Business Cards - What Information Should it Contain and Not Contain - Some History First

Let's talk about the future of the business card, but to understand it, the history of the business card comes into play.

Business Cards existed before the phone thus early business cards would have name, company, mailing address, title and usually some tag line about the product being solicited.  The term "Traveling Salesman" was coined - They would travel with Business Cards and order forms so people could reorder product after the salesman left.  Imagine the pace of business - a snails pace compared to today.  Business Cards were printed with a process called "relief letterpress" - one sided, one color at a time and one up - that is the reason most real old cards were one color - Black.  Every feature would double the cost of the business card.  Back then we saved business cards out of necessity; we even treasured them.  Business Cards were also the icebreaker, the grease that made it easier to introduce ourselves - not much different then today.

Let's move the clock forward about 100 years - the early 1980s - about when I was starting my career.  Cards were still pretty much one or two color and one sided, but now they contained a telephone number (for about 90 years).  Business cards were still printed relief letterpress, but efficiencies were being played. Gang printing similar cards was common so to reduce production costs by as many cards as you could put together ( 4-up would reduce production costs by 75%).  Multiple spot colors, logotypes and raised printing (Faux Embossing) was common on most Business Cards.  Everyone had a business card; we still saved and distributed business cards out of necessity.

A few years ago, I was talking about the printing business with a tech CEO friend of mine.  I stated that "even the business card has a limited life - look at all the cool apps on our smart phone that allow us to share contact information" (remember bump?).  His response to me was not what I expected - "We hire a lot of kids out of Stanford, Berkley, the Ivy schools . . . The first question they all ask after getting hired is 'where do I get my business cards'".  This made me think of my first set if business cards - they made me real and legitimate.  They still do today.  They are what we lead with - they open the conversation - they do it with a little grease.  We did so with prowess.

Bring on today - you can print anything on your business card;  full color, two sided, pictures - anything.  Your card has become a mini brochure.  You can do so at a much lower cost (inflation adjusted) than could be done 140 years ago, or even 30 years ago.  Today, there is so much more information we want to get out: Email addresses, Website URLs, Cell Number, Fax Numbers (why, I do not know), etc, etc...

OK, So Finally the Gist of this Article.

So, what should be on a business card today?  Name, title, cell, company phone, mailing address, some slick tag line (The Makers of Quality American Made Widgets) and finally pictures, maybe of you on the front (maybe not) and your product(s) on the back (Maybe).

So, what should NOT be on a business card today?  Your website URL.  Your website is to get you found - you have already been found.  Sending a prospect and/or client  to your website only introduces them to competition and alternatives to you - be careful.  Yes, there are many exceptions to this - there may even be the need for alternate cards.  Maybe you put your Facebook page or your Twitter name - all better then a web URL (IMHO).  Evaluate your situation and how your cards are used / perceived - and how you want them used and perceived.  Remember, they have found you already.  If your client wants your web address, they will ask - If they cannot ask (they will if they need it), they will find it in your email ("Bill@AmericanWidgers.com") - if it is not there (like you are using a GMail address) call me, we need to fix that.

Also, kill the fax number; does anyone still use one?  Does your fax work? Again, there are exceptions (not many).

Its 2015 everybody, let's evolve.

Bob Leonard
561-371-4113 (Call My Cell)  
512-593-8830 (in Austin)

We do business all over the Northeast, Austin, South Florida

and in the SF Bay Area (actually Everywhere). 

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Business Cards That Tell a Story – But the Story First - Then a Lenticular Look

A few years ago I was telling a story to a CEO friend of mine about why the business card is dead as well as why much of postal printing is dead.  He disagreed with me and responded with this: "Bob, I think you are missing the personal interaction that these products provide and will continue to provide".  "We hire a lot of smart kids from Stanford, Berkley, Baylor, USC, Duke, NYU,  etc;  one of the first questions these new hires, ask, almost every time, is 'how do I get my business cards'".

Segway to some history.

Business Cards used to be, very simply, a calling card identifying who you were, who you represented and how to get in touch with you.  They may have had a standard logotype which may have been something as simple as a generic line picture of something related to the holders business; something as simple as a hammer, a horse shoe or even a set of teeth as seen here.  This card was printed, most likely with hand set type on a Relief Letterpress.

Old Business Card

Through the 80s and 90s Lithographic Printing became more and more cost effective and we saw small card printing move from relief letterpress to lithography.  This transition greatly enhanced, arguably, the overall quality and increased the capability to print more intricate images.

Full Color Business Card

In the late 90s and early 00s, a mass of technology, and economies of scale through ganging (grouping) brought both short run and color into everyone’s budget.  Today the two most common methods of business product printing are Digital, for short run quantities less than 500, and offset lithography for quantities over 500.  Color turned the business card from a leave behind identifier to a product/business identifier and promotion tool.  Digital influence has brought the cost down for extremely short run.

Today we see very intricate products that may include holograms or Lenticular Printing; the costs of such has come down so much that today’s business card can tell a short story about a product or service.  Business cards printed with these technologies and features are as much a promotional item as a business card.  As a business card, they are somewhat expensive; as a promotional item, they are inexpensive; as a story teller they are priceless.

These Business Cards tell a story, that a picture ban not do.  This video demonstrates a Lenticular Business Card by LightsOn Graphics, used by a real estate agent to demonstrate what they deliver.

Maybe it is not all about technology after all.

Bob Leonard
561-371-4113 (Call My Cell)
512-593-8830 (in Austin)

EDDM is a services provided by all LightsOn / Time4 offices.

