You are already probably tired of hearing several post or stories about Affiliate Summit West. But since it was my first time I have learned a lot of things. For example today's post will be about business cards and why I literally 'broke necks' and have the user wanting to know more about me. A business card is a quick information about your or your company on a 3.75 * 2.25 piece of paper. That piece of paper can even be plastic with rounded corners, but does that really get your prospects attention?
Again a business card is a quick snapshot of who you are or what you do. It is providing a quick information resource to your end user. Simply just handing it out does not mean anything; will they contact you later in the future? Will that person decide to give you a call or even send you an email? What make your card different from everyone else they are going to meet?
Here is my business card I was passing out at Affiliate Summit West. It is a fairly simple card. It has my name, my website, phone number, location, and web site information. I do not even have a solid logo for my website since it is a personal blog but my card got more attention than the corporate big guys.
When I was designing my business card I was asking myself multiple questions. What should I add? Should I add more images? How can I make it more colorful? What can I put on the card that can quickly describe me or my blog?
When I asked myself that question I decided to put up stats of my blog. My blog is a personal growth journal; it logs my stories and what I have been doing on the internet marketing industry.
So with that in mind I decided to show off my growth of my blog. I simply just added my Google Page Rank, Google links, and Yahoo! links. I even added an image of my Alexa rank, this can show the growth of my blog visually.
With all the information on my business card, I knew I would get some attention and I did. Once my card was given out the person I was speaking to would be surprise and ask me more questions. Marketers were telling me "Wow that is a great way to advertise!" I did not know my business card would be turn a lot of heads, I would have assumed someone already has done what I have done. Looking at traditional business cards, they are the standard horizontal view. I wanted to be different and did mine vertically. No doubt someone gave out information on a vertical card before but what about the information being put on the card?
Everyone was amaze at my business card concept and once they can easily see the growth of my blog they want to talk more about my blog. They want to know more about me, they want to know what I do, they want to know who Ian Fernando is.
At first I was surprise no one has done this yet because I have asked and everyone that I handed out my card to said 'this is different', ' this is a unique way to get yourself out', 'nice growth', etc. Once they can easily see the information on my business card they just want to know more about me. I easily put up all my stats on my card so the person I give it to can easily see 'what I am about.'
Your business card should not be a tool for the person to contact you, it should be an information gateway. The gateway is a form of linkage to the other user. A card with your name, website address, location, and telephone number really does not mean anything to the end user. How does that help him know who you are? I can walk up to anyone and introduce myself, why do it 'silently' with a business card? This is from my experience at Affiliate Summit West and I received a lot of people asking more about my website and what I do. Other marketers wanted to call me, entrepreneurs wanted to hang out, users wanted to know more.
Here are some concepts that I think are beneficial on a Business Card, you can use some or you can implement all:
- Name <- who are you
- Phone Number <- can I call you
- eMail <- can I contact you
- Business Name <- company or website
- URL <- business link
- What are your specialties? Where are you an expert in?
- Stats about your website - show the growth
- Quote or saying
- Logo of business or website
