Your card reflects you as a person and your business. Make sure it looks good, feels good and is
good at the job of promoting you and your business! Being a graphic
designer and running DC-Graphics Design and Print Specialists, I probably
notice this sort of thing more than most.
7 Reasons Why Most Business Cards
are Rubbish!
1: Ever been given a card that's obviously printed out on a home
computer? Why do people do that? Is it for some sort of kiddies club at the local
school? It costs very little to get a professionally designed and printed card,
even in full colour. If you can't be bothered to do that, just how professional
are you, really?
2: I hate business cards that are probably
free or purchased for under £10, printed on what can only be described as
‘thick toilet paper’ and on the back it will have the cheap printer’s name and
website on it. (No wonder they’re free or laughably cheap)! These are the ones
that have a stock background image. I’ve been at a networking event and have
been given 2 cards from 2 different people from different trades no less, and
yes, you guessed it, they BOTH had the same background image!
3: Business cards that are logo farms. By
that I mean that they have more than one logo on them. Do I really need to see
any secondary logos of groups that the business is associated with? Sometimes I
get a card crammed with logos and I have to wonder if this is their only form
of advertising?
4: Business cards that have a change of
phone number or address label stuck on them. I mean how tight and makeshift is
that? It looks as if they just can’t be bothered to gain more business with
that approach. That’s just sloppy, and gives a sloppy image to anyone the card
is handed to. Are they really going to give you a good service if they can’t
even project a professional image of themselves?
5: How annoying is it when someone has to
cross out an old phone number or email and write in a new one just before they
hand their card to you. Get yourself organised and make getting new cards a top
priority!
6: Absolutely nothing printed on the
reverse side. It’s dead space that could be working for you, but keep it
simple, just a few bullet points about you and/or your business, short, sweet
and to the point. If not, a graphic image or a strong colour from your logo so
that if it’s left anywhere upside down, curiosity will make people pick it up
and turn it over.
7: Another bugbear is when a ‘so called’
professional person in business has a website but the email address on their
card is a bog standard ‘joe public’ domestic one, like BT, hotmail, yahoo, aol or gmail.
Nothing screams “amateur” more than this. Get an email address that matches
your website for goodness sake! And, what’s possibly worse is no email address
at all. Come on, it’s 2016; get with the 21st century if you want
business!
5 Tips on Getting a Professional Looking Business Card
TIP 1: Get a
professional graphic designer to design your card: Click here and you can hire
me!
TIP 2: Insist on at
least 400gsm thickness of board
TIP 3: Have it matt
laminated to give it a quality feel
TIP 4: Make sure you
have plenty printed to make it worthwhile
TIP 5: Consider a spot
UV gloss varnish over your logo or an image to give your card an ‘edge’ over
your competitors for quality
Check a recent case
study of mine. This was a logo I designed, together with matching corporate stationery
set of a business card, letterhead and compliment slip. See them here.
What about my own
business card I hear you ask? Well being a design and print specialists I had
to have something a bit different. In fact, you can see it right now here!
But… be careful, quality print finishes of business cards could turn into an obsession of ‘one-upmanship’ in this short video clip from the Hollywood movie ‘American Psycho’ –
