I was at the mall today and the place was full of new and used vehicle’s on display.  A few of these new ones had business cards stuck in the window.  So I grabbed one and looked at it…

Unfortunately I wasn’t surprised to find that it was a very ineffective business card.

Sure it had some of the standard stuff like name, company name, address, cell phone and email address (just a quick note about this, this person’s card has an email address not related to their company, not a good sign! Doing this removes professional credibility).

Then there was also, just over halfway down, an effectively useless (IMHO) statement:

“Committed to Customer Satisfaction… Since 19??”

What exactly does this mean to me as a prospect?  It’s just standard boiler-plate that doesn’t really add anything.  Because I’d venture to say that every business is committed to customer satisfaction, if they weren’t they wouldn’t be in business too long.  So it really did nothing for me as a prospect.  Anyway back to the business card…

So how could this person have made their business card more effective?

Glad you asked! 

First and probably most important in this case is to…

Put some incentive for me to pick up the card today.

A great idea, in this case, is to offer a special limited time discount or bonus right on the business card.  So when your prospect picks this card up, and they are at all interested in getting a new vehicle, they now have a really good reason to take the card away with them and follow-up with you within your “limited time” period.

Another thing that would be beneficial for this particular card would be to use the back.  Put something that will help your prospect in some way, like a map to your business for example.  Or a testimonial from a satisfied client.

Hope this helps you avoid making ineffective business cards!

Have a great day!
Mark