I enjoyed discussing the importance of business cards and their future with author and business consultant Chris Livingston. He interviewed me as part of a new book he is working on. The book will provide needed and sometimes hard to find resources for small business owners and entrepreneurs. I’ll report more when it is released. In the meantime you can learn more about Chris at TheChrisLivingston.com .
My friend Bob sells an entertainment video DVD for cats called VIDEO CATNIP. With every DVD purchased he includes a business card that the buyer can give to a friend saying “My Cat Loves Watching the DVD Video Catnip and I know yours will too!” This is a great way to stimulate a referral because it gives your referral partner an easy way to pass on your information. The card includes the product price, URL and a toll free ordering number. Think about how you might use a business card to encourage your happy customers or clients to pass the word about your product or service. Remember business cards are cheap so it does not matter how many are discarded, what matters are the few that actually get passed a long.
Thanks to my friend Willyam for providing this business tip.
Note: Technically, this is a paid endorsement. Willyam recieved $5 (beer money) and a copy of my book as a thank you.
This Business Card App is called WorldCard Mobile. The program allows you to take a picture of a business card after which the data on the card: name, address, phone, email, URL etc is entered into your iphone’s address book. Here is a youtube video I found that will help you see how it works. I am planning to blog about a number of these business card application. If you have any experience with any of them please comment or submit a blog post to me. I will give you credit as a guest blogger.
While attending the North Park Art Walk on the northside of Chicago this weekend near NEIU, I ran across this interesting idea. One of the businesses hosting some of the artists had set up a business card tree in the entrance. This seemed to be fabricated using a kind of decorative wire tree form (I believe you could actually use a dry tree branch), upon which they affixed their business card to look like leaves. Each card was attached using a small piece of low tack tape that could be easily removed without damaging the business card. You might also be able to do this with paper clips or maybe small dots of hot glue. Anyway I thought it was an interesting way to promote their sign company and worthy of sharing. Let me know if you have any cool ways of distributing your business cards.
Here is a fun and very innovative business card by Eric Nagel. It starts with a bold graphic that includes all of his social media contact information. But Eric has gone the extra mile and subtly reminds us to “wake up and smell the coffee” or maybe he is just treating us to the next best thing. If you can’t drink a cup of coffee at least you can enjoy the aroma. Eric has cleverly added interactivity to his business card by way of a scratch and sniff element. How cool is that!
“I designed it myself,” Eric told me, “then added scratch n sniff stickers on from http://scratchnsniff.com.” Very nice touch I’d say.
“I’ve done other unique business cards,” Eric says, “including decks of playing cards & credit cards (encoded with a hidden message) which you can see at
http://www.ericnagel.com/2009/08/business-cards-that-get-noticed.html . Nobody managed to figure out what was encoded on the credit cards. The clue on the back is the “815” as the CV2. I’m a fan of Lost, so 815 is the flight number they were on when they crashed. All of the cards are encoded with 4 8 15 16 23 42 (the infamous numbers from Lost).
Eric told me about himself. “I’m an affiliate marketer specializing in PPC and SEO. What this means is I do Internet marketing for other companies, and I make money when they make money.”
Thanks Eric for sharing your card and information with us here at BusinessCardtoBusiness.com . If you have a cool card you want to share, send your story to info(at)businesscardtobusiness.com .
Have you ever been given a business card from someone in a bar or other situation who is specifically “coming on to you”? Have you ever given someone a card under these circumstances? Whether a giver or receiver, read about this poor business card idea for the socially challenged.
http://www.asylum.com/2010/07/23/cheekd-dating-business-card-website/
I just visited a blog that was touting the virtues of virtual business cards and predicting the ultimate demise of the printed business card. This is an old story and I have not seen it happen yet. Virtual cards are a great idea and I look forward to them being a mainstream solution, but I continue to caution that new technology does not neccessarily have to replace old technology. Virtual and printed cards can co-exist.
Business Cards are Dead
One complaint I have heard refers to those who have stacks of cards or hundreds of cards in a box collected over a period of months or years. HELLO!! There is no need to keep someone’s card forever. The primary purpose of a business card is simply to transfer contact information that may be pertinent now or in the short term. If you look at a card and don’t remember the person – – where you met – – or sadly what product or service he or she offers – – throw it out. It has outlived it’s usefulness.
If you are a giver of a card. Consider that this is an opportunity to be sure that the recipient has your important contact information and that he or she might be reminded of you or your service over a period of a few days or maybe a few months if they keep your card. If you are a recipient of a card, this is a handy device to help you keep and refer to contact information from someone you have met. Keep it as long as there is a chance that you might want to contact that person sometime. As long as it has value as a potential resource for you.
Just as unused business cards sit on your desk so will unused virtual cards sit in your PDA, phone or computer. Don’t shoot the messenger. It’s not the business card virtual or physical that is at fault, it is likely the lack of a clear message or the very real reality that you have no need for that particular product or service.
Business cards are a courtesy. Offer them graciously and accept them graciously. There are no strings attached. There is no obligation inferred in the presentation nor any commitment in their acceptance. However if you do decide you want to contact someone they’re darn handy to have.
by D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger
Networking can be one of the most powerful marketing strategies for growing your business. I’d like to talk about utilizing your business card as one of your primary networking tools. Reno has an emphasis on face-to-face networking and in his book, Turn Your Business Card Into Business, suggests that you be sure everyone you meet gets a business card. I’d like to share with you some tips for utilizing your business card as a networking tool.
