In today’s digital age, you still need a physical “bookmark” that you can put in someone’s hand. A business card will allow them to find you long after you name and number have faded from memory or been deleted from their laptop.
Sitting in a coffee shop one day, I got into a conversation with an interesting man who talked to me about his travels and adventures. I never asked him what his occupation was. When he got up to leave, he handed me his business card, told me his name, politely excused himself and left.
I looked at the card he had given me for the first time. There was something about the card that was beautiful and elegant, yet simple and unpretentious.
In fact, the front of the card was blank except for two words, his first name, and, “Photographer”. On the other side was some very succinct, easy to read contact information. Something about it made me just want to keep it, so I put it in my wallet.
About nine months later, a valued customer was very stressed out, even losing sleep because of his only daughter’s upcoming wedding. Seems she had high expectations for her wedding.
He suddenly blurted out, “You don’t know a good wedding photographer, do you?”
I could not remember that man’s name from nine months ago, but I sure remembered his card!
I was able to direct my customer, unknowingly, to one of the greatest wedding photographers in Australia. Turned out, the hard-to-please bride-to-be already knew about the talented photographer and was ecstatic that her father had been able to find and book him.
Needless to say, my customer did not forget that I had been the conduit through which his good fortune had come, which didn’t hurt when it came time to do business.
Why did I keep that business card? Why didn’t I toss it in the nearest rubbish bin?
What Makes A Good Business Card?
Your business card will be your ambassador working for you out there 24/7, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. A good card doesn’t happen by accident.
Let’s examine a few things that go into a good business card.
- Know Your Target Audience
There’s an old saying, “Aim at nothing, and you’ll hit it every time.”
You need to understand your target audience and design your business card accordingly. If you don’t already know them, their styles, tastes, interests, priorities … then you need to learn those things in order to have an effective message when you hand them a business card.
Of course, potential customers are not a homogenous group. Get to know your audience intimately and fashion your 24-hour, pocket “sales-card” to strike at their commonalities that will speak to the majority of them.
- Tickle The Eyes
Superior graphic design is essential. It must visually touch your target audience in a visceral way. A business card is primarily a visual device.
Your message is travelling into your client’s eyes, down their optic nerves, and eventually finding an emotional memory somewhere in the brain cells. Your design must stimulate those brain cells with a memorable message.
There are a million design principles that come and go with business card fads. Avoid full coverage. Utilise white spaces strategically. Brilliant colours, foils, and embossing are mandatory. Shape the cards creatively. Use cut-out spaces to attract attention, and on and on.
The best advice is to find an in-demand, creative professional (like your friends at Not Just Another Copy Shop) and solicit their help with a unique, attention grabbing, classy design crafted specifically for your target demographic.
You may have to pay a little more for a graphic designer’s expertise, but if it will be worth it if you can produce a little salesman that can sing your praises every time the customer looks at it.
- Don’t Say Too Much. Say Enough.
Decide what information is essential to your card. What is the bare minimum that you can get away with? A business card is small. How the text is arranged, positioned, sized, and the font used, what you emphasise and de-emphasise will speak volumes about who you are.
After you have the minimum (identity, contact information) incorporated into a basic design concept that you are confident will represent your values well, then you can start playing around with adding more information that might enhance the card’s effectiveness.
Depending on your business and the strategy that you are employing in your business card’s design, you may want to include only the bare minimum, or add relevant information if and only if it will entice your future customers to keep your card and, ultimately, seeking you out.
However, a business card is not a brochure. Don’t cover it with services and price lists that will ultimately take away from the elegant design and uglify it. People won’t keep ugly cards.
Your professional graphic designer can help guide you into the balance between enough and too much.
Not Just A Copy Shop can be your one stop business card design and printing shop. We offer a broad range of services and products that will be sure to meet your promotional needs.
Not Just A Copy Shop offers different levels of creative assistance at reasonable prices to help you market your business through creative writing and design.
Whatever your business card and promotional product needs, check out our Bronze, Silver, and Gold plans. Decide which plan is best for your business, whatever stage you may be in, and let’s start the sales rolling in!
Call us on (07) 5523 2008 or send us an email at service@notjustacopyshop.com