The Great First Impression Business Cards

In a world where everyone and their mothers are trying to sell something, give information or “help” it is becoming more and more important to trust our instincts and first impressions. So how do you, as the person doing the selling, giving and helping, make a positive and noticeable first impression? Hand out a great business card. Your business card should uniquely sell your business, give effective contact information and help consumers make the best decision as to who to do business with. As a graphic designer, I am committed to creating the perfect card for you and am willing to share some wisdom as to what makes a great first impression business card.

THE LOOK

The “look” of your business card should ALWAYS reflect your brand. The colors, logos, pictures, font style and slogan that you use on all your other marketing pieces should guide the design of your business card. Without closely reading your card clients should be able to recognize your brand and know that it’s you. If you don’t have a personal brand, come talk to me. I’ll create a unique personal or company brand that attracts attention and sets you apart as a business that offers value, quality, accessibility and relevant services and products to clients.

Another common design question is whether the card should be one sided or double-sided. It’s absolutely worth the extra money to go double sided. You never know how the card is going to land. You only have a few seconds to impress people with the business card and a blank white back is not as impressive as one with a logo, Facebook URL or simply a color or texture. An option some of my clients choose is to leave the glossy or UV coating off the back. Therefore, clients can jot down notes, reminders or appointments on the back of the card.

THE CONTENT

Once you’ve got the general look of the card, you have to decide what information goes on it.

Remember that a business card is not a resume, it’s a small piece that gives clients your most effective contact information. Only the most important contact information, such as your name, phone number, email and web address, should go on the card. Any extra contact information should only be added if you use it regularly. For example, if you do not use the fax machine often, leave that number off the card. Instead put it on your website home page and put the website address on your card. Social media site wed addresses take up a lot of room so it’s best to just put one on the front of your card. Again, pick the one that you use regularly. The other sites can be put on the back of the card or you can simply say “Find me on Facebook, Twitter, Linked In. etc.”

THE ORDER

You’re a business professional, not a graphic designer. Once you have a basic idea of how you want your card to look and what you want it to say, come see me and let me do the dirty work for you. Just keep these tips in mind to make sure your card gets developed as quickly and with the highest quality possible.

Always send high-resolution files. A sure fire way to lengthen the design time on your business card is to send a low-resolution file of a picture, logo, etc. Those files, which include all files from the web, never print nicely. Save yourself some time and trouble and make sure the file is high resolution before you send it over. If you’re not sure how to tell, ask your designer.

THE PROOF

It’s important to view the business card in its actual size. Sometimes clients are surprised at the final product because they had only viewed the file as a large image on the computer screen. I always suggest to clients to print out their proofs, look them over carefully for typos, grammar, etc., and to get someone else to look at it as well. Your graphic designer will look them over, but after looking at the design for a while, the eyes sometimes do not see. That being said, the proof is sent to the client for a reason…to catch errors and to OK it for printing.

The graphic designer cannot be held responsible for errors that the client did not catch. So… check it one more time.