paragraph you make it small paragraph then reader easy read i think so… it’s very mix up
So you review is Great i like it.
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One of the biggest ‘tips’ I was given when I started was order 2000 at the start of the year, by the end of the year, have none. Postcards work great too. Great post thanks, nice to see ‘offline’ is still remembered.
Dawn
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One of my favorite apps is Cardmunch from LinkedIn, that way I don’t have cards piling up(which I would just toss) but I still have the contact info. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/cardmunch-business-card-reader/id478351777?mt=8
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I’m so glad I noticed this article. I’ve been working online for awhile now and while business cards are on my to-do list they keep getting pushed to the bottom of of the stack. In fact I’m about to add a new service to my business so it really is time to get proactive about making this happen. Thanks for the nudge!
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I am new to the whole Internet marketing aspect of my business. I still grow my business the old fashioned way via word of mouth and business cards. It can be very effective as well. But harder to penetrate different markets and takes longer.
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I agree with you nick. That is why most people try to be different from their business card. I’ve seen some extra ordinary transparent business card. A extra ordinary business card has the ability to take attention of ur potential customers.
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Of course! It’s still a form of marketing strategy. I still give my business card to my clients especially when I get the chance to meet them personal or when I do email them (snail mail). It gives personal attachment to your clients, which I think is one of the best way to build relationships within your business.
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A business card is more easily carried and stored wherever we are, and will assist others in finding and saving our website address and email.
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Yep!!.. so true!!.. business cards are very important marketing tool.. It’s a presenter of a business.. Mostly people judge about business to see business cards. Interesting article it is!
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I am very much thankful and greatful for your worldclass information.please publish some more information about this matter.
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Totally true. Business cards can never be overlooked as they play the most vital role in marketing a business specifically in offline world.
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Your business card is often the first impression that others have of you and your business, so make sure you have a good one. Taking the time to put together a professional, impressive business card that people will actually read can help you save embarrassment and get more business, too. After all, isn’t that the whole point of having a business card?
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