4 Great Ways To Make Your Business Cards Stand Out

In the professional world, particularly in commission-based sales, business cards are important. They have the obvious function of holding your name and contact information, but a good business card—or a bad one—tells more about you than just how you can be reached. Spending a little more money on a better business card will come back to you. So here are four great ways to make your business cards—and you—stand out.

1. Hire a graphic artist: Chances are you’re not an artist, and even if you are, you’re probably not a production artist. If you don’t use registration marks (or even know what they are), do yourself the favor of hiring a professional.
2. Leave room on the back for notes: A business card is worth much more if it has information that is unique, and therefore valuable, to the recipient. By leaving room to write on the card, you can give a client your “secret” cell phone number, the price and model number they’re interested in, or special discount by contacting you again. Just remember if you leave a spot for notes: matte finish, not glossy.
3. Focus on your message: Your message is to convey who you are, what you do, how well you do it or why you do it better than the next guy, and how to get a hold of you. Instead of listing your title, why not list a concise version of your job description. Better than “John Wood. Mowley Construction. 317-012-3456,” is “John Wood. Mowley Construction. 2-time five-star award winner for superior service. Specializing in upscale kitchen remodeling and outdoor kitchens. 317-012-3456.”
4. Use a unique medium: Paper cards seem too boring? There are lots of other options out there. PVC business cards are flexible, durable, and colorful, plus they can have grooves and ridges giving a tactile experience to your card. I recently came across a card that allows you to include various rewards with your card: mp3s, ringtones, dvds, even pizza. Less traditional cards can be paper coasters, mini mouse pads (also great as coasters), or any promotional product.

Do you have any other suggestions? I’d love to know what they are, so feel free to share them.

Insights From A Trade Show

On Friday I attended a trade show for those of us in the promotional products industry. It was here in Indianapolis, actually just a stone’s throw away from PDA. My fellow colleagues and I headed over, put on the obligatory name tag and began to circulate. Below are the take home messages from my latest trade show experience:

• Hosting a trade show in rooms of a hotel is incredibly aggravating. The rooms are too small to allow adequate flow in, around, and out of the set up.
• The promotional products industry is full of copy cats. Everyone seems to offer the same product, making the only thing that differentiates one company from another is price or service. Some clients will choose price, but in my experience service should be the clear winner. There isn’t enough money in the world to make you look good when you deliver an empty promise of a promotional product the day after an event.
• Despite what it seems like, there is more to the success of a promotion than just buying pens. There are lots of options; you just have to make sure your supplier isn’t lazy and will work to find the right solution for you. For example, there are lots of new and innovative products and ways of making products that might work for you. It just might be worth it for you to spend the extra x% and get your product sublimated.
• The trend in 2008, as I’ve mentioned before, is green promotional products. Pens made out of corn, travel mugs made out of potatoes, tote bags made with organic cotton, 100% biodegradable plastic Frisbees; eco is everywhere this year. I saw each of these items at the show on Friday and even got to take a few of them back to the office. Think about going green so that you’re seen as a leader in your industry and not just the next guy to jump on the bandwagon. You’ll then be able to say, you were green before green was cool.

Environmentally Friendly Promotions

Environmentally friendly (“green”) behaviors and products have fallen in and out of favor in the U.S. for years. I’ll spare you the history lesson, but if 2007 was any indication, 2008 will surely be a big year for being green. There was a time when being green meant sacrificing. It’s likely many people still think they can’t have the best of both worlds. But in 2008 we’ve started to reach a place where luxury, functionality, and environmentally friendly have intersected.

I recently learned about Dell’s new site geared towards promoting being green, while reading a recent blog entry by Lewis Green (last name completely coincidental).

Aside: Even since I read Lewis’ post, there’s been another green post over on Marketing Profs Daily Fix, this one by Stephen Denny; also very much worth a read.

The first thing that struck me about Dell’s new site was “the wall” at the top of the page. In a font that looks like it was handwritten, scrawled across the wall were people’s answer to the question at the top of the page: “What does green mean to you?” Intelligently and completely answering that question is the key to having a successful green promotion.

In addition to answering the question, you’ll need to decide why you want a green promotion. Of course all promotions are designed to increase sales, but is the primary goal of choosing an environmentally friendly promotion:

• to convey to your clients or prospects you share their concerns about environmental issues?
• to retain customers and increase referrals by showing that you’ve taken socially responsible action?
• to break stereotypes of the people and companies who would invest in green ideas?

Certainly I think each is a justified reason to consider a green promotion. However, I do think the most important message to convey to your clients and prospects is proof you’re more than just a buzzword magnet. People want to work with companies and people who “walk the walk.” I think sharing concerns with any group of clients or potential clients is a great way to build value-based relationships and breaking stereotypes is always a noble cause.

To me, green means accountability. No more pointing the finger, we are the only ones responsible for our own actions.

I’ll probably be featuring more green topics in the future. More and more vendors are offering an increasing number of green products that can be used as part of your solution. Just remember a successful promotion depends on more than just finding the right product.

I invite you to both leave your comments on the post and answer the question, “What does green mean to you?”