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Designing an attention-getting card:
- Spend a little time determining how you'll use your card and who
will receive it. A previous customer probably needs to know less about product benefits but may appreciate fuller contact
information. A card often given to prospective customers should be more marketing- oriented.
- Keep it simple and legible, with plenty of white space. If you overcrowd
the card, it won't get read. The most basic info is your name, your company name, and your phone number (which should be in
bold text or a larger size, if there are other numbers on the card.)
- Add color! The vast majority of cards are printed in black ink on
white card stock. Full-color cards are available these days at very economical prices, yet are still unique enough to attract
attention.
- Use your business card to drive traffic to your website.
Prospecting creatively with business cards:
- The way you present your card has far more to do with your success
than your card itself. Presenting your card with both hands, for example, creates an enormous psychological impact ("Hey,
this must be important!")
- If you can't seem to find a suitable moment to give your card to
someone you feel could be a great prospect, ask for his or her card. (In fact, ask for two or three. Tell them you want extras
to distribute to people you know.) Odds are, they'll ask for your card in return.
- Introduce yourself with your card. Hand your card to the receptionist
at the doctor's office, the hostess at the restaurant, or the technician at the auto repair shop.
- Include your card with all correspondence. Enclose your card when
you return rented goods … everything from tools to videotapes to automobiles (especially if it's a luxury model!)
- Offer to include business cards on your web site as a community service
(announce this to the media!)
- Refer business to others. Offer to include the cards of business
people you respect with your mailings, if they'll agree to do the same with yours. Join a business-networking group.
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Make it a goal to give away a certain
number of business
cards each and
every day, and you'll start enjoying
the financial rewards that you went
into
business for, to begin with!
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Organizing cards:
- Jot notes on the back of cards you're given, such as date, event,
common interests, physical characteristics of the giver, type of information you need to send, and so on. Do this right away,
before you forget. (When you want to be discreet about writing notes on the back of newly acquired business cards, excuse
yourself to go to the restroom. Lock yourself in a stall and write!)
- Rate prospects *A*, *B* or *C*, with *A* being a hot prospect and
*C* a lukewarm lead. Write the rating on the back of their card.
- Develop a system for carrying and collecting business cards, and
file them the way you remember them (by company name, person's name, or industry.)
- A cigarette case or compartmented coin purse can be used to temporarily
organize business cards.
Set yourself a goal of giving out 5 or 10 cards daily, and very soon,
you'll be getting the attention (and the money!) you wanted. And that's why you went into business, isn't it....
Copyright 2003-6 Diana Ratliff. All rights reserved.
Diana Ratliff is an entrepreneur with a passion for the power
of the carefully-chosen word, and she believes that marketing materials should work as hard as their owners do. Former publisher
of the Way to Grow Home Business Directory and the Way to Advertise newsletter, her experiences with new
business owners led to a fascination with business cards.
Diana noticed that many of her clients would order cheap,
ugly cards and then somehow expect the world to beat a path to their doors. She became a Business Card "Guru" and gives her
very best advice in her new ebook, "Business Card Breakthroughs". Also, for the best in affordable and versatile business
card printing, visit BizCardGuru Recommends....
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