| What do people think when they see your business card? Are people
pleased to get them? Are you pleased to give them out?
Your business cards are one of the most important parts of your
marketing toolbox. It’s a little piece of yourself that
you leave behind with the people you meet.
But looking through my big box of all the business cards I’ve
collected from people, I’m surprised by how few of them
say anything meaningful about the people I’ve met. I do
a lot of networking and I meet a lot of people, most of them
interesting, but most of these cards are, well, boring. They
don’t tell me anything about the people that I’ve
met.
Few of these cards make me want to do anything. So the people
with the boring cards are missing out on an opportunity to get
me to find out more about them. A business card should make
me think “Oh, yes, that was Sheila from the petfood company”
reminding me of who Sheila was. This means that when I meet
someone who Sheila might want to talk to, I’ll remember
that she exists.
A business card should also make me want to have a look at the
company website, or send Sheila an email to say hello. It should
be a call to action.
Top tips to make your business cards work for you:
- Use quality printing on a thick card. You want to put across
a message of success, because success attracts people, and high
quality business cards are a relatively low cost way of doing
this.
- Use colour – lots of the business cards in my
big box are boring black print on white with a tiny logo in
one corner. They all look the same. Colour makes an instant
impression and can make your cards stand out from the rest.
- Make your name and the name of your business big enough
to read. Make it easy for people (especially those of us who
don’t have perfect eyesight) to read your details.
- Have a call to action on your card
“Come and visit us for the holiday of a lifetime”
plants the seed in someone mind that they might book a holiday
“Get your free
business health check to help you succeed” gives
people the idea that they can approach me for help.
- Include something that explains what you do. Remember
that there’s an opportunity on the back of the card to
include a tiny version of your elevator speech.
Don’t be shy with business cards
My final recommendation with business cards is – give
them out. So many people are mean with their cards. When you
meet people, give them a card. It at least gives them a chance
to avoid that embarrassing feeling of missing your name in the
introduction.
If you see me around at a networking event –
come up and say hello and give me your card. I promise I’ll
be happy to add it to my collection.
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