[How to] Turbocharge Your Networking with Business Cards

Your business card is a tiny yet powerful piece of paper that holds more potential than you expect. I know that friends have asked you a million times, “why a business card in the era of online marketing”? We would ask you, “Why not”? 

After all, your business card is the single most point of contact on which your business connections can reach out to you. You surely don’t distribute your business cards without seeing a possibility to business.  

Business card is a necessity, right? What do you do when someone asks for your company details after meetups, seminars, conferences, trade shows? You probably fiddle your mobile for your LinkedIn profile, website URL to share with them.  You can just share your business card instead. It contains all your contact details in both offline and online format. 

You simply shake hands, say ‘hello’, give a welcoming smile and share your business card with a contact. This process signifies you inviting a contact into the world of your business. Every element you use on the card like logo, typeface, image, colour and even blank space must be planned to make an impact. There must be a bunch of them from different sources. You need to stand out, make a mark. After all, you would not want a journey to the waste bin for your cards, right? Always keep in mind, the design and content of your business card decides how people will perceive your business process. 72% people develop an opinion about a company depending on the overall quality of the business cards of its employees. Moral of the story; your business card can make or break your business.

But that’s not all. Your business card is more than just a list of contact details. If you are a smart marketing strategist just transform your business card into a thoroughly professional branding tool for your business.

Despite all the social networking channels, you need this bit of offline presence to build and increase your professional connection over time. The most successful entrepreneurs like, Steve Jobs (Apple), Bill Gates (Microsoft), Larry Page (Google) have their own business cards. Then there is no reason that you shouldn’t have one. 

If business card would have not been important, the Facebook CEO wouldn’t have had one, right?

Did you imagine that your business card is just the offline representation of your online presence on different channels? There are multiple other reasons for which you should get yourself a business card. Take a look at a few,

So, what does your business card do for you? It offers your contacts an effective context for what you do. Apart from your festive posters, flyers, web banners, social graphics, business cards also offer your connections an impression of your brand personality. That is very important as that very impression can be their last impression about it. An example? I think the below one would be good,

What is on your Business Card?

Well, that depends entirely on specific needs. There are a handful elements that fall in the ‘must be there’ category. But people do deviate from it at times. You decide what your connections should know about you. However, you should follow a protocol that is widely accepted over industries.

Select what you want to add on your business card a little carefully. Your connections need specific information about you, not everything. Let us have a look at what exactly your business connections need to know about you.

Name: The most important elements that you need to include in your business card are your name and your business name. You should be a wee bit careful about using typeface, the font size for those elements. After all, your connections must read them without difficulty.

Job title/ Role: Your job title or role in the company is part of your identity, right? That is how they can associate your job title with your company. They must know your role and responsibilities in your company. After all, it is important for them to know how you can help them. If they miss out on the context, chances are high that your card lands in the trash bin very soon. You surely cannot let it happen.

Contact information: Your connection has access to your card. Then they must know how to contact you when and if needed. It can be through an email ID, phone number or even both. You must be within reach when the person actually requires you for some business.

Company logo: You design a business card with precision and get it printed. Then you stack a bunch in your bag and carry them around during all business meets. Why should you not use it as a useful branding tool? As the business owner or marketing manager of your organization, you should not leave any opportunity of branding for your company. What better way is there to start that other than by using your company logo on the card?  

Social handles: There is no denying that your connections would like to find you on social media. It is easy, on the go. Your business card should have all your useful social handles enlisted. The recipient will easily locate you on social networking sites and check out details on your work. If you are planning to add multiple social media links, it is better to use relevant icons for organized listing and a clean look.

QR Code: If you feel conscious about too much information on your business card, QR code is a good option. In fact, QR codes are very much ‘in’ these days. All you need to do is just embed your personal details in a QR code and download it. Printing that QR code on your card means space saved, design made uncluttered. In fact, you can include your address, job title, and all other relevant information in a QR code and then publish it on the card. So, you save space for your company’s logo and a small display image.

Want a beautiful yet clean looking business card? You can use DocHipo templates for that. Just use the one below and repurpose it.

Are you ready to design your own business card?

I think you should not doubt your own potentials. If you hit a roadblock, we are there to help you take a short leap and cross over. Just step forward to start designing.

While planning to design your own business card, you need to mind a couple of elements. The first and a very important attribute of it is colour palette. Choose colours carefully. The palette should have not had more than 2 to 3 colours. Meanwhile, plan the right font to use on that card.

A thing or two about the colours on your business card…

If you are clueless about which colour to choose for your business cards, you can resort to colour psychology. That will help you to decide on the right colour to use. What do you feel while looking at the DocHipo template below?

Purple is a combination of red and blue. Purple is a luxury colour that reflects wisdom, power, creativity and of course MAGIC. It does the balancing act between the colour psychology of red and blue. Red invites vibrant energy and blue relaxes it to offer stability. With its calming effect, purple makes your brain fertile for many creative ideas.

The above template of the business card is for a School Counsellor. It has to calm your nerves the moment you see it, right? Purple often evokes different emotions and feelings. 

So, this is the appropriate shade for the business card of a counselor or psychologist. The recipient would immediately hook through a mental connect. In a familiar and relaxed mental condition, the person opens up to the counselor better. You know how important it is for successful counseling, right?

Add perspective to your business card with effective font selection…

Your business card mirrors your personal-professional traits. So, you have to choose your typeface carefully. For example, if your industry demands a traditional and formal approach, your fonts should reflect that. The Serif family is ideal for this purpose. 

If your business requires modern, clean, stable and sensible font styles, sans-serif seems to be the right choice. Why don’t you try it on a design template?

Okay, try this business card template on DocHipo for a modern and stable industry like IT. Use of Josefin Sans makes it look drop-dead cool and modern.

Ideal font size for no-strain readability of your business cards… 

Your name and company name must be loud and clear. Your business card is useful to the recipient only if your details are understandable. You need to choose your font size to create impact. Remember that you have only a 95 mm x 57 mm space to answer all queries on your professional details. So, pour the bucket out, but carefully. 

Choose the font size that is readable without any difficulty from a usual distance between a desk and eyes. 60 to 70 pt is the ideal size for name and company name, while other information can be in 28 to 30pt. There is no thumb rule to follow in this regard. Small size types too can rock your business card. Just maintain the design balance and provide effective blank space that information is readable at a single glance. Check out the template below. It is a two-page business card template. Use it carefully, only if you have important information for the back page…

Or else just use single page business card templates on DocHipo.

Use your logo on the business card with precision…

Why smart? Because there is not a well-defined logo-size for business cards. You should choose it according to aesthetics. If you have enough space to accommodate a large-sized logo, nothing like it. After all, you use your business card as a short and crisp branding tool. A logo is your knight in branding. 

You can use your logo in this manner (see the below image). That is how DocHipo helps you with creating a beautiful business card. Just increase or decrease the size of logo on it according to need and available space.

End the game in style…

Designing a business card is not just creating an 1125×675 pixel piece of colourful cardboard. It is not boasting your heart out about ‘who you are’ or ‘what you do’. Your business card is a precise document. You hand it out and say, “here I am”. Important information put in the simplest manner. You win hearts in a jiffy.

To design more beautiful, actionable business cards sign up to DocHipo. You will get several templates to work with. Best of luck on creating your first and the most important piece of identity.