Five Ways to Make Your Business Card Awesome (Part 1)

I do a lot of networking and I meet dozens of people every week.  I end up collecting a lot of business cards, and then I enter them into a contact manager for follow-up later.

Yes, yes, Bump, CardMunch (or for us Android users, CamCard) exist, yay technology, but still, it's still a paper business card world.  You won't be taken seriously without one.

So, as you can imagine, I've been giving business card design a lot of thought after entering the contact information of lots and lots and lots of folks into my contact manager.  I think we can all make some basic changes for the better – let’s all make our business cards awesome.

AWESOME BIZ CARD TIP 1: LESS IS MORE

Money is tight, and business cards are not cheap.

However, you business card has a primary purpose – to give your contact information to other people so they can contact you at a future date.  If your contact information is not being clearly communicated on your card, you are wasting your money.

There are four critical pieces of information your business card must clearly communicate: your full name, your company name, your primary phone number, and your email address.

Other bits of information (such as your title) are useful, but not required for your card to serve its basic purpose. (Caveat - if you have a physical location, such as a retail shop, you should include your address, but do not omit the Big Four or make those unreadable in order to fit in your address.).

Ivory text on White Paper is so hip!

I have in my collection a card I was given some weeks ago at leads group I attended. It has a script font in medium blue on a black background in 6 point type with a list of products, next to a product image, all on one side of the card (with the back blank).  It’s basically unreadable.  I'm sad for this person, as they have wasted their money (even if you use the free Vistaprint cards... it's a waste).

Here's some tips to improve readabilty:

• Have a high-contrast color scheme – black type on white paper is popular because it’s inexpensive, but it's also very readable.
• Use larger type in a standard font (such as Georgia or Arial) – in a size that is greater than eight points - ten is better.
• Bold or make larger the four important points of information (name, company, phone, email address) if you have other content on your card.
• If you use light color on dark background, make sure it’s very high contrast (for example, white, neon green, or yellow on black is more readable than blue or red).
• If you want to say more than just the basics, use both sides of the card - one side for contact info, the other for marketing information.

Note: if you are a designer or someone who does a creative service such as photography, your business card should reflect your style and, theoretically, include at least one image indicative of your work.

AWESOME BIZ CARD TIP 2: INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS (no exceptions)

I am amazed at how many professional business cards I get missing email addresses.

Friends, we are living in the second full decade of the 21st century. Not having an email address in your advertising and on your business card is the modern equivalent of having no phone number in 1970.

Email is still one of the most preferred methods of contact for lots and lots of people - and when you omit it, you lose that audience.

So, of you do not have an email address to use for business purposes only, get ye to www.google.com and sign up for Gmail immediately.  It’s free and it takes literally minutes.

Go get your new business cards printed with your email prominently displayed on it.  Watch your interactions with your peers, your customers, and your partners improve (because it will).

As an aside, please, do check your business email frequently.  Many people prefer this communication method and it’ll be perceived as lazy or rude if you don’t check it daily at a minimum.  You can ignore personal email all you like - and I know plenty who do - but you can't do that with business email.  Ignore it at your peril.


Part 2 (and three more tips) about making your business cards awesome will come on Thursday - but in the mean time, have you seen any business cards that you really admire?  What about one that make you cringe? I'd love to hear about it at AbanicoMktg@gmail.com or in the comments.