10 Key Points of a Business Card
May 23, 2009 by Kim Beasley
Filed under Business
Business cards! Business cards! Business cards! Do they still exist or are they a thing of the past? With the smartphone, business cards have almost bit the dust but there really are good reasons why you need to make sure you have a business card on hand at all times.
According to an article entitled, “Top 5 Business Card Blunders“, that was written for Entrepreneur.com by John Williams,
The cardinal rule to creating a good business card is to ensure that it reflects your company’s image. From a branding perspective, this means it should match the look and feel of your logo. Yes, you want your card to be unique. Yes, you want people to remember you by it. But if you break the cardinal rule in pursuit of uniqueness, all people will remember seeing is an unusual business card. They won’t remember your brand or its attributes.
Image: SXC.hu
With all of this in mind, let’s now look at some key areas on a business card that you should either include or make sure it matches with how you want to brand your business:
- Informational details
- Personal name
- Business name
- Email address
- Phone number
- Website address
- Design details
- Logo
- USP or catch phrase
- Style or design
- Color scheme
- Layout (landscape or portrait)
Kim – I really like your 10 points, and I think if you hit all those, you’re going to have a very effective business card.
To help your business card really STAND OUT, how about adding some questions on the back of the card that you can help answer or that gives folks pause to ponder the answers? I do this on the back of some of my cards, and the response it creates makes it worth the additional effort it takes to create some powerful questions. One of my favorite questions is “What can I do to help YOU make it great?”
Another idea: die-cut your business cards in a cool shape to help folks keep it around a little longer than just scanning it in and putting it into your contact management system. One of my favorite cards like this is a bee-hive shaped card from Buzzoodle Ron McDaniel.
Great suggestions and thanks for your kudos. I enjoyed making the list and sharing it. I think the suggestions you added will add even more effectiveness to the business card’s impact.
Thanks for sharing,
Kim Beasley, Leadership columnist