Keep it Old School
Business cards. Should you have a business card? Now some of the younger generations say,
“Hey we don’t need business cards we have smart phones and social media.”
I am starting to tune into that. It makes sense rather than continually exchanging all of these little cards back and forth which typically I just type or scan into my social media account. So why are we doing that? Do we really need a business card? That’s the question.
I’m going to say yes, go ahead and have one. It doesn’t mean you’re always going to use it, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be the number one thing you use to market yourself. Actually the majority of the time you can get by without it but have you ever run out of cell phone battery or had bad internet connection in a hotel or when you’re out about? It happens and it’s goofy when you think you’re looking professional but have to say,
“Oh I can’t really connect with you right now because my connection isn’t working, let me write down my name on this scrappy piece of paper using this pen that doesn’t write very well.”
That’s not very professional so let’s go old school, let’s just have a business card and make it look really good.
Making it Look Good
Have your brand colors, have your fonts, it’s a piece of design artwork. It’s a little thing that you can actually give to somebody, that they can tangibly have and it gives a sense of who you are, what you’re about, and the purpose you serve. So I recommend having a business card and keeping some with you, you never know when you might use it. If you choose to just go social and only do internet technology that’s fine but it doesn’t hurt to have a business card. And if you just ever want to slip it to somebody who you can’t really talk to or you just want to connect with somebody, it gives you that opportunity to pass it on.
Make it Unique
Make it look professional, have a professional image of yourself, professional photography. Use good design, do something that looks unique, that stands out. Don’t go so corporate and boring that people don’t even want to look at it and stow it away, have some flair and if you’re thinking ahead have a call to action. See if you can put something on the business card as a lead generation so they can take some initial action to connect with you, it never hurts.
It’s Worth the Investment
That’s my thought about business cards, go ahead and have one, make it look cool, make it rock! Don’t go with generic templates, you see these commercials where they’re offering a hundred business cards for nine dollars, if I get a crappy business card that looks like you got a hundred of them for nine dollars, I’m sorry it does not communicate much about you that is flattering. It looks like you’re cheap, it looks like you’re not willing to invest in yourself. So unless you really are aiming to be the Walmart of the world, invest in getting a nice business card, make it look sharp and then use it if needed.
