Why A Business Card Is Important!

The other day I was conversing with a friend, a filmmaker and photographer. His work has recently been awarded many honors in the recent Newport Beach Film Festival along with the OCC Shorts. Nevertheless, he needed a business card and wanted to design it himself. He created one and asked for my opinion. So I gave it to him and he ended up creating a really nice business card. However, as I was giving him the advice, it got me thinking that most people really don’t know how to create/design a professional and beautiful business along with actually having the knowledge on how to use the business card. Especially for us young entrepreneurs, business cards are a vital marketing tool that shows the determination of you, portrays the images (hopefully a good image) of your company and your customer service.

Since I thrive on relationships and love to network with other people in any business or field, I always ask for a business card from them and always return them with a business card from me. This way, it shows that 1) I am actually interested in what they say and who they are and 2) that I want to grow our relationship and/or keep in touch. These two specific aspects are key to growing yourself as a person because you are opening yourself to a wide variety of connections and friends and for your business because you never know, someday you may be looking for a coroner and you happened to meet one at your friends wedding ceremony and exchanged business cards. Or, that coroner may need your businesses services or recommend you to someone else who needs it. By possessing a business card, whether it be for your personal use or for business, will help you grow relationships and friends and extend your business. But also, having business cards for your company is an effective marketing tool that provides a creative picture of your company.

Now that we have looked at why it is important to have a business card, let us look at five ways you can create an effective business card:

1. Paper – Having a good paper weight is the first thing that you need to look at when getting a business card. Contrary to what people believe, business cards are not that expensive. I personally have purchased all my business cards through PrintForLess and have received great service and products at very inexpensive prices. You want to have strong paper, not the cheap $3.99 stuff. Remember, you get what you pay for, and in this case, if you spend $3.99 on business cards, you are going to get, yup, NOTHING! Do not skimp on business cards (the paper). You must remember that the card is representing you and your company and that this is a marketing campaign that you don’t want to operate on a $3.99 budget. My motto is: Do it right, and do it right the first time. So make sure that you get strong, heavy paper that will be durable and that will last. Every well organized business knows the value of a worthy business card, because they all have them.
2. Design – Now this is probably the hardest for most people, unless you hire someone to do it, like ArisTech Media. What I told my friend was that he needed a business card that was professional, simple and showed his creativeness. The same goes for you. You want a card that shows that you are a professional person and company. Not something that is sloppy, for your card is a mirror of your company and yourself, and you want the mirror to be professional. You also want your card to be simple. Everyone once in awhile I will see a business card that is either just too complicated or outright screwed up. The other day, I was handed a business card by an insurance agent and it was a white background with beige writing. After a few minutes of trying to cypher the words, I just gave up. Well, actually I was able to read it, but it was a pain in the ass. You want to make your business card simple. You are trying to convey basic contact information on the card, not the whole website or something. My point is, make sure your card is not complicated and is readable (i.e. simple). Next, is to have a card that is creative. This is last on the list because you first want to get the professionalism and simpleness down first because those are the most important. Yet you want to show creativeness, something that sets your card (or business) apart from others. As I told my friend, he is a filmmaker and if someone wants to hire him, he is going to be looking at that business card and if he has two good filmmakers to choose from who are both really good, and he has two business cards, who do you think he is going to call first. His first impression when looking at the business cards will be the creative design. That is how the human brain functions. So why not take advantage of that and use it for your benefit.
3. Information – Now your card better contain some basic information about you and your company, more relating to contact info. You definitely want to convey your name, your phone number, email address, and if you are a company, your company logo. That is the bare minimum. I recommend that if you have the space, place your address, website, company position and some basic information about you or the company. However, keep in mind that we our speeding towards an all digital age, so your email address and website will be key.
4. Back Side – Now you have two sides to a business card which equals two opportunities to market yourself. My recommendation is to place more information about your company. Some people like to put stuff like a small calendar, or note area on the back. I prefer to place a good amount of info on the back or spread everything out nicely so it doesn’t look crowded.
5. Size – This shouldn’t be a hard one, yet sometimes people like to have bigger and better business cards. I recommend you stick with the common and usable 3 ½”x 2″ card. Some people like to put business cards away in standard business card albums or to import cards into electronic storage.

So that is really my overall thoughts on business cards. Just remember that these fundamentals are key in representing your personal and company image to others. A professional, simple and creative business card will go a long way in marketing your company to others.

Below is a list of basic business card etiquette that no one ever follows but may come in handy. I just took a snippet of the info and pasted it below. If you would like to read the full article, just click here.

•Business cards are an internationally recognized means of presenting personal contact details, so ensure you have a plentiful supply.
•Demonstrating good business etiquette is merely a means of presenting yourself as best you can. Failure to adhere to foreign business etiquette does not always have disastrous consequences.
•When traveling abroad for business it is advisable to have one side of your business card translated into the appropriate language.
•Business cards are generally exchanged at the beginning of or at the end of an initial meeting.
•Good business etiquette requires you present the card so the recipient’s language is face up.
•Make a point of studying any business card, commenting on it and clarifying information before putting it away.

By the way, here is a business card that I designed that pretty much incorporates almost everything I just stated. Let me know what you think.

P.S. – Here is a great link to some awesome business cards.

Tallyho,

Sean Wing