Oh yeah, the digital world is a real hater when it comes to paper business cards, but cards are still essential when it comes to marketing, credibility and socializing. Like stationery, business cards still play a more personal role in offering contact information to a client. Additionally, the more ways a customer’s attention is drawn towards a brand, the more likely a sale will generate.
Thoughtfully consider what essential contact information to include and try to avoid cramming every line of communication in there. Here are some ideas:
Two phone numbers or less.
Choose wisely and keep it clean. If you add a fax line (yuck!) then that counts as one number. I recommend only one phone number, but some companies need faxes for orders (that’s absurd!). Also, it is completely acceptable to provide a toll-free and local number especially for sales people who travel. We’ve also seen a combination of a cell phone number with an office number. Your team will have to decide which pair is most essential, we just recommend avoiding a triumvirate.
Stick to good typography.
Unless your company relies on a mascot for branding, try to stray away from photos or clip art. Carefully consider typography since it can have such a huge impact on design. If you know absolutely nothing about typography, hire a designer. It will go a long way in building your brand.
Socializing online
Nowadays, it’s impossible to avoid social media on our business cards. Before just throwing up a long Facebook link, consider Twitter or Pinterest since those outlets might actually be more beneficial for clients and your business. For instance, we are adding Instagram to our cards so people can view print samples quickly and easily. We prefer to advertise our handle (@printkeg) accompanied by a few social website icons.
Forget about titles.
Titles take up valuable real estate on the business card. Only add your title if it is absolutely necessary. Does adding “Sales Representative” really make a huge difference? Probably not. Titles like Founder, Human Resources, Sales Manager, Store Manager, CTO might be relevant enough according to the receiver.
Limit email addresses and URL’s.
My goodness, don’t stuff a ton of emails and URLs onto one card. One email, company website, and a single social media spot are plenty.
An example
With our new plastic cards, we decided to refrain from flooding our prospect with too much information. We only include our logo, name, email address and phone number.
We hope these ideas are helpful in your quest of creating an optimal business card. Learn more about our business card printing.
