Why most business cards aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on

Fiona Bosticky, an Aussie marketing coach with an enviably improbable last name, recently wrote on ‘The Evolution of Business Cards’. She argues that “a new interactive web 2.0 approach must be considered, even in the design and creation of a simple business card.” And she outlines two ways of doing this: (1) by adding social media links or icons, and (2) by adding a QR code which prospects can scan into their phones to get all of your contact details automatically.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that, contrary to Fiona’s ideas, an old-school direct-response approach must be considered if you’re going to get any genuine value out of your business cards.

But first, I need to ask you a question.

What is the purpose of a business card?

I’ll come clean up front and say that I don’t have any printed business cards. My marketing and my clients are all online, so I have no real need for any. Not yet, anyway. However, I have designed a card for possible future use. Having an active and fruitful imagination, I can visualize quite clearly meeting a prospect in real life, having a short chat, and then handing him this business card.

Now, why would I give it to him…?

There’s only one, single reason I can think of: to improve my chances that he will contact me later to buy my services.

There’s a name for that…

Now, I might be stating the obvious here…but judging by all the business cards I’ve ever seen, I’m sadly not. So here it is:–

There’s a word that describes stuff you print out and give to your prospects in the hope of generating a sale. It’s an almost ubiquitous word. If you run a business or you’re involved in marketing at all you have to have already said it in your head.

“Advertising”

Yes, a business card is a form of advertising. You’re probably tripping all the way out right now—because, you know, it’s just totally crazy that if you’re going to put down good money on designing and printing something, you’d want to have a good reason. Have a specific objective. Expect a your return on investment. All that Business 101 jazz.

Even if you’re only spending a thousand bucks—which is probably the bare minimum for a decent design—why would you settle for a measly 100% return when you could make a 100,000% return?

Web 2.0 business cards

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from direct-response marketing (and there is), it’s that every component on the page needs to justify its existence by increasing response rates. And on the tiny “page” of a business card, the competition for space is fairly brutal.

Social media links?

So getting back to Fiona’s suggestions, how might adding social media links improve response rates?

Perhaps a link to your Twitter profile would be useful if you want your prospects to contact you through Twitter, and if they are likely to feel comfortable doing that. Similarly for links to LinkedIn, Facebook and the like. But we know that giving prospects too many choices can lead to inaction; and that all these links are going to take up a lot of space that could be used by more valuable components.

So unless your ideal prospects are so diverse that one is genuinely going to feel only truly comfortable with Facebook; one only truly comfortable with Twitter; one only truly comfortable with LinkedIn; one only truly comfortable with email; etc…it’s clearly best to stick to the contact method which is best for your sales process. Typically, it’s hard to see that being anything other than email.

Social media icons?

Fiona also suggests that if you don’t include social media links, then you should at least include icons to remind your prospect that you’re available on these various sites.

But again, I find it impossible to see any value here in terms of generating a response. If I were given a business card with an email and web address, along with Facebook and Twitter icons, there’s no chance in hell I’d head on over to Facebook or Twitter and search for the person I wanted to contact…rather than just email him or visit his site with the information I already have. I mean, have you tried searching for people on Twitter or Facebook? It’s a laborious and error-prone process.

QR codes?

I can see the value in QR codes. If your prospect is highly technical, then I would definitely suggest that you at least test them. But generally speaking, how many of your prospects are likely to even understand the concept—let alone actually use QR codes? Again, unless it’s actually going to increase response, why take up valuable space?

So how would I design a business card?

There are basically four parts to an advertisement:

  1. The promise
  2. The picture
  3. The proof
  4. The push

The promise and picture draw your ideal prospect into the ad by appealing to something he cares about. In most ads, it includes the headline and lede. The proof tells him why he should believe you. It usually includes both emotional and rational reasons. The push tells him what he has to do, and asks him to do it. It includes the offer and the call to action.

Without these four elements, an ad will not often succeed. If you don’t hook your prospect, he won’t read the ad at all. If you don’t give him reasons to commit, he won’t. And if you don’t tell him how, he can’t.

Can a business card contain all four elements? Of course!

Direct response marketing business card

D Bnonn Tennant
‘The Information Highwayman’
D Bnonn Tennant, ‘The Information Highwayman’, signs his name to this

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