By: Rick Hendershot
http://www.sbo-linknet.com
© 2005
You need a business card. So now you have to
decide what it should say and what it should look like.
Before asking the inevitable questions about
the design of your business card, you should ask what its function
in your overall marketing plan should be. Above all you want to
make sure it communicates the most important things about you
and your company.
**Include Your Most Important Sales Message**
We all know a business card should contain basic
contact information: your name, company name, address and phone
number. But probably even more important is conveying your Most
Important Sales Message. If you don't have an "MISM",
you should create one. It is a brief, succinct statement of what
your company is about. It is the answer to the question: "What
does your company do?"
Sometimes this kind of answer is called an "elevator
speech". You're on an elevator and somebody asks you "What
does your company do?" You have six or seven seconds to give
a memorable reply. Good elevator speeches go beyond hackneyed
answers like "We do web marketing" or "We make
bowling balls." They are confidence-inspiring marketing statements:
"We create websites that sell tons of products for people."
or "We make the world's most beautifully balanced bowling
balls."
Your MISM (Most Important Sales Message) may
very well be a "product" (as in the bowling ball example
above), but it should always be accompanied by a "pitch"
of some kind or another. Often this will essentially be a "slogan".
For your elevator speech you need a seven second
slogan. For your business card you will need the same slogan boiled
down to an string of words that not only sounds good, but looks
good on the card: "Websites that Sell Like Crazy", "The
World's Most Beautifully Balanced Bowling Balls", "The
Discount Real Estate Guy", "The Source for Cottages
and Summer Homes", "Beautiful Color Vinyl Banners."
**Consistency has its place**
It is always good to make your business card
consistent with your corporate image and the rest of your marketing
materials. Usually this boils down to basic things like your choice
of colors, typeface, and layout style. And of course you will
want to include your company logo.
Usually your marketing consultant or graphic
designer will want to plaster your logo on all your marketing
materials, sometimes using the logo as a substitute for real marketing
design. "A lot of work went into creating that logo, and
we must convey a consistent corporate image" is the usual
mantra. What ever you do, don't ask "Why is consistency so
important?" That question opens the way for tedious theorizing
about "the long term importance of developing a corporate
image."
You would be better to agree. "Yes, by all
means, we want to present a consistent corporate image."
And then add, "But I want this business card to do some selling
for me, so I would like to give the sales message a bit more prominence
than usual."
In other words, use the usual corporate colors,
typeface and layout style on your business card. Include the logo
too, because it IS important. But every business card should give
prominence to the sales message. Show a picture of your product.
Or if you think you are the product (as most real estate agents
seem to think), then include your own picture on your business
card. But don't forget to enhance the photo with that slogan we
talked about in the previous section.
And now that you have a business card worth handing
out, get out there and start doing it.
