Business cards have not yet died out despite popular belief. There’s still plenty to be gained from having a few on you when you attend fairs, conferences, networking or other social events. You never know when you might need to pass on your contact information or website details to an interested party.
Often at networking events, people receive a lot of business cards from various people. This means you already have some competing to do. How do you make sure your business card gives the right impression, stands out and encourages someone to call or visit your website?
Designing the perfect business card is harder than it sounds, but we have some helpful tips on how to get started.
First impressions with your brand count
First impressions are absolutely key in the business world. They can be such a simple, often unconscious moment that can make all the difference in whether a customer decides to go through with a sale or at least learn more about your business.
That means your brand has to give the right impression and to do that you need to look at the larger issue of your company branding as a whole. Is it giving the right first impression? Is your branding giving customers a sense of your company culture, what your aims are and how customers will be treated? Does your brand look bland and uninspiring when you meant it to be fun and friendly?
Once you’re happy with your company branding, business cards are one of the steps in bringing that branding front and centre. Does your business card use the same colour scheme, logo, tone of copy and overall message as the rest of your branding? This will ensure brand consistency which will help to establish familiarity with who you’re targeting.
Familiarity can be a huge aspect of the customer decision process because customers will generally prefer to work with a brand they’re already familiar with. Branding helps you establish that familiarity.
Business card design matters
Designing the perfect business card isn’t a simple case of slapping a logo and contact number on a piece of card. Following good design principle is key to designing the perfect business card.
A basic rule of thumb is to keep all text at least 5mm away from the trim edge and ensure that it’s not too small to be read clearly. For images, it’s best to work at around 300dpi for the clearest image reproduction.
The quality of your business card says a lot about your brand
If you produce lots of business cards cheaply, that low quality is typically easy to spot. This might be good for your accounts, but it gives a certain impression to your customer. If you opt for expensive paper, foil trimmings and engraved copy, then this says something completely different. Think carefully about what the quality of your business cards, plus the design, says about your business.
For example, if you’re a luxury brand, you need to give customers a little insight into that luxury with good design.
All contact details need to be clear and relevant
When you give a business card, you should be clear on what you want the next steps to be and then make it easy for whoever has received it to carry those steps out. If you want them to visit your website for a quote, this information needs to be clear, front and centre on your card. If you want them to call, the phone number is obviously key.
What’s best avoided is having several numbers and conflicting information. Don’t give the numbers of 4 different people in the office. Instead, keep it simple.
Many business cards go for the personalised approach when it comes to contact information. They’ll typically have the person’s name, job title and their direct phone numbers and email addresses. This is a nice touch and also helps the customer feel more connected to the brand. Similarly, if you want the customer to use an email address, a generic admin@company email address is fine, but a name@company might be a nicer touch.
Another thing to add to your business card is social media details or icons. This is handy if you want to promote your brand over social media and encourage people to get involved over there too.
Stand out from the crowd and do something different
Do you want your card to stand out in a pile of others? Then add something that transforms your card from being merely functional to having a nice touch that will stand out and become eye-catching.
There are several ways you can do this because printing techniques have definitely improved in recent years. There’s no need to have plain, traditional cards with nothing special or eye catching these days.
You can use things like raised print, foil trimmings or a quirky shape that they haven’t seen before. Some businesses in recent years have even turned their business cards into handy little tools such as cheese graters or phone stands. If you want your card to be somewhere people can see regularly, you can even add a magnetic back so customers can stick it to the fridge. This is very useful for babysitters, gardeners, plumbers or hairdressers who need to be contacted either regularly or suddenly.
Another printing technique to help your business card stand out is die cutting. This is the process of removing elements from the card stock to leave behind a void. This can give you a lot of creative freedom to design a uniquely perfect business card.
Adding something a bit different will make customers notice your card first and take a second look, which will increase conversions.
Do your professional image a favour and get a designer
If in doubt or you have absolutely no graphic design experience, the best thing you can do is get in touch with professional designers who can get started designing the perfect business card. They will help you design something that represents your brand, stands out and looks clean by using professional printing techniques.
When it comes to anything branding related, it needs to be handled professionally and thoughtfully. Business owners are busy enough. If you haven’t got the time to step away from other duties, then get a professional to handle it all for you.
Posted on Friday, November 22nd, 2019 at 2:34 pm in Latest News.