Rob McNeally is a politician running for Congress somewhere in Colorado. I am not interesting in politics, especially in nice, but remote, State of Colorado. However, I found a nice article on his website, reviewing the perception from different kinds of the business cards, he gets during political networking gatherings. I would like to share with you this article, as it gives certain important perception on the common mistakes, people do when they design their business cards.
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We have a little ritual which has developed over the past few months. Every time Rob comes home from a networking event with a stack of business cards in hand, we blow off steam by flipping through the stack to pick the best and the worst. Over the past few months, we’ve literally looked at hundreds of business cards, and let me tell you, something in the stack is always good for a laugh.
After spending wasting more than a couple of hours on this “hobby,” I convinced Rob to let me pop over and guest blog about some of the business card mistakes we see over and over again.
- No do-it-yourself business cards . . . Please don’t hand me a business card with “dangling chads”. You know what I mean – those little tiny paper tabs that are left behind when you tear apart yourself printed business cards. This tells me that either business cards were an afterthought, or you’ve been in business about 59 minutes, because with the plethora of online print shops and business supply stores on every corner, there’s pretty much no reason why you can’t have cards printed if you’ve been in business any longer than that.
- Tell me how to contact you! I can’t believe I actually have to type this, but please, please, please include an email address and phone number on your cards. I’m begging you people. How else am I supposed to get in touch with you, certified mail?? And, if you don’t have an email address, go get one now – that’s an order!
- No superhero names! This past week, I came across several cards where people had included terms like “The Accelerator” or “The (insert random word here)-ator” in prominent italic type under their name. Now, I know they are probably trying to use a catchy term to describe some certification, or business specialty they have, but this is not the place where you need to be creative on your business card. When I see The Negotiator on your business card, it leaves me guessing whether you broker contract negotiations, or whether that’s your moniker from your former WWF wrestling days.
- Make up your mind what you do for a living . . . I admit, we have our proverbial eggs in many baskets, and we are the first to promote the concept of having multiple streams of income, but they are not all listed on the same business card. When I see a business card telling me you specialize in business coaching, arbitration and you sell real estate, I just can’t be convinced you take any of these things seriously. If you really do specialize in all of these areas, get a different card to each one, and hand out the appropriate card to the appropriate person.
- Make up your mind who you are . . . Don’t hand out business cards with you and your wife’s name on it, unless you have a very good reason. Don’t hand out someone else’s card either, with or without the other person’s name scribbled out.
- If your details change, get new cards! When you scrawl your email address across the back of your card and I can’t read it, I move on and contact someone else. Business cards are cheap, and with the ready availability of professional printing previously discussed in point number 1 above, there’s pretty much no reason why you can’t print new ones.
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I would like add some more reasons to consider your business card as really bad, on top of those provided in the article above:
- Your business card looks cheap. The card stock should be thick enough so it does not appear to be flimsy and cheap. One of the factors that determine whether a business card is bad is how thick it is. When you hand someone a business card, you want that person to be under the impression that it is of high quality. It should not bend easily in her hands. Because thin business cards are made from a cheaper material, the cost of them is cheap as well. Most online business card designers give the buyer an option of what kind of card stock they want. Do not save money on that!
- Not Branded Email address. If you want to represent a business, no matter how mature it is, you have to look very professional. Nothing says “amateur” than using a free Yahoo/Hotmail/AOL/Gmail e-mail address as your main address. A domain name costs only $10 these days and usually a hosted e-mail account is $1.99 more. The biggest perpetrators are usually those trying to be “consultants” but have a day job and this is their side thing or they are just starting out and haven’t talked to one person about marketing. That may not apply to a professional, who just look for another job for-hire, and does not want to use the current business email address in the search.
- No Tiny Print! This links to “what do you do” section on the card. People try and put a lot of information on a business card but for the love of something good and sweet, don’t try and think more is better by using a small font. The recipient needs to read it from first glance and not grab a magnifying glass. 11 point font at a minimum, 12 and 13 is better.
- No Obvious Statements! You want to produce a good marketing message to remember you and know what you do. That doesn‘t mean putting stupid statements like – “I love leads” or “We sell real estate”. Really? I love leads too and if you have to tell me you are begging me and I won’t give them to you. Really, you sell real estate? I couldn’t gather that from your company name “XYZ Realtors” so you must think I am stupid. Into the trash you go.
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