In the busy and fast-paced world of business there is often not enough time to spend wooing potential customers or building up a portfolio of contacts. Instead, the majority of professionals continue to rely heavily upon business cards as they attempt to make a lasting impression on people they meet.

First impressions are clearly important in business – they can immediately determine the outcome of a job interview, a meeting or a sales pitch. What you also want, though, is to maximise the chance of that first impression leading to contacts digging out your business card weeks, months or even years down the line and giving you a call.

How to Make Your Business Card Stand Out from the Crowd

To make your business card more memorable, it has to be unique and eye-catching. For that reason it’s best to carefully consider the card’s design.

You could do this by opting for a black or red background. Experts say that both colours stand out on business cards. Incorporating an image into the design may also be a good idea for optimum impact – particularly if it helps recipients put a face to the name.

Equally important is the need to express your company’s personality through the card. A business card is a miniature advert and you should make use of the opportunity to let people know exactly what you’re all about. Always put your slogan, tag line or unique selling proposition on your business card, but try to keep it to 7 words or less.

A good way to think about your business card design is to consider exactly how your business comes across when you hand people the card. If it’s ugly, drab and printed on perforated paper, your firm will look amateurish and unsuccessful.

Remember to use both sides of your business card – the front for the most important information – name, address, email, web address and telephone number and the back for any brand related information. You could even put something of value on the back of the card; a conversion table, calendar or anything else that will make your card a reference tool and give extra value.

Make it Easy to Find You

If people will be coming to your business and it is hard to find put a map or landmark on the back of the card to help people to find you

If your last name is hard to pronounce, why not put the phonetic spelling of your name on as well? So that people can call you without fear of embarrassing themselves on the phone.

Phone numbers – it’s not necessary to put a lot of telephone numbers on your business cards. Usually a mobile or telephone phone number and fax number will suffice.

Now you don’t really need to put www before your website URL anymore – most people are ok with this. Leaving the www of the address can help to enhance the look of your card. Besides you don’t even have to type the www into most browsers now.

Author Bio: Need more ideas for business cards? Then take a look at the designs by business card and stationery suppliers such as Betterprint, where you can also invest in custom business letterheads, compliment slips, note pads and other business stationery.

Category: Business
Keywords: business cards, business stationery, cards, prionts, letterheads, labels, Betterprint