Using Business Card as a Marketing Tool

There are discussions these days about usefulness of business cards when you have technology to pass on your phone number, email, and IM information to another person’s smart device in a matter of seconds. There are opponents and proponent on both sides and listening to each one makes you wonder who’s right. After careful analysis of business inter-working and poking into human psychology, the conclusion is decisive in that swapping business cards is still the most common way to make an introduction, and leave a lasting impression. No matter how lovely you are, and how much everyone wants to be friends with you, there is no way you can upload your contact information to 30 people in a meeting room, but it’s very easy to pass on your business cards to the same number of people, or more.

But having said that, the new printing technology has also given us the ability to get away from the old one or two color business cards and turn them into a powerful marketing tool. We can design a business card that has images as sharp as a photographic picture, colors and paper stock that makes them a work of art. Taking advantage of two sided prints and millions of colors gives us the ability to produce a card that is much more than just contact information.

Below are a few suggestions on how to design a good business card that has your contact information, but goes further to tell the story:

What to include - Your cards should include your name, phone number, fax number, e-mail and street address. Besides contact information, design your cards to convey your marketing message to your prospect customers.

• Use both sides of the card and double your exposure with that modest 2” x 3.5” card


• Use call-to-action if your business allows


• Use fonts that are not too large or small, to be easy on the eye


• Add your company logo


• Make it colorful and unique


• Insert a catch phrase – IT WORKS

Logos, graphics and images – Be sure to use your company logo on the card. The logo should not take away from the content but a lot of people remember a logo if they keep seeing it, so it’s best for branding. Use images as background or a picture of your work, if it applies. Definitely use graphics to make your card unique, but be careful not to overpower your content.

Use high quality paper - There are many different options when it comes to business card paper stock. There are thin 100 lbs. paper, 12 point, 14 point and recently 16 point paper stock that could be ordered in matte, or glossy. The 16 point papers are as thick as 75% of a credit card and are offered by few companies with newer equipment. Linen and plastic card stock that are commonly available can work with some designs too, not all. Also there are companies that offer variety of other material such as glass, aluminum, etc., but they are specialty items and very expensive. Choose the material according to your design, but the most common is the 14 point glossy, with 16 point being the latest greatest.

UV Coating or not – UV coating makes the card shinier, thicker and sturdier. Also it promises that the content is protected against Ultra Violet (UV) rays and will not change color or fade. The cards that are designed to be matte should not be coated, but the majority of the designs can use UV coating to add to their attractiveness and shine. Some printing companies offer one sided coating, so if you have a one sided card and want to leave the back uncoated, they can provide it to you. Also, some businesses require that the back of the card be printed, such as days of the week for doctor appointments, but not coated so they can write on it later. Make sure that you order your cards with the kind of coating that best suits your design.

Make them available to all – Make sure you always have your business cards and plenty of them. Give them away freely to everyone since it is still the most productive business tool and a great representative of you or your business. Change your card design slightly every time you order a new batch. Something that doesn’t take away from the content, but people like to see change and they remember even the smallest one. Make a trend and email a note of acknowledgment to people whom given you a business card. It will eventually catch on and they will do the same for you. That way, you are sure that they kept your card, as you did theirs.

Stefan Astaneh is a graphic designer in southern California with years of experience in printing industry. His formal education and training in graphic design mated with his vast working knowledge of printing technology gives him an excellent foundation on the two major aspects of advertising in print media.

How to Make Your Advertising Postcards Stand Out

Businesses and individuals spend a lot of money on advertising their goods and services. One of the proven promotional printcollateral has always been the good old postcards. They want their content to stand out and to be compelling enough that it encourages prospect customers to keep their cards and pay attention to the products, or services offered. That’s the goal of any advertising campaign, but how can you accomplish that?

Below are a few suggestions for people who want their postcards or other advertising material stand out and do the job it was intended to do:

Make the content scannable: People who receive a printed advertisement don’t read the full content initially. They just simply glance at the content and if there is something that grabs their attention, they continue on. This is why creating scannable content is essential in getting people to take notice of your postcard. How do you make your content scannable?

• Use bullet points for your services and products
• Use bold and italics to highlight the buzzwords they’re familiar with
• Use both large fonts to emphasize, and smaller fonts to describe the topics
• Write short, precise sentences about your company, product, or service
• Use pictures and descriptions
• Definitely use Call-to-Action in your postcards

Put your call-to-action to work for you: If people are just scanning your content, then sticking a call-to-action at a place they can immediately see is imperative. Make sure a call-to-action is in your prospect customer’s benefit and surely distinguishes you from other competitors. After all, your call-to-action is the thing that’s going to get your prospect customers do what you want them to do. If there is an expiration date for your call-to-action, make sure it is emphasized as well.

Make it readable: Many use content to attempt to ‘impress’ their audience with big words, industry jargon and other incomprehension technical words. Lose all that. Instead, write your content as if you’re talking to the customer standing right in front of you. How would you explain what your business does for them? Find those words and put them on your promotional material. Use the words they would be most likely familiar with.

Make it available and easy to get to: Talking about your company, product or service is easy, but make sure that it’s clear to the prospect customers how easy it is to acquire your product or service. Provide all contact information and instructions on how easily they can become your customer. People don’t like to waste time and look for things, just make it available to them in an easiest possible way. It makes a big impact.

Don’t overcrowd: Although you might have some empty spaces, do not provide a lot of content and overcrowd the postcard. You’re far better off creating precise, easy to read content that will capture a customer’s attention. After all, the goal isn’t to inform them of all your services or products, but just the one that they might be interested in and encourage them to take the first initiative, which is your predefined call-to-action. An overcrowded postcard will surely get tossed before it is seriously considered.

Make it visually appealing: Last, but not least, if your postcard isn’t appealing to the eye, customers aren’t going to glance at it, let alone keeping it. It’s best to have a graphic designer design the background and choose a color scheme which will work for you. You are not advertising the design and it should not take anything away from your message, but it should complement it and make people interested to spend their time looking at it. Use images relevant to your message to draw people’s attention, and also add a little description under each image as it relays to your offerings. People notice the image and even more, they like to read the description and see what you have to say about it. When someone looks at your postcard, they should feel confident about you, your company, products or services you offer, that is why it is imperative to invest in quality postcards and not the flimsy ones. After all, that little piece of paper is the only means that represents you and your company to a prospect customer.

Stefan Astaneh is a graphic designer in southern California with years of experience in printing industry. His formal education and training in graphic design mated with his vast working knowledge of printing technology gives him an excellent foundation on the main aspects of advertising in print media.