Rethinking the Business Card

Published on 27th October, 2008 by Stephen Lewis

It’s been a few weeks since the re-branding, and I’ve finally managed to get our new business cards sorted.

As ever, the goal was to design something that helps to attract new business. The traditional business card tells you exactly how to get in touch, but completely omits the why. I decided to redress that balance.

Rethinking our business cards

The card is two-sided. One side covers the “whys” for the business – our zero-risk approach, including our 110% money-back guarantee. It also includes our telephone number, and our website address.

The other side covers the “whys” for the individual – in my case my experience in web design. Once again there’s the phone number, this time with my email address.

Making room for improvements

The last time I designed our business cards (back when we were called Manifest New Media), I made the mistake of getting a boatload printed, because it greatly reduced the cost-per-card. The end result of this frugality was a drawer-full of cards that never got handed out. The business evolved, our message got refined, and before long the cards were more of a liability than a promotional tool.

On the plus side, I’ll never run out of bookmarks ever again.

Having learned from my mistakes, I’m viewing these cards as something that will evolve (and improve) over time. Low cost, high quality printing means that it’s not a problem getting a couple of hundred printed, trying them out, and tweaking the design based on feedback and results.

We use this test-and-improve approach for web pages, pay-per-click ads, even direct mail copy, so why not business cards?