The right branding will help any business stand out from the competition…of which there is a lot. Regardless of the particular industry you’re in, everybody is vying for the top spot, which means that making an instant and lasting impression is crucial. The best way to do this is to focus on the details.
Business cards represent the first leave behind element that is used when you engage at a networking event or are trying to make sure that you are remembered after a meeting and that the potential new client/partner has the right contact information to get in touch with you directly. When it comes to designing an effective business card, there are a few things to consider:
‘Consider your market
“You have to consider the audience,” said Alfred Poor, founder of the Center for Small Business, a small business consulting firm. “A B2B card is going to be very different from a card you’re going to use with consumers. A card for art is going to be very different from one for something legal.”As with any marketing campaign, before you embark on designing and ordering your business cards, consider the following questions:
- Are your customers primarily consumers or businesses?
- Do you offer services or products?
- Who is the person you need to attract?
- What do you want that person to feel or think when they hold your card in their hand?
- What is the call to action you want your business card to encourage? Do you want the recipient to go to your website and order products, call you to make an appointment, visit your store or restaurant to buy, or something else?
Your answers to those questions will directly impact the decisions you will make about your business card.
What information will your business card contain?
In the pre-internet days, a good business card was like a personal calling card. It included your name, company name, title, physical address and phone numbers. As digital took over business communications, many cards simply added a slew of new information: website, email address, social network IDs, etc. And that’s a problem, because the more you put on your card, the less likely people will read and remember the important details.
“Don’t water down your message with clutter,” said Nelson Rae, the owner of Nelson Rae+Associates, “Clutter can ruin an opportunity.”
Here are some guidelines on what text information to include on your business card:
- Be sure to have all the essentials: Your website, phone number (if you want customers to call you) and your email address.
- Include your street address only if you need people to come to your physical location.
- Make it obvious what you do and/or offer. That typically involves a tag line under your company name or elsewhere on the card.’
The style of your brand, industry your company is in, and personal design tastes will dictate the rest. To ensure that the quality of the cards is consistent with the quality of the products/services that your brand offers, make sure to use an Ottawa professional printing company.