The following is an excerpt from D’vorah’s Newest book, Connect, Communicate & Profit
There are a number of fabulous printing services where you can design your business cards online and they are very affordable even free. But be careful of the free business card offer, even though that might be tempting. Some of the free services will imprint their company name on the reverse, blank side of your card. What kind of image will you portray if someone flips over your business card and sees the Free Business Cards by VistaPrint or whoever, on your card? This might make it seem that you are not a viable business, that you are not successful, or worse yet that you are too cheap to make the small investment of buying business cards for your company. Be sure this is not the price you are paying to have free cards or even better, spend the $29 or so and get yourself a nice set of professional looking business cards. You may want to put some text on the back of the card such as a quote or a call to action; however I do recommend leaving at least some white space on the back of the card so that people can take notes and thus remember more about you. This is why I further suggest that you do not laminate the back of your cards. Two sided laminated cards are very difficult to write on. Just opt for the glossy finish on the printed front side.
Let’s talk about what you would write on the back of the business cards of the people you are meeting. One thing that I always do is ask them when their birthday is as I like to send out birthday cards. Another thing that you can do is, when you are done speaking with them is to jot down notes based on your conversation. You can make note of any comments they made about their business, their contacts, their hobbies or their family. The more time you spend with fewer people, the more you are going to remember about each person. Let’s say that you collect 20 business cards at an event, you are not going to remember all of those people. This is also a reason for why to collect the cards of only the people who you personally met with versus going over to the materials table and picking up the business card of everyone who attended the event. The exception would be if you pick up a few cards of people whom you’d like to be introduced to or who have a business that you’d like to find out more about. What you don’t want to do is add people to your email list or start to market to them without their permission.
The other thing about business cards is, you don’t want to be known as the person who sows business card as you walk around the room, interrupting groups of people, randomly handing people your business card without stopping to speak with them. Those cards will go into the garbage can. You are better off collecting cards of people who you speak with and have spent time connecting with. This is where the “less is more” theory comes into play as you don’t want to just collect pieces of paper and try to follow up with people you haven’t built a relationship with.
It’s a good practice to have your website, contact number and email address clearly listed on your card. For networking events, it is an excellent idea to have your photo on your card. When people get home and go through the business cards that they’ve collected, you want to be memorable to them. Having your photo on your card facilitates this and will make it easier for people to remember who you are.
The next step, once you have all of these business cards, is to follow up with the people you just spent time getting to know. You can pop them an email, give them a phone call or follow up with a greeting card. The service that I use and recommend is called SendOutCards. This is an online service that allows you to automate your card sending. These are real cards that go in the mail with a stamp. They allow you to send out a few cards for free, you can check them out at KeepInTouchKeepInMind.com
How would you feel about the person you met at a networking event who took the time to send you a heartfelt card, through the mail? You want to be that person, the one who goes the extra mile to build relationships.
D’vorah Lansky, Relationship Marketing Wizard, Author, Speaker, Educator.
www.RelationshipMarketingCafe.com
www.KeepInTouchKeepInMind.com
One of the challenges of meeting a hundred new people and blogging about them is the time it takes to do the blogging, which I am bit behind on. Today I would like to introduce you to Joe Baldwin who I met at a recent alternative transportation event at Uncommon Ground Restaurant on Devon in Chicago. Uncommon Ground has monthly ecofriendly events and great food. In 2009 I had the opportunity to present a networking presentation here to the Edgewater Chamber of Commerce. A side bonus of attending this event was that I encountered and old friend (and his son), who I have not seen in about ten years. This is the other nice aspect of getting out and networking in person. You get a chance to meet new people and open yourself to the random possibility of reacquainting with lost contacts.
Joe Baldwin is an ecoartist working on his Master of Fine Art (MFA). His project is an artistic installation he has dubbed “mobile garden”. The realization is a garden on a flatbed elevated train car attached to a random train and pulled around the city. The idea is to bring joy and an element of spontaneity to Chicago rapid transit riders. Joe tells me that this project concept elicits a good deal of strong reaction, which is an essential element of any work of art. It’s whimsical but Joe hopes that the project will encourage people to think about nature in an urban environment. The CTA has approved the proposal under the condition that Joe’s 501( c)(3) organization “noisivelvet” raise the $400,000 necessary to make it happen. You can learn more about this project at www.noisivelvet.com .
I would be remiss if I did not comment on Joe’s marketing postcard and business card. Joe has one of those 7mm by 3mm business cards that I am not very fond of. These are popular with those who want to make the statement “This is a new card for a new generation” or “I’m a unique trail blazer with a hip different kind of card” or “I’m a non conformist”. Any of which is fine with me but I maintain that a business card by definition is 2 inches by 3.5 inches. This is the space we must “conform” to. This is the challenge of business card design – – to be creative within a prescribed space. Why? Because it is practical. If people could start printing any size and call it a business card what would stop someone from printing an 8 by 10 inch business card? At this point they would become an impractical random lot of paper that would be hard to manage and they would loose their unique advantage of being uniform and convenient. IMO this is not the place to declare your individuality as you simply conform to a new proposed standard. Finally, sorry Joe but I must point out you are lacking a URL on your postcard. I think it is much more likely today that someone would go to your website and send a donation via paypal than send a check. I suggest you buy a nice ecofriendly rubberstamp and bottle of soy ink and rectify that situation ASAP!
Joe Baldwin person number 65 was fun, interesting and thought provoking. What do you think of this idea?