When you hand your business card out, what kind of reaction do you get? Do the recipients take a quick look and stash it in a wallet? Or do they stop and say, “Wow, this is cool”?
Ernie the Attorney has a great post called “Rethinking Business Cards” on his blog. (Hat tip: Dennis Kennedy.) Ernie tells the story of having created some fun business cards years ago for the purpose of marketing his blog. The cards had a cool photo on them (you can see a picture on his blog), and he always got a warm reaction when he handed them out. People remarked on the photo, wondered if he took it and where. The cards became a conversation piece. In fact, those fun cards got a far better reaction than the same-old, same-old law firm business cards Ernie also handed out.
Ernie’s post, which is worth the read, implicitly raises the question, “what is a business card?” They’re so ubiquitous that you probably – that is, after the day you ordered your cards – never gave them another thought. They likely look just like everybody else’s cards. White rectangles filled with way more text than anyone needs with a nondescript logo jammed in one corner. It’s almost like they were specifically designed to be easily forgotten.
The problem is that business cards are a marketing material – and boring, easily forgotten marketing materials are worthless. The job of your marketing materials is to help you be recognized and remembered. To help you, as marketing uber-guru Seth Godin implores, be remarkable. There is so much information available to everyone, all the time, on every subject, that you have to be remarkable if you want to cut through it.
Take a look at your business card. Is it remarkable, or do you just want to stuff it back in your wallet?
Might be time for a refresh.
