If you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur, the chances are that your business cards have been with you on more than one (thrilling/nerve-wracking) occasion. Of course, you need them for networking and making new contacts! Â However, aside from being practical tools for spreading the word about your company, they also give you a chance to make a great first impression.
So, how do you make sure that people remember who you are? Â Read this blog post for tips on choosing the print method for and design of your business card. If it’s impressive enough, they’ll never forget it!
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Choose The Print Method That Deserves Your Business Card
With so many printing methods available–offset printing, digital printing, screen printing, letterpress, thermography, engraving, and embossing–choosing which one to go for can be overwhelming. However, it’s important that you find the print technique that suits your needs best.
If your business card is being used primarily as a customer or prospect identification tool, then, offset printing may offer you enough quality at an affordable price for this purpose. For more upscale products or brands, where people look for serious professional partners in given industry segments, they may expect nothing less than letterpress cards provided by an experienced print shop.
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Find A Professional Print Shop With A Great Reputation
Now that you have some idea about which type of business card works best for what kind of business, you need to find a printer with an excellent track record. As you can imagine, thousands of businesses out there specialize in print services, so how do you differentiate the good from the bad?
The first thing that probably comes to mind is word-of-mouth referrals and online reviews. Established print shops, such as Catdi Printing, will have enough testimonials and in-depth reviews on the Internet to help you make a decision.
Check if your prospective business card printing shop has testimonials on their website; read what previous clients have to say about them. Also, check out review sites, like Yelp!
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Have A Clear And Concise Message
State your mission or purpose in one or two sentences so that everyone can understand what you’re trying to do. The main idea of having a business card is to convey your identity. If someone reads it and doesn’t get the point, then you’ve failed as a business owner. Remember that your brand name must be accessible at all times and easily remembered by people who meet you for the first time.
You don’t want them scratching their head every time they hear your company’s name because it takes forever to explain what it is all about. Before designing your card, you must take into consideration factors such as size and number of colors into consideration because these elements affect the cost, as well as the quality of printing.
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Know Your Audience
Who are you trying to sell your company to? Â This factor will affect the outcome of your business card design. If you’re targeting different types of people, then it’s best to incorporate colors that reflect each target market’s personality. Sticking with one color is boring and may even make potential customers disregard your card altogether.
Adding on more colors can be risky because it’ll affect printing costs, as well as how good the finished products will be. Finding the perfect balance is key; however, there are no hard-and-fast rules when it comes to this issue, so find what works best for you and go with it.
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Make The Most Of What You Have
Remember that your business card is, essentially, an advertisement for your company. It doesn’t have to be full-colored because, sometimes, all it takes is one striking image for customers to remember who you are and what you stand for. Plus, it’s more cost-effective too! Aside from being creative, using good-quality paper stock is something else you shouldn’t forget. If you choose recycled paper, make sure it doesn’t look cheap and has a good weight to it.
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Quality Over Quantity
Keep in mind that the quality of your business card is more important than the number of cards you’ll be printing out. It’s better to produce just a few cards that’ll reflect your company perfectly rather than print out hundreds with mediocre designs. The point is that you want people who’ll meet you for the first time to remember your name, so don’t let them down!  Remember, once they lose interest, it’ll be hard getting their attention again, so always aim for a winning design.
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Make It Memorable
Don’t fall into the trap of being too safe because having an out-of-the-box design isn’t just for novelty’s sake. Do you want to leave an impression or not?  Always keep in mind that your customers are the reason why your business thrives, so give them something they’ll always remember. Just make sure that it fits in with what your company stands for.
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Certain Areas Get More Attention
Whether you’re handing someone a business card in person or leaving one behind for someone else to find, there are certain areas that’ll get a lot more attention than others. For example, it’s usually a good idea to have your logo at the center of your business card because this tends to be one of the first things that people look for when trying to identify a company from afar. In most cases, you should place this information on what would be considered the front side of your business card.
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Represent Yourself Well
Presentation is key when trying to make a good first impression; however, its impact can be diminished if all you put out there is mediocre content. Make sure every detail says something about who you are and how your brand operates. This includes printing mistakes because spelling errors, smudges, and other blunders can be detrimental to the image of your brand. If you are on a tight budget, then make sure you double-check your work before sending it out for mass production.
