• To tell people who you are
• To tell people how to contact you
• To reaffirm your brand
• To make it easy to ‘file’ you for future reference

What should your business card do?

• Inspire confidence
• Provide relevant, correct information
• Have a clear message – call me, contact me, email me!
• Save you money by getting happy clients to work for you…

How does your business card work?

The most important part to getting your card to work is to share it! Give your happy clients 2 or 3 cards and ask them to share those with people they know might require your service. If you clean carpets… if you design houses… if you fix cars… if you sell cars… encourage your happy clients to provide you with more happy clients!

Viral marketing, without the internet!

We know that we need the fundamental details like name, phone, email, address, web and possibly a short list (perhaps 4 points) of services/offerings.  That shouldn’t take up too much space, and if you have a double sided card, you could relocate some of the information to the reverse.

Make it easy for your clients or prospective clients to find the relevant information first – your name and contact. For the rest they can flip the card over.

What about the design? Although all of this is a personal choice, and depends on your sort of business, if we take a corporate or professional approach, here is one way to approach it:

1. How many fonts do you use?
2. How many colours?
3. How many elements?
4. How much contrast between colours?
5. How much rest or ‘white’ space do you need?
6. Do you need photos?

Let’s use Telstra as an example (seeing as everyone knows their brand) – this is how they use those 6 points:

1. One for all text and perhaps a second that is defined in the logo itself
2. Two
3. Logo and one item of branding
4. As much as possible
5. As much as possible
6. No!

If in doubt, use the ‘less is more’ tactic – and you will never have a design that is too busy.

We offer our clients regular reports on this, and so if you’re already receiving these reports, here’s what to make of them:

1. Make sure that the keywords we are reporting on are relevant. Think to yourself, “If I was a potential customer, would I type this in to the search box in Google?”
2. Assuming we’re reporting on relevant keywords, check the numbers under each search engine. 10 or less means you’re on the first page of results. 11 to 20 means page 2, 21-30 is page 3 and so on. Really, you’re looking for a first page, or top 10 result. Page 2 may be okay in some circumstances, but page 1 is where you need to be.
3. Moving up and down a few places is completely normal. Google regularly tweak their algorithm, your website may have changed, competitors websites may have changed. Don’t stress about minor movements in either direction between reports.
4. If you don’t have a top 10 result for a relevant keyword – take action! It may mean revising some pages in your site, or seeking out some more inbound links. Contact us if you’re not sure what to do next.

Remember – this report doesn’t say how many people are actually visiting your website. It’s about maximising your site’s potential to get those people who are search for the things you offer.

The belief is that too much information means people won’t contact them.

But think of it this way: your website is often the first point of contact a customer will have with your business. If your website is helpful, you are being helpful. That creates a positive first impression, and first impressions count. The additional detail you provide can also eliminate enquiries from people who you really can’t help anyway, so that can be an additional time saver.

On the other hand, if the information on your website is overly brief and sketchy, a potential customer may well leave thinking, “That was a waste of time – it didn’t tell me anything!”

Having said this, every industry is different of course, but you really need to consider the end user’s experience. Will it be a good one or a bad one?

More specifically many have an issue with pricing.

Think of it this way: You’re walking through the supermarket and a certain biscuit company has all their goodies stacked up on the end of the aisle. It has cost them a fortune to buy that space for the week, not to mention the extra stock and the time spent in stacking it up.

But there’s no price on anything.

So, when you’re walking past with your trolley, do you put any of those biscuits in?

Chances are you won’t.

At the end of the day, people will want to know the price. So why make that information difficult to get?

And if you’re in an industry where pricing is a bit tricky or complicated, read this advice for a possible solution.

The recommendation?

Don’t let people walk past your site like a supermarket display without crucial information. Put enough there so they do stop, look around, and just maybe you’ll have a new customer!

But someone has taken a different angle and posted a bottle of “genuine” flood water on Ebay.

With about 3 days left on the auction there are already 18 bids!

It just goes to show: if you’re quick enough, there are opportunities everywhere!