I rarely give out business cards any more. In fact, I may be down to my last few dozen or so at work - with no intention of asking our advertising agency (who handles these things) to print me more. Plaxo and other services help all of us track our connections electronically. And since most of us use email more than any other connectivity method - what’s the point in a paper business card?
I get a handful of them every month though - still. Here’s my most recent collection. There was a time when I collected them, put them in binders and kept them organized. That strategy went the way of CB radio.
I still like a creative business card. If you’re going to use a business card you might as well make it something that will never be thrown away! Jeffrey Gitomer uses a custom minted coin. If you get one of his “cards” you’ll keep it forever. And tell others about it, like I just did. Few of us put as much creative thought into things as Gitomer though (to our shame).
I’ve been given cards made of wood that were unique. Of course, the person was in a wood-related business (furniture or something of that sort).
VistaPrint overwhelms us all with spam offering “for today only” a special where we can get cards for free (of course, shipping costs you $5 or something). And I suppose most of us had had some sort of card printed by them. When you get 60 email offers a month it’s hard to resist.
I honestly wonder why any of us have a card with anything other than our email address though. How often is that our first question? “What’s your email address?” And as I scan this stack of cards I find some of them have no email address listed, and many have it so small that you need a high-quality microscope to read it. Quite a few don’t list a website. Many don’t list a cell phone, yet you know that’s the only way you’ll ever really reach them. I confess that my cell phone isn’t printed on mine either. I do print labels to stick on the back of the ones I give to people who I don’t mind having my cell phone number.
I think my next cards - should I continue to use them at work - will have nothing more than my company name, my name and my email address. Is there really anything more that you need on a card today?
3 comments ↓
Found your blog through a link online. You give some very valuable tips here on business cards. I had never heard of Plaxo before but it seems like it would be very beneficial.
I think people can underestimate the value of business cards, and finding a creative way to get one noticed can be challenging .
When you hand them a business card, people still look at it, feel the weight and quality of the paper, get an impression of the design, and when they haven’t visited your business, they get a notion of the quality of your operation. If you don’t have a business card, then the impression you might leave is not that you’re just too sensible and in-the-future, but rather that you’re too arrogant, lazy, stupid or careless to be bothered.
Of course, this assumes you care.
Paper quality provides no uniqueness. Uniqueness is the objective and creativity isn’t determined by the quality of the paper. I have tons of “quality” cards (as you define them) that are from very fly-by-night operations.
And I can only speak to my own experiences. 100% of the people I meet ask for one thing: my email address. That seems to be the primary point of connectivity in our world today.
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