By Adam Ward

A couple of months ago I wrote a post about designing effective business cards. Even though creativity is important (and usually what people talk about when they give tips on making business cards), I argued that a card needs to be functional.

Our company recently rolled out a new business card, and just to show that I follow my own advice, I’m posting images of the card here.

Although the front is glossy and uses dark colors, the back is not. We made the back easy for people to find our contact information, write notes on it, and run it through a card scanner. We tested it in our scanner and it picked everything up just fine. We opted out of putting our address on it, because as an Internet company we don’t get much foot traffic (and our website clearly shows people how to find us if they want to).

We had fun with the front. We think it is catchy, will be easy to remember, is consistent with our website design, and shows people (we hope) that our product helps them with their contact management.

The only tip we didn’t follow was putting our mugs on the front. We debated it, but ultimately decided the “hello my name is” sticker effect would give us more traction than our faces.

I’m curious to hear what you think of our new card.

By Adam Ward

Business cards seem straight forward, right? You just need your company name and logo, your contact information, and a little design. A lot of blogs about business cards focus on the creative, outside-the-box-to-get-you-noticed elements of business-card design. But have you thought about the utility of your business card? Have you made it easy for the person holding your card to remember you, and reach you again? Here are five tips you should consider when designing new business cards.

1. Ditch the glossy paper. Yes, you want your card to look professional, and often we equate glossy with professional because, quite frankly, it looks nicer. But it isn’t very functional. In Japan, it is bad form to write on someone’s business card, but here in the United States it happens all the time. How often have you written notes on the back of someone’s card, such as physical cues about them, something specific you discussed, or their level of interest in your product? Well, you can’t do that very well on glossy paper. Instead, you get back to your office and see nothing more than indentations made by your writing utensil, with no idea what you were trying to write. Although there is nothing you can do to prevent receiving glossy cards from contacts, you can make it easier for them to make notes on you by using a light card stock that easily facilitates writing.
2. Ditch the dark colors. I’ll admit, I like dark colors when it comes to design. Websites and marketing materials with dark backgrounds just seem to have a certain “cool” factor going on. But like with the glossy paper, they can actually be counterproductive. Sure, you want your business cards to give off a certain vibe, but don’t do that at the expense of function. By printing on a light card stock, you’ll increase the chances of a digital card reader to pick up your contact information (see Moving Business Cards into eSilverBullet). And the easier it is for someone to get your information into a database, the more likely they’ll be able to reach you when the time comes.
3. Put your mug on it. Sounds a little self-righteous, right? But isn’t a business card about promoting your business? And aren’t you, as an individual, an extension of that business? Attorneys, bankers and realtors seem to know this, based on their proclivity for putting their pictures on billboards, print ads and business cards. But besides the self-promotion, there is a practical reason for doing it. You hand out business cards usually one at a time, when you are face-to-face with someone. They know what you look like when you give them a card. But will they remember what you look like when you contact them later on? Probably not. But they will if you’re smiling at them from the card in their hand. And since people are more likely to do business with people they know and like, that smiling face can go a long way toward making them feel like they know and like you, even if you’ve met just once in person.
4. Display your contact information prominently. Yes, you want to make sure your business card tells a little bit about what your company does. But a business card is more for contacting purposes, not for selling purposes. So a business card is more like the white pages than the yellow pages. People thumb through rolodexes looking for a specific person, rather than looking for a type of business they may want to use. So make it easy for the person to find you on your card, as well as how to contact you. Make each piece of contact information very clear, both in placement and description. And not all contact information is of equal importance, so take that into consideration. People usually put phone and fax right next to each other, in the same font and size. The reality is people will call much more than send a fax to you, and it is easy to punch in the wrong number when the two look so similar.
5. Keep the design consistent with your marketing. Your business card should be an extension of your marketing materials to make sure your branding is consistent. So even though the card will be used more for contacting than marketing, you want someone who has been exposed to your branding elsewhere to instantly recognize you belong to the same organization as soon as they see your card. And if your card is their first exposure to your brand, you want them to know they are at the right spot when they go to your website, which they will if the look of your website matches that of your card.