Tuesday 8 April 2008

What to put on business cards?



This is an example of the business card I ordered recently...
It does miss few details but generally I am happy with it.
Template from www.vistaprint.co.uk


In one of the recent forums I came across the question: "I'm trying to make some business cards. What are some things you put on your business cards to get people to your shop?"


I kind of thought it is an easy question as business cards are about attracting people but this means you have to think of when will you use them, whom will you give them to. I approach this subject from marketers, publishers perspective.

Your business card has to represent whom you are in a very informative, non-verbal and stylish way. The main thing is to keep the style and quality. Cheap does not mean good. If is standard that the more famous and important you are the less information you have on your business card.

There are few rules to follow:


1. Ideally the card should be attractive to keep and pass on to others (including something you would use, most used are calendars on the back of the business card). If you achieve this people will be passing your cards as interesting and useful pieces;

2. It has to represent your style, so an image of: what you do, your banner, logo, name of the business - just one of these features will be perfect;

3. Few words (very few 2-3) on what you do. Avoid general meaningless terms like "handmade", "unique", "beautiful", give more detail about what is YOUR product;

4. Your contact details: name, telephone number, shop's address & possibly link to your blog (if it is something you would like to show your customers. Do not overfill with information, leave the most important bits;


5. Not too much information but just enough to show who you are and make customers interested.

Have a look at the different useful links:

What makes a good business card? - advice and online discussion
Online business card - I use this web as it holds kind of self-updating business cards
General Business Card Guidelines - a simple checklist to start with

7 comments:

my little Aura said...

Great suggestion, I will consider all this points in my next design of business card...sometimes you want to add everything and you only make a mess....

ei! kumpel said...

great info Renata!

I ordered and received some with the same design as yours :)

Laura said...

Great post, you should have a look at www.moo.com who print up mini cards, 100 for £12 including delivery and you can submit up to 100 images so every card can be different. Worth a look, they also do personalised stickers.

Becca said...

Great info, I actually have unique as one of my descriptives, and my husband has said in the past I need to "work" on my card. I also have a piece from my collection on the card :)

Anonymous said...

I ordered exactly the same ones too, loved the design. This is going to be my first business card, so I'm going to learn from this. I put all my contact info on it and a few words about what I do.

Jen of MadeByGirl said...

This was a great read.. good tips here. Thanks!

Jen Ramos
'100% Recycled DESIGNER Cards & More'
www.madebygirl.com
madebygirl.blogspot.com

Plastic business cards said...

This is stunning post..really interesting info and awesome cards.!!!