Business cards are a staple to a business. They are handed our at networking events, thrown in with orders, and sometime even sit on your office desk. They are only printed and made so that they can be passed on to a potential client or customer. So now that you’ve given away your business cards, how do you know that they are going to be remembered or even looked at again? Most of the time, your card will get thrown away within the first day your potential customer has it. How do you know that your card will do it’s job without you? Here are 5 reasons why your current business cards are not effective at pulling in sales.

1) They do not represent what you do.

Number 1 rule of a business card: They represent your business. If they do not correlate to what you do, why do you have them? If you cannot possible represent it, write it on your card in plain text.

2) They contain too much information (or text).

Unfortunately, people  do not read much in this day in age, specially on a business card. If you cannot get the jist of a card from the first glance, then there is simply too much information, or perhaps unrelated information.

Example:

3) They don’t have vital information.

Include your basic contact information, your name, and what you do. If you’re missing or cannot read any of those things, you are not as likely to get contacted.

Example:

4) They are not unique.

How do you expect to be remembered if your business card looks like everyone else’s?

5) You used a template.

Vistaprint is great, but don’t get a template. You run the risk of someone else having your card design. The card will never be as unique as you, and will not be able to represent you perfectly with a cookie-cutter template.

I’ll be posting more about business card design, specially the basics. If you need a new business card design, please contact me and I’ll make you something great! I have examples of what I have designed on my portfolio site.