As important as a handshake, handing a business card is the professional way to introduce yourself and your business. If you haven’t had a business card yet, stay on this page and read through to learn how to create business cards and the importance of this ultimate marketing tool.
Create Business Cards 1: The Purpose
Some people may underestimate the value of a business card only as contact information. But in fact, a business card is one of the most vital marketing tools. To mention few main purposes of business cards:
- A brief introduction about you and your business to a potential client
- A great opportunity to stick in someone’s mind after they’ve met you
- Getting your company attention and spreading your company’s name
- As an invitation for future interaction
- As a reminder of who you met in business meetings, conferences, or trade shows
Considering how essential a business card is, you need to put extensive attention to the content and the design. Important content and engaging design of your business card will attract people towards your business. Keep reading this article to determine which information you should display on your business card, and get inspiration on designing a great business card.
Create Business Cards 2: The Content
Build a powerful connection through your business card by including these on the content:
Company’s Logo and Tagline
As the term implies “Business Card,” obviously you need to emphasize your business through the medium of a card. It is not just a name card, so you have to make sure that your business identity is displayed properly. The logo and tagline need to be a prominent item on the business card.
Your Name
Putting your name on a business card may seem like a simple knowledge that everybody understands. However, there are few considerable points you should think about. First, would you put your full name or your nickname? Both are acceptable for these reasons: a full name might seem more professional than a nickname, but just like in a real introduction would be more natural and less awkward just to say your name as you prefer to be called.
Secondly, consider whether you need to put all academic titles you had. Is it important for the business, better for the image, or increasing your level of competence? Or in contrary, it will more likely appear as a plain snobbery.
Your Job Title
Right beneath your name on a business card is ideally your job title. Sometimes it became a problem when you wear many hats in your business. For example, you are a freelancer, copywriter, blogger, and entrepreneur—which one(s) do you put on your business cards? Make sure to display your role or competence, and not just a global title like “Founder” or “Owner.” It may seem fancy, but simply unhelpful. You might lose a potential client just because he/she forgot what your expertise is, and your business card didn’t mention it clearly.
Contact Information
A good business card should create a personal connection between you and another person. Don’t break that connection by providing only a general phone number of the office, where they have to go through operators before reaching you. It is best to put your direct contact info such as your mobile phone number. However, avoid displaying too-personal contacts such as your home address or phone number. A direct email address is also vital and should be displayed on your business card. As for company’s physical address, it is open for consideration.
If you own a shop or a studio where your location is crucial for the business, then you should get it written on the business card; but if you work mobile or the company’s address doesn’t really matter, then you can skip this info. Also, for contact information, you might want to include your social media profile. But don’t list all your social media accounts on the business card, put one or few social media accounts where you’re most active in and beneficial to the business. If you’re a photographer, for instance, your Instagram account can be supplementary to your portfolio.
Some Empty Spaces
There has to be a space on your business card, meaning that it is not overstuffed with information. As much as you want your it to be informative, comprehensive, or detail, a crowded business card would not be good. Check out some business card design inspirations below for your assistance.
Create Business Cards 3: Design Inspirations
No doubt, the right design of a business card can be very impactful for the business. You want your business card to be memorable, informative, engaging, and powerful. To achieve it, you should start with a high-quality business card templates and designs. Here are some business card design inspirations for you.
Minimalist
Keeping it clean and elegant is generally a good idea for a business card. With a minimalist design, you could obtain a maximum impact, because the prospective client can see clearly and directly to your contact information—without being distracted by the full ornaments on your business card. If you already had an illustrated or iconic logo, for example, avoid adding any other illustration; but if your logo is mainly just text(s), you might add just a simple icon or a specific pattern suitable for your business. These examples posted by 1st Web Designer are minimalist, simple, yet meaningful.
Element of Surprise
Although a business card is better to be clean and elegant, it shouldn’t be all-plain and boring. Remember that the goal is to be memorable—that’s why you need an element of surprise, something unique and differs your business card from others. Check out this article by Bored Panda displaying 30 creative business card designs, and also plenty inspiring examples of letterpress business cards on creativebloq.com. Time to get creative and custom design your own business card.
So, there you go, a complete introduction of the importance, the content, and design inspirations for you to create business cards. Good luck!
