All About Marketing: Business Cards

Picking the right business card can be tricky, especially if you’re barely starting off. There are so many options out there: different business card sizes, different business card materials, different business card stock thickness, colors, additional uses, and so much more.

So today, we’ve decided to make all that just a little less complicated! Here are 8 things to keep in mind when deciding on your professional business cards:

- Choose the impression you want to give

- Choose the correct size and shape for you

- Maintain simplicity

- Maintain consistency across your business

- Place important information in the best location

- Use something special to make it memorable

- Make your business card useful

- To facilitate things further, talks to a professional!

How to: A good business card

1. Choose the impression you want to give

There is no doubt, first impressions are very important. You should keep in mind that the first impression that a potential customer has of your business is most likely your business card. It tells your company story at a glance. Think about the way you work, are you no-nonsense and to the point? Are you carefree, playful and creative? Try to get your business card to be a glimpse into what it would be like to work with you.

2. Choose the correct size and shape for you

Let’s cover the basics: size and shape. The most commonly used business card is a 3.5” x 2”, which is the typical rectangular business card. You can change it up by choosing your business card to be vertical instead of horizontal in order to stand out. But you have many other options. Round business cards are a thing, and they can be quite memorable! Keep in mind that they may be less convenient to carry around. But if you’re willing to trade away some comfort for memorability, think about switching up the sizes and shapes to give yourself some uniqueness!

3. Maintain simplicity

Keep in mind that a business card is supposed to contain the most important information so that the client knows who you are, how to reach you, and how you can help them! The business card should remain quite simple since there isn’t really much space on business cards. White space on the business card (areas where there isn’t anything going on) can be very beneficial to not overwhelm the client and keep them focused on the critical information.

4. Maintain consistency across your business

Try your best to make it so that your business card design matches with all other marketing materials and promotional locations such as your website and social media. You want to make it easy for customers to recognize your business. The best way to do this is maintain consistency across your business.

5. Place important information in the best location

The front is the best place for the most important information. We talked about first impressions starting with a business card. Well if we dig deeper, the first impression of a business card is the front of it! This is where you should add what the client needs to know and the back should be supplemental or decorative. A good tip to figure out how you should organize your business card is to consider your own behavior when someone hands you their business card!

6. Use something special to make it memorable

Changing the shape of your business card is sure to make it memorable. But if you prefer a more traditional shape and size, you can always embellish! You can add a sparkling foil finish, use eco-friendly kraft materials, or add raised foil. These are just a couple of options!

7. Make your business card useful

If you make your business card something that is useful, potential customers are more likely to hold on to it! For example, if you run a bakery maybe you can put a simple recipe on the back of your business cards. Or if you run an auto service business, you can add how often one should change their oil and why. Another good option is to make your business card a magnet, that way if you have a business that offers recurring services (plumbing, pet groomer, hairdresser, etc.), you’ll make it easy for your customer to place it where they’ll be most likely to see it and can refer back to it: their fridge.

8. To facilitate things further, talks to a professional!

Talking to a graphic designer is a great way to get your business cards done so they look professional, without hours of research on your part. Because it’s what they do, a simple conversation may be all that is needed for them to create the perfect business card design. Furthermore, they know what resolution is needed to print a business card. Having a pixelated logo with hard to read text is the last thing you’d want after spending so much time working hard to get your business cards to your liking.

Five Easy Ways to Modernize your Print Marketing (2020)

Print Marketing is considered by many to be one of the most important forms of marketing, but in a world of quickly evolving digital media and changing population qualities in the United States, maintaining a modernized print marketing campaign has become more difficult than ever before. Here, however, are five easy ways to modernize your print marketing practices to leave a meaningful impression on your businesses target audience

Don’t Use “One Size Fits All” Approaches

Arguably, the most important aspect of print marketing is conceptualizing your audience. You want your print marketing campaigns to be meaningful to a specific niche of individuals in your audience. Without a Niche in mind, your marketing strategy becomes too broad and ambiguous to catch the attention of any individual. It is important to remember that consumers come in contact with thousands of print advertisements every year and often times glaze over their messages. When you create a targeted print marketing campaign you will make a much more meaningful impression on the individuals you reach and maintain their attention for a much longer period of time. This leaves a lasting impression of your company in consumers’ minds and results in better brand recognition. Even if the amount of impressions you get from the marketing campaign is lower, the impressions are much more meaningful.

Let’s say you are a Golf Course looking to sign more members. Creating a print campaign including all of your deals would be overwhelming and not targeted. If you created a print campaign about special deals and programs you have for senior golfers, it would be much more likely to make a meaningful impression on a target demographic. Or maybe you are looking to bring families in, creating a campaign on a Kids lessons program would be another great example of a specified campaign.

Enhance your Graphics- Grabbing Attention is Key

Giving all of your consumers the information they need in one document is in the past. Print marketing has become much more about making a short but memorable impression. Bold, Colorful, and Clean designs are much more appealing to the American population that is continuously lowering its average attention span. Appealing graphics is considered by many as the most important aspect of print marketing.

Another great way to advertise is on the road, where people are forced to pay attention to their surroundings. Attractive, colorful and concise car wraps, decals, and other intriguing road advertisements are a great way to leave a short yet memorable impression. (Disclaimer: you do not want to clutter these advertisements, as consumers shy away from information overload).

The Print to Digital Approach

Although Print Marketing is essential to advertising many businesses, there is no denying that the Internet and digital advertising has created a much richer medium for business communications. Instead of splitting from this new avenue of marketing, leverage the capabilities of both. Incorporating QR Codes in your print marketing can take a print marketing campaign to the next level. Not only does the targeted consumer have the benefit of holding a tangible piece of business advertising, but they can use that piece of print marketing to immediately sign up for email campaigns, schedule an appointment, or visit your website.

Declutter Your Campaign

As I mentioned previously, In the United States, the average attention span has dropped significantly, meaning that the ways of loading up a piece of paper with deals, products, and product explanations are in the past. Decluttering your advertisements are essential to not overwhelm your audience and to make a more memorable impression.

Go through all of the information on your print advertising and ask yourself, “is this really necessary for the consumer to understand what this ad is about?” By doing this you can focus the limited amount of time you have with consumers on the very most important information that you want them to know. An overwhelming print marketing campaign is an ineffective campaign.

Usefulness is Key

One of the largest trends lately in print marketing is “useful” print materials. One great example of this is business cards with rulers on the side, multiplication tables on the back, or tip calculators on the back (to tip waiters when eating out). The purpose of these business cards are not related to the actual business being advertised but solely to give consumers a reason to hold on to the marketing material you give them and then presumably keep your business in their mind more often.

Conclusion

Print and digital marketing can be an overwhelming adventure for any business owner. It can be incredibly difficult to focus on both the production and administrative side of a small business; but with these easy tips, we hope we have helped you think of some new ideas that potentially could result in some major improvements to your print marketing campaign.

If you would like help deciding, designing, and printing print and digital marketing materials, Chromatic is here to assist you with our various options of print and digital marketing services and products!