An effective business card needs to have to more to it than just your name and contact information. There are countless different ways that you can make use of the small space of a business card in terms of design and information to make your business card stand out from all the others. An effective business card should draw the attention of potential business prospects and contacts who might otherwise have thrown the card away and will help you to network in a more effective way. Follow these simple rules to make sure your business card properly represents your brand and does the work to attract potential clients or business partners.
Include Only What’s Most Important
You need to include enough information to catch the interest of the person that you’re giving it to. Don’t try to put everything on it. Forget the kitchen sink, and only include the information that you need. Be selective.
It might be tempting to reduce the font size to try and cram on every single social network profile that you have, a slogan, or more details, but this only leads to an overload of information and nothing memorable will stick.
Make Sure It Is Legible
Interesting looking fonts are fun, but you want the recipient of your card to actually be able to to read it at a glance. Make sure that any of the fonts that you use on your business card are readable. They shouldn’t be too small, too fancy, or distorted in any way.
If you want a design element to add some visual interest to your business, then let you logo be the the thing that stands out, keep the text simple and straightforward. You also add an interesting detail to an otherise plain card, like choosing metallic finish business cards.
Avoid Full Coverage
Some people, when they are given a business card, like to jot down a word or a phrase on the card to help jog their memories about the person who gave it to them. Using white space effectively on your business card, such as only putting content on one side, will allow the recipient to do this more easily.
From a design angle, white space will also help to draw attention to the parts of the card that do include text or your logo.
Get Them Printed Professionally
Unless you have commercial printing capabilities, do-it-yourself business card can often come across as cheap or second-rate. This is the last impression you want to make on the recipient of your card.
If you’re worried about the cost of business cards, you might be able to save a moderate amount of money and update your information more easily if you print your cards yourself, but the impact of handing over a business card that you made at home is never going to be the same as cards that you have had printed professionally. If you can afford it, have your cards printed by a professional, even if you design them yourself.
Design For Your Audience
If you have multiple businesses that complement one another, you could consider using the front of your business card for one of your businesses, and the back for the other one.
However, if you have two businesses that are unrelated to each other, for example, a you do graphic design by day, and drive a removal van at weekends, then you should create separate business cards for each of your ventures to avoid confusing people. Each card should speak directly and appropriately to each audience.
Use Special Finishing Options Carefully
Select a finish that is relevant to your brand, not something you think looks fun to try. There are lots of options available, such as round corners or other die cuts, holes punched through, different sizes, embossing, foil details, and folds, that can make a simple card stand not.
If creative elements like this are not relevant to your brand, your business card could be memorable for the wrong reasons.
Consider A Call To Action
A simple, streamlined business card can use some space for a special offer or another call to action. Crafta short message that offers a discount, directs recipients to your website, or provide a relevant tip that will be useful to the recipient.
If you hit the mark with a targeted call to action, you can make your card more memorable and immediately more interesting to help you generate more leads in the process.
