Most business owners don’t realize the importance of using a simple business card to generate tons of customers. It simply does not matter what kind of business you are in, you have to utilize this primitive business technique in order to grow your business fast.

The three main mistakes people make when marketing with business cards are:

1. Not having a business card.

2. Being stingy and only giving out one card per person.

3. Not giving a card to every person they come into contact with.

Not having thousands of business cards at your disposal at all times is not only stupid it is a crime against your business. If an employee of yours stole as much money from you as you lose from not utilizing business cards, they would go to prison for a long time. With today’s super low cost business card printing prices there is no reason not to have business cards and an abundance of them for that matter.

I started my professional concrete cutting service business with absolutely no capital and grossed almost $400,000 in my first eight months of business. My only means of advertising was business cards. As many of you already know, it can sometimes take up to an entire year to get your ad placed into your local yellow page directory and it can be quite costly to a new business. The following are techniques that I used to generate tons of business from business cards and I believe that these same techniques can benefit any type of business.

1. I started with an eye catching logo and had a design that really said “this guy is a pro.” It is worth the modest initial investment to get your cards designed right.

2. I kept my message “short and sweet.” I have seen way too many people over do it with tons of bulleted text that cause confusion with the reader. I do concrete cutting and a few other services that relate to it but my business cards say only “Concrete Cutting.”

3. I ordered my cards in quantities of 5000 at a time. Too often do I see new business owners print cards off of their computer and literally “ration” them off.

4. I never gave out a single card! I always handed out at least five at a time and sometimes more. I still look at my business cards as “lottery tickets.” The first job I get from the batch pays for all of them so the rest can pay off huge. If they get thrown in the trash – Who cares? There are thousands more where those came from.

5. Any time I would meet someone in the construction trades I would hand them a stack of cards. I hand them to people that are standing next to me in line at the Home Depot or that are pumping gas across from me at the fuel pumps. I get questions like “What are these for?” or “What do you want me to do with these?” and I just simply say “You may not need my services now but when you do, you’ll know who to call.” At the same time I am thinking “I don’t care what you do with them, they were basically free and the fact of the matter is that I get hundreds of calls from people that say “Remember Me?” “I met you at the Exxon Station or at parent teacher’s night.” Or “John Smith gave me your card and said I should call you” yet I have never heard of John Smith. Or “I’ve got your business card on my desk and I don’t know where it came from but I need your services.” I simply hand tons of my business cards out to people and the calls roll in.

6. I buy a mailing list of contractors from a list broker and I simply put three business cards in an envelope and mail a thousand envelopes at a time. I do not put an expensive brochure or a flyer, I simply put three business cards in and I get hundreds of calls and referrals from the mailing,

I now get hundreds and hundreds of calls from my existing customers and my yellow page ads but I still use business cards more than I ever have. I now have five trucks and seven employees and giving out business cards in the same fashion as I have described above is part of their job description. They have all seen the power of business cards and that business cards ensure each of our survival and actually gives them a good feeling knowing that they got a specific customer. If I contact a new customer and they happen to mention that one of my men did not give them a stack of business cards then I immediately contact the employee, ask them if it is true and explain to them that it is part of their job, then I hand them a big box of business cards and tell them not to let it happen again, ever.

© Copyright 2007 New Hampshire Concrete Cutting, All Rights Reserved.

Quickly Double The Effectiveness Of Your Business Cards

Professional Business Cards - 4 Quality Issues That Make a Difference

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About the Author:
Mark A Hanson invites you to visit his website at BusinessCardBasics.com BEFORE you get your business cards printed. To get your free business card design tips Click Here.

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To make a point! Free offers attract Customers and keep their attention!

But how does that apply to business cards? Shouldn't cards give customers the contact information about your business!

Wrong! Business cards should give your customers a reason to remember and use your business, if not it will end up in the trash!

What would you rather have?

A card that tells customers how to reach you...

Or... one that seduce new customers and referrals to your business?

Free offers - Discounts - Yes, Coupons are still the most effective advertising tool ever designed and you probably already use them!

The best free design tips are a headline, an offer and an address, that's all you need!