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Promote Yourself
In this day and age, every company has, at least, one social media account, so take advantage of it!  When designing your card, include your business’s website URL and all of your social media handles so that people can get in touch with you. You never know who’s going to see it or be given one, so using this technique may turn out to be beneficial at the end of the day.
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Make Sure You Get What You Pay For
Price is always going to play a bigger-than-usual role when it comes to something as important as business cards (and most things that relate to marketing). However, there are times when you’ll need to settle on the printer with the best value even if that means cutting down on another aspect. While the cost of business card printing isn’t something that should be overlooked, you can find yourself paying for it in additional ways if you go with a company that doesn’t live up to all your expectations. This will typically end up in either lost time or lost productivity.
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Are Your Cards Printed Correctly?
If you don’t double-check all of your printing materials, then there’s a chance they might not come out right on the first try. This includes making sure that they’re center-aligned by checking whether they’re on top of each other through color contrast, checking spacing, and even knowing when to use less ink for smaller fonts. It also doesn’t hurt to ask some friends if they could check them too because fresh pairs of eyes will see things you don’t.
Whether you’re using an image-editing program, like Photoshop, or just typing away in Microsoft Word, here are a few common mistakes that should be avoided at all costs:
- Inconsistent font types and sizes
- Wrong or lack of capitalization
- Missing hyphens between numbers and letters
- Incorrect spacing
Try as much as you can to be thorough with your proofreading to avoid noticing mistakes after printing. You want your network and potential clients to see your brand as crispy clean from the get-go.
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Use A Professional Font And Keep It Simple
When someone looks at your business card for the first time, they’ll immediately notice the font and how it makes them feel. Don’t use a font that would look more appropriate for a wedding invitation or other formal occasions as this can put people off if they think they’re about to be subjected to some cheesy sales pitch. Also, avoid anything too complicated as it’ll just look unprofessional and difficult to read. Instead, opt for something basic, such as Helvetica or Georgia, as these are easy-to-read options that’ll stand out without putting anyone off, but won’t make your company seem unsophisticated either.
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Be Consistent
In terms of the logo, fonts, colors, and images you’ll use, make sure to employ them throughout all of your branding materials so that people will recognize them. Make sure that they’re different enough, but also cohesive because, then, your company will establish a sense of identity instead of appearing too loose or confusing. It’ll create a better image if people can easily identify with what you’re selling.
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The Power Of Paper
Suppose you want to be memorable, print on quality paper stock because it could mean the difference between looking mediocre and standing out in the crowd. There’s something really special about holding an item made from superior-quality materials, so always choose top-notch business card printing when ordering your products.
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Keep It Real
Make sure that your branding materials reflect what your business is all about; otherwise, there’s no point in even having these materials in the first place.
How To Choose An Affordable Business Card Printing Company
When choosing an affordable business card printing company, some key factors will need to be considered before taking this important step. Doing thorough research should help ensure that you get high-quality prints without having to break the bank.
- Consider all available options – Although it may seem like an obvious point, choosing the option that best suits your requirements is vital when it comes to getting high-quality business card printing done at a low cost. Make sure that you take into account things like whether or not you wish to create multiple different designs (for both sides), how many cards you require, the size of business cards you want, how many colors you need to include, etc.
You can incorporate tiny but significant details like spot UV to your business cards to elevate their quality and to better personalize them. You can check out this video to get a hang of how spot UV would look on a silk card:
- Look at their portfolio – Make sure that the company has a strong portfolio that reflects what you’re looking for in terms of design and general marketing. It should span several different industries so that you can get an idea of whether or not they can create something unique for your company, without having to look through thousands of cards!
- Ask for references – If possible, it’s always advisable to ask for some customer references since these will give you a great insight into how well the company deals with its customers Asking questions like, “When did you place your order?” And, “How long did it take them to deliver?” can be very telling about what kind of customer service is on offer.
- Contact them: A telephone call or meeting with the company is recommended before placing an order so that you can communicate exactly what you’re looking for in terms of design, message, etc.
 Stand Out From The Crowd
In this day and age, every company has at least one social media account, so take advantage of it! When designing your card, include your business’s website URL and all of your social media handles so that people can get in touch with you. You never know who’s going to see it or be given one, so using this technique may turn out to be beneficial at the end of the day.
All the branding tips provided by this article will help you know how to best use your business cards as the branding tools that they are.
