I found this short article today about branding-based mistakes people make with their business card design.  It starts out with “one wrong move on a business card could leave a poor mark on a reputation.”  Which is true even not coming from a branding focus.
“…making the cards the wrong size as the first mistake. She said this makes the cards hard to organize and fit in a Rolodex. She said handing out an over or under-sized card means it will most likely end up in the garbage.”

“Other mistakes include not making the card memorable enough, not giving enough details, producing poor quality cards and reflecting the wrong image on the card.”

These are all great things to keep in mind when designing your cards with branding in mind.  I would add:

Trying to put too much differing information on your card.  Focus your card for one task. If you offer two or more different services; create two or more business cards.

Listing features instead of benefits.  Features describe things but don’t really have any emotional attachment whereas benefits describe results people are looking for.

What do you think?

-Mark

P.S. Here is the original article: overnightprints.com