Business cards have been used by professionals for decades. As a business owner, having these cards handy might make the difference between being remembered and forgotten. But in the digital age, are business cards still relevant?
Read on to learn more about business cards, whether you should use them for your business, and how to create them.
A business card, typically smaller than the size of an index card, is a networking tool that contains information about an individual or company.
What you include on your business card varies. Generally, business card information includes an individual’s name and position, company name and website, and contact information such as phone number, fax number, email address, business address, and social media sites. Business cards should also have your business’s logo to improve brand recognition and consistency. And, you could add additional information, like hours of operation.
You can give business cards to potential customers or clients, investors or lenders, other business owners, and even vendors. Use business cards when customers come into your business, pass them out at networking events, and have them handy when meeting with small business advisers.
For the most part, business cards are easy to make or inexpensive to have someone else design them. You can print cards yourself if you have cardstock and a simple design program. Or, you can outsource the entire process. Depending on how you create them, business cards can cost between $10 to $500.
Using entrepreneur business cards to promote your small company is up to you. Take a look at some of the pros and cons of using business cards below.
There are many reasons why you need a business card. In addition to being a relatively inexpensive asset, here are some pros to using business cards.
Using business cards to network is popular. According to one source, 27 million business cards are printed daily. Because business cards are so popular, it’s likely you’ll receive them at some point. Receiving business cards from other businesses and providing nothing in return is fruitless for some companies. And in some cases, it can be seen as rude.
Although we live in the digital age, giving business cards can help you connect with an old-school audience. Some people don’t like using the internet to find your business, and failing to connect with them might cause you to isolate this group. Plus, people don’t always have access to the internet, and referencing business cards might be more convenient.
Business cards also add a professional touch to your company. Many individuals expect you to have cards handy. If you use business cards, you can be prepared the next time someone says, “Do you have a business card?”
Business cards can even increase sales. For every 2,000 cards you pass out, you could see an increase in sales of 2.5%. The more sales you make, the bigger the boost your company’s bottom line will receive.
Branding is an imperative part of operating a memorable, successful business. Creating business cards gives you an opportunity to advertise your business and increase brand recognition.
Take a look at some reasons you might opt out of using business cards.
Business cards might be susceptible to wear and tear. Laminating cards might help, but they are still subject to the elements. And, recipients could easily lose cards.
Many people don’t want to receive business cards. Business cards can clutter purses, pockets, and office desks, which results in the majority of recipients throwing cards away. Eighty-eight percent of distributed business cards are thrown away in less than a week.
Instead of using business cards, many professionals connect via the social media platform for networking, LinkedIn. Adding contacts via LinkedIn is easy to do, and both parties have access to more information than what is displayed on a business card.
If you view a business card as a formality that you could do without, you might decide not to use them. Designing business cards takes time and innovation, which might be a waste of time if you’re handing them out just to go through the motions.
Instead of picking a side in the business card debate, you might land in the middle.
You can supplement business cards with an online presence. Make sure you have a small business website and social media accounts to stay connected to the four billion people who use the internet.
Use business cards to introduce your company to others, and get them to interact with your business by following up with them. Connect with recipients on LinkedIn and other social media platforms. Collect email addresses and use email campaigns to reach out.
If you provide business cards when appropriate and connect with customers and others online, you can appease all audiences, get double the promoting power for your business, and remain professional.
Designing your business card can be a fun responsibility. Even if you outsource it, you might have an idea of what you want to include. A good business card design could lead to more customers, networking opportunities, and connections.
So, what makes a good business card? Take a look at these business card tips to get started.
Your business logo is a symbol that identifies your business. When you think of your favorite brands, each company’s iconic logo probably comes to mind. What is your business’s logo?
If you don’t have a logo, you might consider focusing on making one first. Once you have your business’s logo, include it on all your marketing and promotional materials, including your business card.
Adding your logo to your business card increases your brand’s visibility. By including your logo on all your marketing materials, your brand is tied together. Consistency is key to successful branding, and adding your logo to your business card is a great way for people to get to know your business.
Standard black and white business cards will work, but adding extra color makes them more eye-popping. According to one source, a business card with color stays with a recipient approximately 10 times longer than a standard black and white card.
You shouldn’t pick just any colors for your business card. Your business should have one or a few colors representing it. For example, we use shades of blue at Patriot Software. Your colors should be consistent on your website, logo, business cards, and other company-related materials.