 Connect to me on LinkedIn

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Advertising: That Works - That Does Not Work - Case 2: Having a "Blue Light" Special When No One is in the Store

So here I go dating myself again.  K-Mart used to have unannounced, impulsive-like sales in an attempt to both clear slow moving product and/or create an exciting experience for the shopper.

Modern Look of a
Blue Light Special

K-Mart would have Blue Light Specials at peak traffic times in the store - they created a sense of excitement and urgency in the store which brought more people into the store.  Everyone's heads would pop up when they heard "K-Mart Shoppers, we're holding a Blue Light Special in Housewares - 75% off.... for the next 10 minutes". OK.... We had no life in the 70s.... OK.!

I learned from these E-Ticket experiences (cough) that advertising is about getting to a group of people in your target market - both; and good advertising for you is never cheap, but at the same time, it is never too expensive.  The real cost of advertising is based on the return it provides.

"Doing business without advertising

is like winking at a girl in the dark;

 you know what you are doing

but nobody else does" - Stuart Henderson Britt

Advertising is not a generic product and there is a plethora of good choices - Pick the best one for you.

Avoid ROP* packaged buys as you will be packaged into slots where no one reads/listens/watches bringing down your cost per ad in the package.  They sound real good because your cost per ad is so much lower, but in reality, what you are buying is dead air.

After you have found the advertising opportunity that seems to fit your business's needs (verified because you ask people if they read/watch/listen to it and when), test it and then ask people if they saw it.

Remember, K-Mart never held a Blue Light Special for an empty store.

~B

ROP Definition: "Run Of Paper" is an advertising term used by newspapers referring to an advertisement that may be placed anywhere within the paper.  Similar acronyms are used in other mediums meaning the same thing.

E-Ticket

Read Case One - Advertising: That Works - That Does Not Work - Case 1: Our Restaurant is Empty on Tuesday Nights.

Age sucks; am I the only person that remembers what an E-Ticket was?

Marketing Materials - Your Message In Your Marketing Material Needs To....

The first step in designing / making your marketing materials is to develop the theme; the message you want to convey or question you want to answer? This might be something as simple as how to fertilize your lawn to as complex as dental improvements and options. It's the message of how you can tie your products and services – and expertise – into answering their questions.  Your message should be completely informational and not a sales pitch. Write with a journalistic style - your words will be more sincere. Your business will also become branded as customers begin to trust you. You will establish credibility and authority, and by the end of your message your customers will know who to go to when they are ready to take the next step in the purchasing process.

Bottom line, the message in your marketing material should create desire, solve a problem, develop an offer and motivate action all at once.  ~KM

Localization - Franchising Does Not Mean: "NOT LOCAL"

Too often people think that "franchise" is synonymous with "out-of-town ownership" or "big company ownership".  In some cases this is true, but in most it is not.  The local Dairy Queen, Dunkin' Donuts, Domino's, and KFC are most likely owned by a local resident.  What franchise means to the consumer is consistency and if the consistency is acceptable to us, it also means quality - We know what the "Original Recipe" tastes like whether we are in Arizona, Minnesota or Maine.  Local, in my humble opinion, means local something; either local raw materials and/or local labor and/or local ownership.

ACE Hardware

Think about companies like Ace Hardware. They have made a business of giving the locally owned hardware stores a second life by providing collaborative and cooperative advertising and buying power under one recognizable brand - giving ACE a competitive chance against the big-box stores - without losing that home town ownership, service and feel.  This philosophy is similar to the charter and mission of Time4's Buy.Eat.Live.Local publication and the LightsOnGraphics.com website.

Tinkerbell

What "Buy Local" will need to convey - to be successful is "Net Better"; a combination of a competitive price, quality, service, training, a meeting of expectations, a good economic decision, time to obtain, and last, but not least, the Feel Good Magic Dust that comes from knowing we are part of a better future - "Net Better".

Localization - It's about Much More Than Printing.

Let's make this country a better place and there is no better place to start than in our own hometowns.

As anyone who follows this blog or knows the Time4 and LightsOn initiative; it is quite simple: Make Our Customer Succeed.  We are all about recreating local in a world that knows more about a Jersey Shore celebrity than their own neighbor.  Lets fix this by starting in our own home town.  The following three past articles give some background to this idea.

• Collaborative Marketing Efforts Make The Impossible - Probable. 
• Followup on "Who Me, Who Three - Fixing the Local Print Business" Can the Local Printer Survive?
• The Post Offices (USPS) Encore or the Beginning of the End

Over the last couple months we have been testing our "Buy. Eat. Live. Local." concept with the purpose of moving "Buy Local" from a lip service to a way of life - our lives and our future.  We have made the objective of "Buy. Eat. Live. Local." a product (evolving as it is) to help communities across the country by providing it to local entrepreneurs who, most importantly, live there, work there and buy there.  Have you ever been there?

"Buy. Eat. Live. Local." is the coming together of many environmental, business, social and economic factors.  One of the biggest factors is the forth coming re-urbanization of America over the next 20-30 years which I will be writing about extensively.  For those as old as I, think about it as Megatrends 2013.

How well grasped is this concept?

Here is the Town of Windham Maine's ad - a paid ad - giving 10 reasons why this just makes sense.  So Shop Smart and Shop Local.

 ....and here is what we say:

”Natural Communities Form Around Community and Commerce Centers”.

Buy. Eat. Live. Local

In almost all cases your Windham merchant will provide
Better Service at a Better Price with Less Hassle.

Why?  You know them – They depend on Windham people and they live in Windham.

Buy. Eat. Live. Local and watch Windham grow.

 This is not a concept coming to your home town, it's already there !!!