Business Cards - Why You Shouldn't Leave Home Without It

A well known radio personality was on his syndicated talk show this week and spoke about giving businesses a FREE NAME MENTION on his radio show (his show has millions of listeners daily). He was at a party and was excited to help businesses by announcing the business names on his show. He tried to collect business cards throughout the party to give FREE ADVERTISING (yes, you heard it right, free). How many business cards do you think he collected? 8! That's right. Only 8 business cards.

Are you surprised? I'm not. Many small business owners have not learned the power of the business card. A business card is the most cost effective means of marketing. It gives you the opportunity to deliver your message the way you want it.

I have a few clients that are hair stylists. The first thing I do to get them to increase their business is to start carrying cards wherever you go - to the grocery store, putting gas in the care, at the doctor's office-- wherever you go just give out your business cards. This alone will increase traffic to your website, to your business (brick and mortar) and generate leads and telephone calls. That's what you want, isn't it?

Inexpensive but Effective
Business cards can deliver key points to get someone to call your business. Leaving a stack of them in strategic places can increase your exposure dramatically. A client that is in home services industry wanted to leave full color brochures with her strategic partners but at the time could not afford the cost of the printing. She needed a cost effective method of leaving information with out the full cost of the brochure because she had so many strategic partners she wanted to utilize. We re-designed her card and utilized all the space on the front and back of the card. She conveyed precisely the right message and she delivered the card to here strategic partners. She recognized a 2000% ROI (return on investment) in 60 days!

"Tina, with your help we formulated the right message and the calls started coming in." Rashawne said. "I've tried other methods that were much more expensive and have not increased my business so dramatically!"

Does Your Card Send the Right Message?

While conducting a customer needs analysis for a client we uncovered that professionalism is the most important factor (you might have thought price, right?). Time and time again we were told by potential customers they can tell a lot about your business from your business card. In summary, this is what they said:

Do It Yourself Business Card - The business is too cheap to invest in a business card so they might provide cheap (in quality) work. In other words, business cards are so inexpensive that you can get professional business cards for about $20. Isn't your business' image worth $20?

Business Cards with the name of the designer on the back - Again, too cheap. Everyone knows that these companies send these business cards out for free. Also, it shows you didn't give any thought to the image of your business, so why should a potential customer? One customer surveyed told me she thought it was funny that the company used the same cards her daughter uses for birthday parties (it was the same design too)!

So what does your business card say about you?

Tina Potts, Small Business Consultant
Elite Management & Printing
www.elitemanagment.com
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