• Website(s)
• Email Addresses
• Instant Messaging ID’s
• Social Properties (a-la Facebook)

and of course the original stuff:

• Name
• Title
• Company Name
• Phone Number
• Fax Number
• Physical Address

 
You get the picture.  There just isn’t much room on a 2.5 by 3 card to hold all that stuff, is there?
 
Nope!
 
So people have started shrinking the size of the font they use so they can cram it all on. 
 
This just makes a business card too hard (especially for an aging population) to read.
 
Listen if I can’t just glance at your card to get your phone number or email address, guess what?  I’m not contacting you, unless you are the ONLY one who can provide a solution for me, which is not very likely is it, so I’ll go to the next gals card. 
 
So how do we solve this dilema?
 
Glad you asked! 
 
First of all don’t shrink the font. 

Next review what information you really want on your card.  In most cases you probably won’t be putting your Facebook or Instant Messaging ID’s, unless you really want people to contact you that way.

Then you could create some white-space by using some abbrieviations like “P:” for Phone Number, “E:” for email address, etc…

Finally consider designing multiple cards, focusing each design on a segment of your target market.  This will allow you to create a more compelling reason for someone to contact you.

Have a good one!
Mark

Today, I’ll share with you a “best” (by vote) answer I gave on the very popular Yahoo answers site.

The question was around what key information to put on a freeelancer type business card.  In particular they were wondering about putting their home address.

FYI: I ran away with 100% of the votes for best answer, which is:

Only include information about ways that you want to be contacted.

If you want to meet people at your home then include your home address.

If you only want people to contact you through your website, only put that.

The thing is most business people load all kinds of contact information onto their business cards, but it’s better (for you) to just give the contact points that you want to  actually use.

I’m glad people on Yahoo liked my short and to the point answer and hope this helps you with your next business cards.

Have a great day!
Mark

Being the business card guy that I am, I picked one up.

I think the person must have been really impressed with the business card scene from the slasher flick American Psycho (this scene is on my business card videos page), because their business card design sure is similar.

Plain white background!

Name in big letters in the middle!

Vague description of what they do! (Artist/Photograher)

And even more:

No Address (well they had the city and province)

No web site address

A generic ISP-based email address

It did however, have a phone number! Unfortunatley just no particular reason to use it.

So how can this card be improved?

Let’s see…

Plain white background. There is nothing wrong with being minimalist in your business card design.  So this part is fine, and could even help the card to stand out in a crowd of other business cards.

Name in big letters. While we all like to see our name stand out, the main thing this persons prospects are likely interested in are what type of art and/or photography they do.

Vague description.  Art and photography are pretty big categories.  Make it more specific.  Do you excel at certain types of art or prefer doing specific photography?

(Rant warning: a business card should focus on one thing. If you specialize in more than one thing, you need to have multiple business cards.)

Generic ISP-based email.  Gotta get rid of that, a business that doesn’t have it’s own website and email address just screams unprofessional, and possibly fly-by-night!  It costs like $10 bucks a month to have your own domain and email address, get it!

Okay, I hope this helps in your business card success.

Have a great day!
Mark

As you know business cards continue to be the main marketing vehicle for many businesses, especially in the small business arena.

But, what if you have an online business, one where you don’t have a physical address for your business?

Do you still need to have business cards?

You may think there would not be any reason to have business cards for your online business, but lets review a couple of things about business cards before we jump to that conclusion.

Is Your Business For Real?

First, your business card can lend an air of credibility to your business.  In the offline business world, nearly every business has business cards and as clients and consumers we exepct legitimate businesses to have business cards.  You should understand that perception plays a huge role for an online business, many people are leery of online businesses, thinking they might be shady or fly-by-night companies.  Yes, I know, some are and some are offline as well.  But, having a business card helps build a positive image in your prospects and clients mind.

Traffic and More Traffic

As an online business you want to use as many effective ways as you can to get more interested people to your website.  Having a business card for your web business can help to keep your business on your prospects mind ahead of your competition. A certain kind of business card excels at doing just that: The Web-Focused Business Card, which I introduced you to in a previous article.  Just make sure you have an effective business card design that helps guide people to your website for more information about your products and services.

Do you still need to have business cards for your online business?

The short answer is … Yes, if you want more business!
HTH and have a great day!
Mark

Did you see this post about a pretty common business card design mistake that really takes away from the effectiveness of your business cards?

If not, you should take a look to find out what useless information you don’t want to put on your business cards.

Here is a snip:

“…Unfortunatly I wasn’t suprised 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 credability).

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 now would they? So it really did nothing for me as a prospect. Anyway back to the business card…”

Read the rest at Business Card Advisor 

HTH and have a great day!
Mark