Five Tips: Business Cards
The Humble Business Card.
When it comes to upgrading and evolving products, the humble business card hasn’t changed that much over time. Here and there, there have been some minor improvements or adjustments to try make it ‘modern’. Things like adding QR codes, getting creative with clever folding tricks, turning them into magnets and even trying to make them digital.
But it has mostly stayed the same, and that’s for one main reason - it’s still doing its job.
It’s still giving all your important and vital details out in one handy, easy to store format. Even with the rise of digital, the business card is still one of the most popular printed items for small businesses to date. Again, because it’s simple, affordable and it does its job.
Here are the 5 top tips we have for making sure your business cards go the extra mile and work for you – minus the gimmicks.
1. Make them double sided.
Make them double sided – duh! Now this one is really obvious, but it can often be overlooked. What’s the first thing you do when someone hands you a business card? You flip it over, you look it over. There are two sides to a card, make sure you use them! Capture your audience's attention, make sure both sides are worth looking at. Don’t waste an easy opportunity to enhance your brand!
2. Keep them on brand.
Ok, so you have to remember, that little 90 x 55mm card, represents you and your brand. Make sure it looks the part! Now I know it’s so easy to fall into trends, we’re all guilty of it.
But, if you’ve got an all over summer, feminine, peachy vibe going for your brand and then you go give your business cards a slick, high gloss black finish ‘because it looks professional’ - it’s not going to gel.
If you already have the perfect colour palette happening for your brand, it only makes sense to carry that across to your business card design as well. Don't waste all your efforts on a beautiful brand to have it brought down by jarring colours.
3. Don’t overload the info.
Keep it short and sweet.
Only include the essentials. It can be so tempting to try fit all of your contact info, services and CTA (call to action) on your business cards, but if you do, you run the risk of overloading it with too much text. If there’s a lot of text on not a lot of paper, it’s not going to look, well great.
What we recommend you include:
Your logo
Your name/company name
Your phone number
Website
Email address
Address – if you have a brick and mortar store
Though this may sound like obvious advice, it might cost you another trip to the printer if you don't remember to include them (or spell check them!)
If someone wants to contact you after receiving your card, you sure as heck want them to be able to!
4. Add some flair, minus the gimmicks.
An overly cute font or business card that doubles as a fridge magnet might be fun, but the appeal is limited. Instead, opt for something that will make you stand out from the crowd, but will still serve its purpose. There are so many options available now, that giving your cards that extra ‘something’ is easy to do and more affordable than before.
One of our top clients, Live Eco, is an eco friendly business, so naturally, they needed something that was also kind on the environment.
With an uncoated natural style card made from recycled t-shirts, these ladies were already going to stand out from the crowd! But we took it one simple step further to help soften their look and to match in with their branding, we added in curved edges.
Curved edges/rounded corners are becoming more and more popular among business card users and it’s not just for looks. There’s more to them than meets the eye.
There have been plenty of studies on rounded edges and why we like them so much and it turns out rounded corners are easier on the eye and the brain. It takes less cognitive effort to see round shapes compared to square/hard edge corners.
Whatever the psychological reason, all we need to know is we LOVE these business cards.
Curves not your thing? Here are some more, easy to implement, options that will help you stand out for all the right reasons.
Add a varnish or foil. These special effects and raised features are guaranteed to get you a few oohs and aahs
Go for a slim or square shaped card
Consider the stock or type of paper you’re printing on. Maybe your brand calls for a kraft style paper or a linen texture
Or a combination of all of these!
5. Make them do the work for you
Make your business cards work in more than one way for you and your brand.
Now obviously you’re going to be using your cards for networking and meeting new clients/customers, but have you considered what else they can actually do for you?
I'm sure a lot of you are already doing this one, but for those of you in the back – put your business cards in all of your client deliveries/purchases/gift vouchers - use them everywhere. People love sharing their pretty new purchases and deliveries on Facebook and Instagram, so give them your logo on a business card to photograph with it!
Don’t' have branded packaging? Still have to re-order those gift tags?? Use your trusty business card. If you love your business cards and think they’re super pretty (which you should!) punch a little hole in them and add them as swing tags on your packages. Be careful not to hit any vital info though.
Use them in your own product photography. Have a skincare product that you want to share to insta and need to set the scene? Add in your business card as a background prop to really help drive your branding and logo further.
Use them to enter local café comps – ok so this one has little to do with putting your brand out there and more with scoring a free coffee and cake 😉
But if it means your business card is getting in front of a new audience or someone new, go for it I say!
And here’s one more cheeky number six, because I just couldn’t help myself. I promise, it’s a good one x
6. Paper Stock Matters
Ok, so this one is all about quality over quantity.
The quality and weight (thickness) you choose for your business cards can really have an impact and make a difference on the final appearance of your cards (and brand!)
When shopping for a business card printer, people usually look for deals, choosing quantity and not quality, and to be honest, sometimes this can really backfire.
If you order 1,000 business cards, but they're on thin, flimsy paper, is it really going to matter how cheap you got them when the ‘cheapness’ of them shows?
When a business card is flimsy and cheap your ink (and vital info) starts to fade and they can crease and bend. Instead, opt for a paper stock that is thick and sturdy (we recommend anything 300gsm and above). This paper weight/thickness will help represent your brand better and will stand the test of time and wallets! #thick
So there you have it, six handy and easy to implement tips to keep your business cards looking on point and on brand.
And of course, if you need a little help from a designer who knows a thing or two 😉 get in touch and we can help design your business cards that have that little extra ‘something’. ✨