No doubt you've seen those punch cards handed out by sandwich shops, ice cream parlors or the dry cleaners. In fact, you might even have one in your own wallet. These cards did the trick, they kept you coming back!

Most businesses never think that their cards could and should use the same technique! It works like magic! You'll see them in the car, on the refrigerator, at work on the desk, but not in the trash!

Think of your business cards as personal sales ads instead of information!

Simple phrases like "call now for _____", "with this card, buy one get one free or "this card is good for _____" can out-perform any standard business card and multiply the amount of business per dollar spent.

Most importantly, every time you hand out the card, verbally make the offer. Tell your prospects exactly why they should keep that card handy. If you're handing out cards to your targeted market you'll be amazed at the response you get.

Oh... dump that slogan and replace it with a headline. Promote a benefit that your company offers over the competition - maybe a guarantee, your superior selection, your promptness your hassle free techniques or your price match policy.

We're not done with your free business card design tips. You know the benefit that your customers respond to the most. That's what you want to print directly below your company name. It's what they want and it's what you deliver!

Your business card is an advertising investment that should reap a return! Imagine how you'll feel when you start to see those little wrinkled up cards in the hands of your new customers!

Quickly Double The Effectiveness Of Your Business Cards

The Business Card Template

Most businesspersons have color business cards printed twice or thrice a year. Depending on their type of business, they need to do this since market and larger economic forces may require you to update yourself and your image quickly to get new business contacts.

In this increasingly dynamic business environment, more and more people are investing in printing online to save time and money in producing and updating their color business cards. To help people in creating their own business card designs, some have introduced the use of business card templates.

Like other templates for printed materials, color business card templates offer a fast and easy way to change little aspects of design and update it for a new batch of printing. There are several reasons why you should try setting this up for your own designs as well.

Why use templates? - Business card templates offer you a chance to quickly rethink and redesign your image throughout the year. For example, there may be a sudden change in the business climate that changes the demographics of your clients and business contacts. From a general market of professionals, your market might change to a largely female professional audience, or maybe an older more "veteran" business crowd.

In these cases, using a template to quickly redesign and print will come in handy. Within a few days, you can retool your business strategy so that you engage more with the new demographics of your market. Templates basically give you the flexibility to change your image within days to quickly exploit any business opportunities that may arise.

How to acquire a template - So how do you setup a template? Well, it is very easy. If you have a professional designer or layout artist that designs your full color business cards, have them give you a raw working digital copy of the design. This means you need to ask for the design in its design format, such as a Photoshop document file (.pds), Adobe Illustrator file (.ai) or a Quark Express Document (.qxd) or something similar.

In some cases, the design format can be in an office document file format such as a Microsoft Word document file (.doc) or other kinds of office documents. Having the design format at hand, means that you already have a template that you can change at will (as long as you have the software to open it). Just open the raw design file and adjust it to your needs when the time for changing your designs is at hand. Avoid getting templates in image file formats like JPG, TIF and PNG since these file types will be harder to edit and cannot be used as a template easily.

When to use the template - Now, you may ask, what is the right time to update my designs and use a template? Well there are several guidelines in dealing with this. First, you must have a regular update for your design each year. This is not just because you may have run out on your supply. Updating your designs yearly means you can update your contact information, add any important messages, and of course, you can also switch for a more popular design if necessary. Your templates can easily help you in doing this yearly update.

Besides the yearly changes though, you must also use your templates to update your designs when a change in the market climate comes. As was stated above, having new business cards printed to exploit a business opportunity can be a good business strategy. So have your templates ready when this time comes as well.

In the end, you should realize that templates are good supplemental tools to help you manage your business card printing strategy. They give you the opportunity to react quickly to dynamic business environments and they also keep you and your business image new and fresh for business contacts. So use your templates wisely and regularly so that you can take advantage of its benefits.

Quickly Double The Effectiveness Of Your Business Cards

Good Business Card Designs Need One More Important Thing to Draw Attention

Rhonda White Encourages Moms to Build Income Online ~ Read: 5 Quick Tips to Creating Effective Business Cards

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Quickly Double The Effectiveness Of Your Business Cards