Your business card should be a lead generator… not a snore generator!

Your business card, it’s probably the first thing you created when you started your business.
And if you are like most Entrepreneurs and Business Owners, your business card looks just like this one, right?

And what’s worse, you might even be wasting the valuable space that is your business card by only using one side of it, right?

Or even worse again, you used a free business card printing company that has their logo on the back of your business card!! I can’t tell you how many business cards like this I see and throw out right away. I’m sorry but your business card is an extension of your company and if it looks crap and unprofessional, if it comes across as cheap then I instantly assume your entire business is cheap and unprofessional.

If you can honestly say those don’t’ apply to you and your business card then congratulations, you are doing better than 80% of business owners who have a business card. However your business card is probably still boring as most business cards are.

Think about this for a moment, how many cards do you have at home or your office that you have no clue about who the person was that gave you the card?

You see the problem is that very few entrepreneurs and business owners stop to think about the purpose of their business card, and actually consider what is it’s role in your marketing funnel.

Let’s look at 4 Ways to Avoid a Boring Business Card

1. SALES COPY

This means benefit driven… what’s in it for me… converting sales copy.
So few business cards do this and that is why they are boring. So start simple, have a Benefit Driven Headline and some points of benefit for the products and services you provide and remember to finish it off with a call to action offer.
While we are talking offer, let me be clear… you are extremely unlikely to make a sale from your business card, it however is your qualifier and it gives your prospect an opportunity to ask for more information and that is what your offer should be… a chance to get more information.

2. FUNCTIONALITY

Does your business card have a function? Check out the case study below for a really great example. Business Cards all should serve some kind of function, as I mentioned above it should allow someone to request more information, another function might be to get people talking, or laughing or something more than just giving name and contact details.

3. WALLET SHARE

Will it be kept and get some room in someone’s wallet?When I owned my Gift Business, our business cards all had important dates to remember on the back. So you could always know when Mothers Day, Valentines Day and other important dates that year were… this achieved wallet share… it served a purpose that was worth hanging on to.Another example is fridge magnet style cards, these get kept and left on fridges this is still wallet share because they are easily accessible and could result in business further down the track.

4. SHAREABILITY

Will people talk about your business card? Does it offer them a way to share your business with others?For example a coffee shop business card could have a tear off coupon, for a free muffin with every coffee purchased.
 

Here’s one of the coolest business card designs I’ve seen that definitely isn’t boring!

Mod hair salon is a “Rock ‘n Roll” hair salon based in Rome, Italy.

So the first thing you should notice is that it doubles as a comb, that is a fantastic idea for a hair salon. And if I saw something like that from a hair salon I’d already be impressed… but they didn’t leave it at that.

They took it from fantastic to remarkable by designing the teeth of the comb so that they worked like a musicbox.

So what this means is when you rub the teeth of the comb with your fingernail the card plays a song, and not just any song as they are a “Rock ‘n Roll” hair salon it plays “Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones. Absolute Genius!

So, ok it’s not the best business card ever, and I’d be interested to know how effective it actually is.

If it were mine I would add a clear call to action offer. But do you think anyone throws this “business card” away? How much conversation has this card created for them do you think?

The real question is, How much conversation is your business card creating? What attention are you capturing?

I’m going to leave you now with a few business cards to get your creative juices flowing… see what you can come up with and remember your business card should serve a purpose which is to get an enquiry not just be a gimmick with no clear reason.

Is it a business card or a paper plane?

Give People Something Do do… Like this play a game when there’s nothing else to do

Not sure of the practicallity of putting these in your wallet, but definately stand out

Here’s a practical use business card

Secret Message Business Card

Perfect for Divorce Lawyer… perforated edge down the middle so you can Split the card

Scratch Panel reveals the call to action

Showing your clear benefit