Don’t use thin, copy paper. If you use copy paper to make your business cards, they will damage easily. And, people might not take your business as seriously if you use thin business cards.
Instead, use a strong material that can last longer. Regular or premium card stocks are standard business card options. Both are sturdy, with premium being a little thicker than regular card stock. You might also coat cardstock so it has a glossy, cleaner finish. Or, you can use plastic business cards. You may decide to get creative and use other materials that fit your business.
Whatever you decide to use, make sure it does not rip easily. And, the material should make the business card look professional.
Choosing the information to go on the business card is the most important decision you can make when designing your card. You want to include enough information to show off your business, but including too much can make your card cluttered and difficult to read.
As mentioned earlier, here’s some information you might decide to include on your business card:
You might decide to use both sides of the business card. For example, you could devote one side entirely to your company’s logo and include information about your small business on the reverse side. Using both sides can give you more room to include extra information.
You determine your business card template. Information that works for one business might not work for you. For example, if you run an eCommerce business, you don’t need to include your address.
Handing out a sheet of paper with information about your business is not ideal. You need to distribute business cards that are small enough that recipients can store in their wallets. The standard business card size is 3.5 X 2 inches, but the size of your card can vary. Be sure not to create cards that are too big or too small.
As far as the shape of your card goes, you can get creative. Your card doesn’t have to be a perfectly cut rectangle. Instead, you can do rounded corners or even opt for distinct shapes.
Here are a few examples of business cards.
Business cards are essential for small to big businesses and consumers alike across all industries. Today, these cards help in building a brand, besides giving contact details. Knowing the significance, modern entrepreneurs have transformed the conventional paper-based cards into modern digital business cards.
In the modern world of business, marketers are inventing new ways to engage the target audience. One of the cost-effective ways to draw clients’ attention is to hand out business cards.
These cards provide contact details. Clients or customers can get quick access to some key contact information. But providing the details is not the sole purpose of the cards for today’s businesses.
The modern cards are designed to impress clients. They have a planned use of color, typeface, space, logo, image etc. These elements combine to make the desired impact. The impression remains at the back of the clients’ mind and creates some perception about a brand.
Recommended article:Digital business cards, like their paper counterparts, also make a great lasting impression. But the designers have a challenge here. The digital cards are lacking the sense of touch that paper-based cards have.
For example, a thick card paper signals that the company’s products or services are top notches. This advantage is missing when with a digital card. The virtual card relies solely on its overall design for an impact on viewers.
Some marketers believe that the paper card has become obsolete. They list out many disadvantages of the conventional cards. For them, digital cards are the future.
A study also has pointed out that in the US nearly 77 percent of small and medium businesses believe that digital presence helps them in customer acquisition. This shows that the future is digital and it includes digital business card as well. However, the fact is that both the types have their pros and cons.
Paper-based business cards can instantly make an impression the moment a client touches it. This is because of the thick paper of the card. A thick and quality paper with perfect business card size speaks favorably about the high quality of a company’s products or services.
You grab the client’s attention in quick time. But you need exciting graphic design ideas to create an outstanding business card that catches the attention.
You can easily share paper cards with people. All you need to do is to give them the cards personally to your valued clients. Additionally, distribute them randomly at the sideline of a seminar or in a trade fair.
With the paper cards, you build a strong personal connection and relationship with people. The cards are usually shared in warm and happy moments. Therefore, clients have more value for these cards. This ultimately helps in building a loyal customer base.
Most small businesses can afford to have paper-based business cards. The printing costs are within budgets of startups and other small and medium companies. That is a huge advantage for many startups. All they require is to search the term, “business card near me” in Google and they will get plenty of options to create a business card within their budget.
We have helped thousands of business owners from all around the world with their graphic design needs such as a logo design, website design, social media posts, banner and much more.
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Not all small companies can afford to hire an expensive professional graphic designer. Only a designer with many years of experience can create cards that make the desired impression. The average cost of a designer is usually out of the reach of small budgets of new companies.
Most companies change to add new contact details such as web address, phone numbers, email address, fax numbers, etc. This should prompt them to redesign the card. This also results in the reprinting of a new set of cards.
