Business cards are a valuable marketing tool that company employees and owners should share with as many contacts as possible. Whether business cards are shared through networking events, meetings, parties, or even random-occurrences, they are very beneficial in the networking process.

Common Mistakes Made with Business Cards

There are a few common mistakes that businesses make with their business cards. These mistakes are quite easy to fix before printing goes out, but very detrimental to the networking if they end up being passed on to contacts.

The first mistake businesses can with their business cards is not having a clean or creative design. Sometimes businesses ask their designers to add certain patterns or textures in hopes of being creative, but they end up not having a clean design. Sometimes businesses ask their designers to only use black and white on their cards in hopes of being clean, but they end up not being creative. The real key is finding a balance between creativity and cleanness.

Consider for example that prospective clients hold on to color business cards 10 times longer than a black and white card. This means that a business hoping to have “clean cards” by using black and white for their design is essentially getting their cards thrown away because they aren’t creative enough.

This brings us to the next biggest mistake businesses can make with their cards: thinking that every couple of cards handed out will generate a sale. 90% of business cards are thrown out in less than a week of being received. While this may sound like a shocking statistic that many would take as fact that business cards aren’t effective, that is far from the truth.

Many websites today have 60-80% of their visitors leave after viewing the first page they arrived on for a mere few seconds. Out of the visitors that are left, less than one or two percent end up converting into leads.

The good thing about business cards is that they are a very effective and personal way of connecting with prospective clients. Just because 90% of business cards are thrown away within a week of being received, doesn’t meant that your business should expect similar numbers. Just like a website can optimize their design to insure that visitors don’t leave as quickly, and that they convert, businesses can also optimize their card sharing process to boost ROI. By connecting with potential clients before handing out business cards to them, those potential clients are more likely to keep that business in mind and not throw out the cards.

Consider for example that businesses increase their sales by 2.5% on average for every 2,000 business cards passed out. With a little tracking and optimization, your own business can hit that 2.5% average or even break through to 4-10% increase in sales for every 2,000 business cards passed out.

Other mistakes that businesses make with their cards is not being creative, or not having a clean design. Most of the time a business will go to either extremes and end up not making a great impression. A business hoping to be “creative” might ask their designer to add unnecessary patterns and textures to their business cards, taking away the cleanness factor.

A business hoping to have clean design might ask their designer to stick to black and white. What businesses don’t know however, is that color business cards are retained by potential clients 10 times as longer. So the business using black and white to keep their design clean is actually seen as unimpressive to potential clients. The real key to this conundrum is maintaining a balance. Color and creative elements should be used on business cards at all times, but they should never overpower the design or seem unprofessional.

Making sure that business card information is clear and digestible, that the card quality is high, and that the card size is appropriate also goes a long way in boosting business card ROI.

A2D Digital Media’s Business Card Services

At A2D Digital Media we work with businesses of all sizes, and in all industries, to create stunning cards that focus on increasing sales. We have over a decade of experience behind our backs and are ready to work with your business to enable it to succeed in today’s fast-paced and competitive business world.