| For years and years highly paid business gurus have been
coming over from the USA telling us that our single most important marketing tools
- our business cards - are, to put it politely, rubbish. You've probably been
at one of their seminars when they ask everyone to hold up a business card…
and then proceed to tell you why they are all pathetic.
And, even more annoyingly, they were probably right!
As a nation we've been using cards for hundreds of years. Initially
as personal calling cards, and more recently as business tools. But over all of
those years the "card" has been exactly that - a 2" by 3"
piece of card. While every other aspect of marketing has been transformed beyond
belief, the business card has trundled along as a small, rectangular piece of
cardboard.
So, in this factsheet we are going to explain how you can give
your business a major competitive advantage by using business cards that even
the most cynical American business guru would be proud of.
To get you in the mood, here's a summary of the main messages
we've heard from all those American gurus over the years:
1 Starting with the blindingly obvious…. make sure your business
cards are up to date, colourful, stylish, accurate, legible without a magnifying
glass, pleasing to touch and don't look as if they have been crumpled up in a
wallet for months. Many of the cards that we see fail at least one of these tests
- and some fail all of them!
2 Use both sides of the card - You are paying for both sides,
so use them both and double the impact of your card. For example, use the back
for a map or a description of what makes you so special.
3 Include a strong message that raises the reader's curiosity
and promises a benefit if they contact you (eg "Use this card to claim a
Business Builder session to help your business become more successful and profitable.
It's worth £500 - but is yours free as our gift if you present this card
to us in the next seven days")
4 Who should have a business card? The simple answer is everybody
in your organisation - or as one very successful businessman said recently 'everybody
from the receptionist downwards!' The fact that your competitors are not giving
their receptionists business cards is exactly why you should give them to your
entire team. Not only will they raise team morale and present a professional impression,
but from time to time they will actually bring you sales leads.
So far, so familiar? Well, you'd be amazed at how many businesses
have heard these messages before… and yet have completely failed to do anything
with them! Be honest now, how well do you score?
Now you've started thinking about your business card, read on
and discover how other businesses are beating the Americans at their own game
by making their business cards really memorable:
- One firm of consultants have turned their card into an eight-sided mini folding
brochure that combined practical tips ('How to avoid the 12 biggest mistakes most
small businesses make') with a benefit-packed sales pitch.
- Another approach is to turn your card into something that people can trade for
a freebie (eg "Present this card and we'll give you a one hour consultation
worth £150, completely free of charge") or for a discount (eg "Present
this card to us before 30 September 1998 and I'll give you a 10% discount on your
first order")
n How about encouraging people to keep your card by, for example, including handy
reference information (such as other useful phone numbers) and making it self
adhesive so that it can be stuck onto a PC, file or telephone?
- Include a photograph of yourself - after all, "you" is really all
you have to sell
- Use "stretch titles" - ie "accounts executive"
instead of "accounts clerk" or "area director" instead of
"salesman", since this will make it much easier for your people to be
taken seriously
n Make it easier for your contacts to transfer your details to their diaries and
address books by including a couple of small sticky labels on your card
- And, if you're ever caught in one of those embarrassing moments when someone
asks for your card, but you don't have one to give them, why not try responding
with: "I'm glad you asked for a card since we have the world's first three
dimensional business card… it's me… when would you like me to deliver
myself?!"
We could go on to list the dozens of other superb tactical improvements
that we have seen innovative businesses make to their business cards. But, since
space is limited, instead we are going to focus on two strategic ideas that will
help you to use business cards to win many, many more customers.
The first of these two ideas is so important that it amazes us
that we have never seen it in a single marketing book. It's this…. the true
measure of success in the business card game is categorically not the number of
cards you hand out…. it is the number of cards that you collect.
Think about it for a minute.
At best, only 10% of the people you give a card to will ever contact
you again. Whereas you can systemically contact 100% of the people you collect
cards from. So, other things being equal, you'll get ten times as much new work
from collecting cards as you will from handing them out… providing, of course,
that you are committed to systematically following up every card you collect (and
if you're not committed to doing this, shame on you! These are the warmest leads
you'll ever get…. So to waste them is sheer folly!)
|