Paper business cards become a good heap of cards in a few months as clients get them so regularly. They occupy a good space in the office. Sometimes, the presence of hundreds of such cards becomes overwhelming.
When sending contact details to someone, you need to enter the information into a CRM. So, you need a business card scanner.
Most paper business cards end up in a dustbin in a few days. In fact, many studies have revealed that 88% of such cards are thrown out within a week.
Trees in a large number need to cut for making paper. This means that paper business cards are responsible for the damage to our environment in which we breathe.
You can easily share digital business cards with your clients and people. All you need to do is to send the card to them via email, social media, text [SMS], and other ways. You do not have to shake a client’s hand before sharing your card.
Since not everyone is using digital business cards, you can easily impress clients and stand out with these cards. While others are still sticking to conventional paper cards, just because of the digital cards, your business looks different. So, make sure that your business card ideas stand out from your competitors’ cards.
Another significant advantage is that businesses can attach a variety of media with digital cards. They can add videos, links to their surveys, subscription lists, sign up forms, etc. This is useful in many ways. You promote your business by sharing video etc.
A client receiving the card has a good impression of your business due to a variety of media included. It ensures a better engagement. You do not have to hire graphic design services to incorporate the media as you can do it yourself.
One of the most significant advantages of digital business cards is that it is a convenient way to store as much information as you want in one place. Unlike the paper cards, there is no lack of space here as you can access business cards online. So, include your URLs, website addresses, social media accounts, fax number, phone number, and more in the card.
A problem with the paper cards is that whenever you update information, you need to redesign and reprint the cards. That made them costly for small businesses. But that is not the issue with the digital counterparts.
A digital business card design lets you automatically update the information. You do not have to reprint a new set of cards and no need to redesign either.
Another advantage of digital business cards is that you have a great experience in managing your contacts. Some apps have optical character reader [ OCR ] that can scan a business card.
The scanner, including a special business card scanner, get the contact details converted into digital text. The app either saves the information or syncs the details with your CRM program.
Customizing of the paper cards is a difficult task as you have to incorporate new elements of colors etc. Then the card has to go again through the printing process.
But digital business cards can be quickly customized to a brand with the help of a business card maker software. Just choose the contact details, colors, typeface, etc., and you have the new card. There is no need to go through the time-consuming designing and printing process.
The digital cards do not require you to spend a lot of money unlike paper cards on printing and designing. In fact, the cost of printing of cards on paper is very high for many small businesses. But the digital cards are free to have as there is no printing required. You will spend some money only on designing the card.
Digital business cards eliminate the need to cut tree for the paper. This helps in keeping the environment safe and secure for healthy breathing of pure air. It also helps in preventing deforestation.
A significant disadvantage with digital business cards is that a larger section of the population is still not equipped well to access these cards. They are simply not accustomed to getting the cards digitally.
Others do not understand the ways to obtain the cards, and contact information, and how to save it. So, while you get free business cards, not all of your clients may be seeing them.
Since you share these cards digitally, the personal touch involved in the paper cards is entirely missing. The handshake, talks, welcome, and other gestures while presenting a card personally to a client are absent when sharing the cards online.
In case a digital business card application has bugs, it can cause some issues when sharing the card with your clients and others. So, be careful. Choose a business card app only if it comes from a reputable company.
For some people downloading and installing an app as well as creating an account for digital business cards, is a boring task. As compared to this, you can quickly hand out paper cards to clients.
What if the client does not open email containing your digital business card? In that case, the chances are that the email is buried down in the inbox and remains unread.
If may be that the client has blocked images in an email to save data or due to spam blockage mechanism activated. That will result in preventing of your card.
Both you and your client must have quick access to the Internet for sharing your digital business card. If the client has no Internet connection or access, the card becomes useless.
In the end, we can say that both paper-based and digital business cards are excellent for making an impression and brand exposure. Both have their own set of advantages and disadvantages.
But whether you opt for digital or paper business cards, you must design them professionally for an impact. When designing, you can depend on Designhill, a leading marketplace to outsource different design solutions.
This platform is home to hundreds of talented designers whom you can access after launching a design contest. You get many design ideas at an affordable price.
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Both paper and digital business cards are excellent when it comes to sharing your contact details and making a lasting impression. Both the cards have their own advantages and disadvantages for businesses. Their use will depend on your branding strategy. It will be good to use both types of cards to gain from their advantages.
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