Business Cards: Why They're Still an Important Marketing Tool in the Digital World

With all of the talk about the importance of properly marketing your product or service, it's important not to overlook the most valuable commodity of all: yourself. As much as that beautiful-looking flyer attracts the right type of attention for your product, a business card is designed to do the same for both your professional image and your career as a whole.



But do business cards still have a place in a digital world? In an era where finding someone is easier than ever thanks to tools like social media, do people still need to go through designing, printing, and handing out a business card? The answer is one that might surprise you.



Business Cards: By the Numbers



Just going off of statistics, it's easy to see that the answer to the question "are business cards still an important tool in a digital world?" is a resounding YES. According to one study, there are about 10 billion(!) business cards printed in the United States each year - or roughly 27 million each day.



But diving deeper, it's clear that business cards perform a function that goes far beyond just handing out contact information. They actually serve an important role in your business at large, too. For every 2,000 business cards that you pass out, you can expect your sales to increase by an average of 2.5%. Business cards do everything from show someone you're serious to increase personal brand recognition and awareness.



One of the major strengths of print marketing and the use of business card is that they're physical. They're something tangible that people can hold in their hand and, most importantly, share with friends and other family members. In an era where people are getting bombarded by more digital messages than ever and emails can be deleted in seconds (and people can be muted on social networking sites like Twitter), never underestimate how essential this simple fact really is.



The Power of the First Impression



Just because business cards still serve a purpose does not mean that all business cards are created equally. There are a number of design tips that you can use to make the RIGHT kind of first impression the next time you hand out your card to a customer or at that next big networking event.



StatisticBrain estimates that prospective clients will hold onto a color-filled business card a full ten times longer than they will a standard white card. Color also increases the impact of engagement on a person's ability to follow simple directions; this is an advantage too powerful to ignore.



Approximately seventy-two percent of people say that they judge the company or brand that a person works for based on the quality of their business card. Likewise, thirty-nine percent of those who responded to a survey said that they would choose NOT to do business with someone if they had a "cheap-looking" business card.



Business cards are still essential in a digital world, and that means you need to devote the time to doing them well.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Powerful Tricks to Learn New Skills Faster

Image
“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy Though few people like it, change never stops. Success in life requires the ability to adapt. As one Chinese proverb quips, “the wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water molds itself to the pitcher.” Whether you enjoy change or not, the pace of change marches ahead at an ever-increasing pace. Here is a statistical snapshot of what that looks like: 94% of the internet workload will be processed on the cloud by the end of 2021 It is estimated that 70% of all automobiles will be connected to the internet through the Internet of Things by 2023 By 2030, the fully and semi-automatic car market will be worth $26 billion Artificial Intelligence is slated to replace around 85 million US jobs by 2025 The world has produced 90% of its Big Data (or extensive data sets) in the past two years Does that feel overwhelm...
Read more

6 Winning Direct Mail Campaigns

Image
Direct mail offers results that other channels just can't match. According to a recent study, direct mail has a response rate as high as 9% . However, there are always ways to engage your audience better and improve your mailers' effectiveness. These methods below catch your recipents' attention and increase the chances that they'll read and respond to your direct mail piece.  6 Winning Direct Mail Campaigns 1. Instill Curiosity with a Quiz Do you worry your direct mail envelopes are going in the trash unread? Take a page from Harvard Medical School's playbook. In a recent mailing to woo subscribers for their Harvard Heart Letter newsletter, they put a heart health quiz on the front. The answers to the three-question quiz were inside the mailer, giving recipients a reason to open. 2. Benefits, Not Features As marketers, it's so easy to get caught up in promoting all the neat features of your product. Your readers, however, don't care about th...
Read more

The Ideal Length for Tweets, Facebook Posts, and More

Image
You've taken the time to collect your thoughts. You've carefully outlined your ideas, your theme, and the overall tone you'd like to communicate. Wouldn't it be nice if people actually read it? Better make it quick! Generation Z, born after 1996, is already emerging from the shadow of millennials. Making up a quarter of the U.S. population, they will account for 40 percent of all consumers by 2020. Gen Z processes content faster than other generation, especially considering most can sort through piles of information using four screens simultaneously. Although their options seem limitless, their time is finite. Gen Z consumers have an average browsing attention span of eight seconds (as compared to twelve seconds for millennials). Make Every Word Count As lead time decreases, efficiency must increase. How do you evaluate the "right" speed for sharing? Research has answers! Here are some research-based guidelines on the ideal length...
Read more