The Art of Business Card Marketing

Tips for Effective Business Card Marketing

Understand Your Target Audience

To ensure your card leaves a lasting impression, it must resonate visually and align with your customer’s expectations. By understanding your target audience, you can make the most out of the limited space and only add relevant information. Take, for instance, you have a corporate client. In this case, a minimalistic card with only your name, job title, and service will be sufficient. However, if you are a creative service provider, like a design house, you can add bold colours, unique typography, a tagline, benefits, and an enticing CTA.

Choose High-Quality Materials

As mentioned, tangibility is crucial in helping customers decide whether they want to engage with the business. Printing your business card on thin paper will give the impression that your product and service quality are inferior. This is why you should use premium-quality material. We advise using cardstock ranging between 14 pt and 16 pt to balance durability and cost. You can also add matte, gloss, or texture coatings to make them stand out. PostGrid’s Print & Mail API allows you to choose from a wide range of paper thicknesses and coatings to design cards that look and feel premium.

Template Should Reflect Your Brand’s Personality

The card will act as an extension of your business, so the design elements, like colours, font style, etc., should reflect your brand identity. Take, for instance, you are a law firm with corporate clients. Your card can have a sophisticated look using classic fonts like Times New Roman, dark colours, and a straightforward design with just the logo and contact information. We offer an exhaustive gallery of templates which you can use to design business cards. You can also upload your template and edit it with our built-in editor. 

Decide the Right Shape and Size

This will affect the text size and the amount of information you can include on the card. The standard business cards are rectangular, about the size of a credit card, and laid horizontally.  Since people are familiar with them, it is a safe choice. However, if you want your card to stand out, you can choose a square shape with rounded corners and vertical orientation. 

If you plan to mail business cards along with other packages as a complementary piece, ensure you adhere to the standard mailing guidelines. This is because square cards don’t meet the regular mailing size, and you might have to pay an additional postage fee.

Make it Readable

The recipient should be able to glance and understand what your business is about; hence, the content on your card should be readable. Ensure the font is simple and easy to digest, such as Arial or Times New Roman. Steer clear from artistic fonts. Additionally, ensure the font size is not below 8 pt, as it will turn the text into an illegible smudge when printed. To highlight important information, use a font of a larger size or a different style. However, remember not to use more than two fonts in a card, which might make the whole design off-putting.

To enhance readability, you can also add white space, making it easier for the recipient to read and digest the content. Moreover, it will help draw attention to the important elements and give the card a balanced and professional look. 

Elaborate What You Are Offering

Other than telling the reader who you are and where to contact you, you must also mention what you do. Do not limit yourself to mentioning the job title; instead, explain how the recipient can benefit from your service. You can also add your specialisation in the tagline or the header. Take, for instance, you are a marketing consultant. Below your name or job title, you can write Expert in Developing High-Conversion Email Responder Campaigns. Moreover, if you offer the best support and reliable products or have won significant awards, mention them on the card because this will help build credibility.

Organize the Information

Ensure the card has all the information the recipient needs to contact you and find your office. Add your telephone number, website, email address, and social media handles. While adding the details, ensure that the reader can scan them easily. Every piece of information should be distinguishable and simultaneously guide the readers’ eye to where they should look next. 

Aside from font size, you can use colours in a calculative manner. For instance, use bold colours like red and dark blue to highlight primary information like the company name and logo and muted colours for secondary details like email address and phone number. 

Use Both Sides

You can add ample information without overcrowding by utilising the reverse side of your card. This will ensure your recipient has all the necessary information at a glance, thus driving up the engagement and prompting them to follow up. Take, for instance, you are a B2B consulting firm. You can add the name, logo, and contact information on the front. On the back, you can list key services and areas of expertise. You can also use it to promote special offers, discounts, or time-sensitive incentives. This adds value to attract customers and encourages them to take action immediately. Additionally, businesses typically use the card’s front side, so using both will give you an edge over your competitors. 

Include Testimonials and Special Offers

You can build trust, demonstrate credibility, and offer social proof by adding a testimonial on the back of your business card. However, keep the following things in mind when mentioning them:

• Keep it short. Choose a quote that highlights how your product or service benefited the clients.
• Instead of adding the person’s name, add the company’s name and logo.
• Add quotes from well-known companies, as this will increase the perceived value of your brand.

Add a QR Code and PURL

You can bridge the gap between your offline and online channels by adding them. Globally, people are becoming comfortable using QR codes. By allowing recipients to scan it, you can redirect them to a personalised landing page, website, or content. This will make it easy for them to engage with you. Moreover, by eliminating the need to enter the URL manually, you will offer a seamless process, encouraging more people to take action and increasing the chances of conversion. 

A personalised URL will include the person’s name or other specific information. This will create a sense of exclusivity and personal connection, increasing the possibility of engagement. 

Aside from enhancing the user experience and encouraging immediate action, these elements can also help you analyse how your campaign is performing. When you print and mail business cards with PostGrid, you can track the insights from the dashboard. Know how many people scanned the code, when they did it, and what their location is. This data will help you identify high-quality leads and optimise future marketing efforts for desirable outcomes. 

Add a Call To Action

Nudge your clients to take action by adding a prominent CTA at the back of the card. It should clearly state what you want them to do, such as send you an email or request a free demo service. You must keep the following things in mind when adding them to a business card:

• It should be simple, such as Call Now, Visit Us, or Get Your Free Quote.
• Use action verbs like Get, Start, Claim, or Discover to motivate recipients to act immediately.
• Use contrasting colours to highlight it so that readers can easily notice it.

Proofread

You don’t want to waste your money and embarrass yourself in front of the prospects by printing cards with typos. Check the content multiple times for grammatical errors, spelling issues, and more before sending them for printing. 

Use Multiple Distribution Channels

Carry your business cards everywhere you go so that you can hand them out after introductions or meaningful conversations. It can be a networking event, conference, or lunch with a potential partner. You can give them the card at the end to ensure they have your contact information. 

Local community events, workshops, and seminars are great places to share them. You can also ask an affiliated business to distribute them on your behalf. Take, for instance, you are a software development company. You can give them to computer stores who will give them to the employees of your prospect’s company. You can also directly mail them to your prospects by using our solution.