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Are Your Business Cards Lazy

Written by: Donald F. Pooley

Article Overview: A friend of mine, just back from Vegas, showed me a business card he got from a Cadillac salesman down there. Not that impressive at first glance. Just an ordinary business card. But when you turned it over, its back showed the ranking of all the poker hands.

Are Your Business Cards Lazy

A friend of mine, just back from Vegas, showed me a business card he got from a Cadillac salesman down there. Not that impressive at first glance. Just an ordinary business card. But when you turned it over, its back showed the ranking of all the poker hands.
What a brilliant idea! And a good addition to our collection of useful insurance marketing ideas.
That little addition made his business card something you'd want to keep to refer to. And maybe get a few extra to share with your friends. That salesman probably has a heavy demand for his business cards---especially in a gambling town.
Seeing it made me realize that most business cards nowadays are lazy. They've don't fulfill their promotion potential.
What we want them to do is work for us, not just laze away their days in someone's pocket or trash bin. We want them to be saved, referred to, and passed around to other people.
Which means there has to be something on it that makes its recipient want to keep it, refer to it, and share it with his friends. It has to be short enough to fit on the back of a business card, and match your clientele, without being obvious advertising.
It needs a short bit of useful information that's unlikely to change for a while.
If your target market often uses a PC and MS Windows, a list of Windows shortcuts such as "Ctrl+B=Bold Face, Ctrl+C=Copy, ... Ctrl+Z=Undo" on the back of your business cards would certainly enhance their value, and make them more 'keepable' (more shortcuts are listed below).
Or you could have a list of useful websites for seniors (if they're your target market), or golfers (if many of your clients play golf). Just Google the common interest of the people you want to deal with, and you'll find lots of useful websites, and other information.
A general interest card, on the other hand, might list the "Ten Most Informative Financial Websites", or "The Ten Best Cities To Live In" or "The Ten Best Places To Retire".
For Canadian grocery shoppers nowadays there's the problem of converting pounds to kilograms, and vice versa, so a table that does this could have a broad appeal.
There's no shortage of useful information that people feel a need to refer to frequently, so find some that your target market is looking for and use it to get more value from your business cards.
Make them work for you!

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