A lot of people today are business minded, and many at some time in their life plan to start a business of their own. A lot of them pursue this dream of theirs, and do almost everything required to start up a nice business. But most people forget or neglect making a good business card for their business taking it as a waste of resource. All those who consider business card to be of little value are absolutely wrong in their perspective.
A business card contributes a lot to a business success. Just one look at it reflects everything about your organization or business. It displays how serious you are about your business. A true businessman knows the value of customer time, and hence in order to make a good impression in short time, will always have an interesting/ attractive card.
A lot of different kinds of business cards are available in the market today. Earlier, only Text business cards were available, but now, one can have pictures too.
Customers can be lured by making the card as attractive as possible. Some of such attractive cards are Glossy business cards, digital print business cards etc. Colored business cards provide people the choice to have multicolored text on it. It's great for special occasions where you want to highlight something.
Those who are willing to spend more on cards can get unique business cards or Personal business cards with unique designs made solely for respective business. One can also avail discount on the printing of the cards by ordering business cards in bulk. For example, if you buy 1000 at once, you will get an overall 10% discount which you otherwise might not get.
Business cards can be made to look attractive by adding certain cheap features like full color print on business cards, or by buying transparent business cards.
Well, whatever type of card you choose, make sure it is not boring and is eye catchy and attractive because the right kind of business card can go a long way in showing your customers that you care and attests your professionalism.
Make Business Card Free
1. Be Creative.
Be creative in the design of your business cards. Business cards do not just need to be bits of paper with your contact details on them. Be creative and give your business cards a use and purpose. Make them a powerful marketing tool in the promotion of your business.
Your aim is to make your business card something that the receiver will want to keep and make use of. This is the difference between a well thought out and designed business card and a piece of paper with your contact details on it that will probably be thrown into the trash.
Give the recipient of your business cards a special offer. For example if you are a school/training centre you may offer ?first lesson for free with this card? or if you run a shop maybe you will offer ?10% of any purchase over $50?.
Whatever your business, there is a creative way to give your business card real value to the receiver. If you can think and implement these new creative ways before your business does, you will have an instant advantage in that area of business, and should definitely see a rise in business if you have promoted you cards correctly.
2. The 1 minute rule
The 1 minute rule basically says, if you talk to a person for longer than 1 minute they should already have one of your business cards in their hand.
This means in conversations you need to find a way to talk about what you do, and be in the position to be able to offer one of your business cards to the person you are talking to in the first minute of conversation. This can be likened to a conversation you may have with someone at the bus stop or on the elevator. The conversation will end in a very short time and you only have a very short time to get your message across, or in this case get your business card to the recipient.
The 1 minute rule is basically just practice to get your business card out there as much as you can. Many people go through all the trouble of ordering business cards just to let them sit in a corner of their office. To use business cards effectively you must be giving them out at every opportunity that you have.
3. Make them keepers
Once you have given your business card to someone what is going to keep it from being thrown in the trash or forgotten about. Unless you are selling necessities it is probably fair to say that most likely they do not need the product/services you are offering at the present moment. Hopefully though in the future will come a time when they are looking for that product/service and that is when your business card still needs to be in the hands of the person.
Why does someone want your business card? If you cannot answer that easily, maybe it is time to think about a new business card design.
Does your business card have valuable information on it? By valuable I mean a map, discount, calendar, measurements, charts or anything relevant to your industry? If it doesn't, you may want to think about adding a value feature to your business card.
4. Leave them everywhere you go
During a number of trips around a number of businesses in my local area I have noticed piles of business cards on the counters of various businesses. For example a recent trip to my accountant I noticed they had a few piles of business cards on the counter for mortgage lenders, home loans, etc.
This can be likened very much to link swapping that goes on with webmasters looking for business referrals from similar businesses.
Every place that you frequent, you should ask if they mind you leaving a stack of you business card there for their customers. You could try this at your doctors office, your dentist, accountant, lawyer, beauty saloon or hairdresser.
For similar businesses (e.g. accountant > lawyer or money lender) maybe you can arrange to have a stack of their business cards displayed at your business when they offer your business cards at theirs. This can be a very effective way to use you business cards and can have great returns.
5. Ask for an opinion
?Do you mind if I ask you a quick question? I'm looking for opinions on my new business card?. After asking the question and bringing the topic up hand them a business card. Make sure that they keep it, even if they try to hand it back to you tell them that you have thousands printed already.
Thank the person for their time, and if they ever need the product or service that you are offer that your contact information is on the business card. Even if that person may not directly contact your business, there is always a chance that they may pass your card or business name onto another party.
Even in the worse case they may go home and tell their friend how a nut just came and talked at the bus stop and handed them a business card for his lawn mowing service. That friend may say, ?I've been looking for a good lawn mower?. ?Here's the business card I got?. And there is a situation where you may still even get business out of handing your business card to a stranger and even a disinterested stranger.
By following just one of the above five ideas each day, you can turn your business card into a great marketing tool, and see an almost instant increases in business.
Both Hemanti Chunawala & John Harley are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Hemanti Chunawala has sinced written about articles on various topics from Book Reviews, Business Cards and Public Relations. Business Machines, Folding machines, Business Calculator, ink rollers, Dicta Phones and Tapes, Fax machines, Labeling Machines, Trimmers and Guillotines,. Hemanti Chunawala's top article generates over 4400 views. to your Favourites.
John Harley has sinced written about articles on various topics from Gardening, Business Cards. http://www.thebusinesscardshop.net Written by John Harley of ?The Business Card Shop?. The cheapest full color busine. John Harley's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.
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