Business cards are an essential tool in the swag of every businessperson. Whether it’s a client asking for a card, or an opportunity to connect, you need to hand over a bit of paper that lets that person know how to get in touch with you. That card is perhaps the first piece of branded material that person has seen of your company, and it’s important that you project the image of your company that you wish to portray.
There was a real trend a decade ago where companies where constantly coming up with new and fancy alternatives to a business card. It wasn’t uncommon to receive USB sticks, shaped cards, smellable cards, bottle openers (we are in Australia after all), and a whole gamet of novelty items intended to do more than just state a business name and phone number. None of it was really useful. The USB sticks normally contained marketing material that was already available elsewhere (like the company web site) and no one watched it there either, and the drive itself was too small to use for other data. The shaped cards didn’t sit well in card holders and tended to fold and be thrown away sooner. Bottle openers are perhaps washed then thrown in the cupboard for use at the Christmas party, so perhaps there is a long sell here but it doesn’t necessarily server the primary purposes of a humble card:
- State your name, title, degree (optionally), phone number, email address, and web site.
- Show your company name, logo, and certifications.
It takes skill to scale a company brand into a small rectangle packed with information, yet still leave an impression of elegant space through grace and a careful blending of elements.
There is a hierarchy of ways you can get a business card:
- Use a vending machine at an airport (do these still exist?).
- Do it yourself in Word and print it at the office, hoping that printer takes cardboard stock.
- Go online and find a printer that will take your design and print 10,000 cards and ship them to you (HINT: often 100-250 cards is enough to start, 500 at most, unless you have events planned where you intend to hand out cards en masse).
- Have a designer create an elegant branded card, and have the card produced at a printer.
- Go to a brand agency and get a statement.
Your business card doesn’t need to be a masterpiece, but it absolutely must not disappoint. Scrawling an email address on a napkin because you’re out of cards can be spontaneous and endearing, but pulling out piece of paper printed on your inkjet will make the information on the card that little bit less desirable.
Dapper Apps have fantastic designers that will create a great business card for you. We partner with reputable printers who will produce your card to a high quality on good stock paper; we just charge for our time in setting up the cards, and don’t mark up the cost of the printer. You may choose to use your own printer if you have a preferred supplier, in which case we’ll happily provide the design files required.
Additional information about creating a company logo, brand or style guide is available in the topics I just need an icon and a company needs a style (Guide).
To contact us about getting a business card, please call our Perth office on 1300 DAPPER from within Australia, or submit an online request for a meeting or consultation via our Contact page.
If you require a full branding package then we can recommend an excellent agency in Perth that can help you define your vision and company identity.