If you want people to hang on to your business card instead of tossing it in their drawer — or at least to look at it before tucking it away forever — you need to make a card worth keeping.
Many printing services have an online lab that allows you to design the look and feel of your cards. Though it might be tempting to take the easy way out and quickly make something that gets the point across, you need to put a little bit more time and thought into it.
Even if you’re not graphically inclined, you can still make great online business cards with these design labs. Here are a few tips to help.
Serif or Sans-Serif?
It doesn’t really quite matter what font you choose (as long as it’s not Comic Sans), but it does matter what type of font you choose to have on your online business cards. If you want to seem more traditional, go with serif fonts throughout. If you want to seem more progressive and innovative, go with sans-serif fonts. If you’d like to use both, consider making header text a serif font, and the sub text of your online business cards sans serif fonts, but never go the other way around. It just looks wonky.
Arrangement of Elements.
What are you going to put on your online business cards, and where are you going to put it? Naturally, you need to include your name, title, company name, address, phone number, email, and website addresses, and maybe your company logo on your online business cards. It’s a good idea to put the most important info — your name, title, and company, — in larger text and in an easily seen spot, like the center or upper left corner. It’s also important to note that these pieces of info are the only things that should go on your online business cards. Less is more in this case.
The Color.
Color printing your online business cards may be a bit more expensive, but you’re going to need to invest that little bit more if you want to get noticed. Prospective clients will judge any piece of printing in 90 seconds tops. About 90% of this judgement is based on color. The same study that found these statistics also found that color increased response rates by 45% as well. Just be sure to keep it two colors max.
In addition to your cheap custom business cards, you may also want to have customized printed notepads, business calendars, and professional brochures printed to ensure that your prospective clients walk away with a free piece of branded merchandise. That way, they not only have your contact info with them, but they’re also always seeing your business, improving the chance that they repeat their business with you.
Just make sure that they’re equally as well designed as the online business cards you made are. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments. Find more on this here.
