Play your (business) cards right

How often do you look at a business card that someone gives you? The answer, suggests Rob Brown, author of How to Build Your Reputation and speaker on business networking, is four times at most. When they give it to you; when you return from where you met them and look at it (and others that you may have collected); when you decide to file it, scan it or bin it, and when you want to use it or pass it onto someone.

These days, with electronic media connecting us more and more, do we need business cards at all? LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook all allow the exchange of information and contact details without the use of anything as antiquated as small pieces of card overprinted with ink.

But face-to-face meetings are what build trust — and trust, as the Nobel prize-winner Oliver Williamson has written, lowers transaction costs. Put another way, if you trust someone, you are more likely to do business with them. So meeting people is important. After you have met them, what remains? Your business card. Which, if it is only viewed four times, has to be as powerful as possible.

As Andy Green, the author of Effective Personal Communications, says: "Your business card is a vital part of your brand armoury. It has to do both an instant job in telling your new potential life-changing encounter about you, how you can make a difference, and ideally any future aspirations — and also be a legacy item, to live on without you, weeks, months and even years after the encounter."

So what are the rules to follow if you want a successful business card — one that will convey your message and turn into a useful source of business? Opinions vary but the following sum up both the wisdom and experience of the experts.

1. Clarity of purpose
What do you want people to do with your card? The managing director of Dolce Vita, the online luxury magazine, does not have his telephone number on his card — just the website address, www.dolcemag.com. Why? Because he doesn't want people calling him, he wants them to log on instead. Most importantly, make it clear what you do. "Your business card is often all people have left after meeting you. If it doesn't scream out call me' or refer me' then why did you have it printed in the first place?" says Rob Brown.

2. Use a photo
I shudder at this, not least because I hate photos of myself on anything and cannot imagine a time when I would agree to put them on my business card. Indeed, I confess that
I would almost go as far as saying that it showed a distinct lack of class to do so. But Brown and Green are united in their support of this idea.
"You have your photo on your website," says Brown, "so why not on your business cards?" Green goes further. "I also like the creative use of an ID photo on your card. Don't be boring — one of my favourite examples, Paul Kerfoot of Bulletpoint Design, has half of his face on one side and the other half on the reverse side of the card." If you are going to embrace this idea, get a decent photo.

3. Be Different"Recall of you and your business is easier with more memorable hooks' and images," says Brown. "A good friend in business consultancy writes out all his cards personally on various high-quality pieces of card. Every card is therefore unique and memorable."
Here, I heartily agree — I will always remember meeting William Whitehorn, now president of Virgin Galactic, back in the days when he ran all the PR for the Branson empire. Prominently on the card he gave me was the statement "white with one sugar", which I take it is how he likes his tea or coffee. It made a big impression on me, and was clearly designed to break the ice.
Several years later, when I had bought my own company and we were redesigning our brand, I asked for all our cards to have something very personal on them that could also start a conversation. Now, each member of our team has a black-and-white professionally shot photograph on the reverse — no, not of themselves, but of an activity or object that they are very associated with. They vary from feet clad in ballet shoes, for a former dancer, to a set of football lights for someone who is passionate about the sport.
This illustrates another important maxim, namely to use the other side of the card. Green describes cards that stand out as "sticky" — "not literally, but make it memorable, so the impression you make sticks well beyond your encounter. I have a hole punched in my card (an idea suggested by my then 13-year-old daughter). The number of times I have had people subsequently say to me: I remember you. You're the guy with the hole in his business card'." One tip from me, though, is not to make it different by making it much larger than standard size — a pain in the neck to file.

4. Always, always carry your business cards...
Have some in your car, your handbag, your wallet, your briefcase, your pocket and a box of them on your desk to refill everything regularly. Never run out. I attend many black-tie events and hate carrying a bag, and so at one stage had a floor-length velvet evening gown made with a pocket under the hem the exact size of business cards to keep them in. "Always carry your card," says Green. "You can have a networking encounter at the supermarket, picking up the children, in the unlikeliest of places."
Your business card, says Brown, is a crucial tool in your business toolbox. "Like a great CV, a solid handshake, a compelling elevator speech and a nice suit, it helps to form a great impression of you that makes people want to call you, connect with you and engage you."
And that from a man who is on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. Business cards are not redundant. In a world full of information, they are more important than ever.