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I recently got a phone call from a local Wheaton company looking for business cards. They had gone to a larger local printer and had initially gotten good service, but it had been several weeks and they had had to contact the printer several times to even get a draft of their card, yet alone get anything finished and printed. Either the printer’s employee was just someone who didn’t provide good customer service, or the company didn’t think it was a large enough project to merit their attention. Either way, this client needed to go elsewhere.
Well, it turns out that this “little” business card project was actually only a very small part of what this client really needed. They also needed letterhead, a new website and potentially a mailing campaign in the near future. Additionally, they were in the process of creating a spinoff company. And this spinoff company needs all of its marketing materials, a logo, business cards, letterhead, website, brochures, postcards and vehicle wraps. And because this bigger company didn’t think they were a large enough client to merit their attention, who do you think gets to do all that work?
So whatever business you are in, remember the next time that “small” project comes in that it deserves just as much of your attention as your dream client, because the reality is that little client could in fact be your dream client.
Your business card can arguably be your most important piece of marketing material, yet many entrepreneurs really don’t take their card seriously. Maybe they are opting for a generic template from an online print house, or even printing even more generic cards from their home printer. What’s wrong with this? Well mainly it sends entirely the wrong message about your business. It says you’re not serious about your business. And while the following is a repeat from a post last year, after attending a couple recent business expos here in Brighton, Michigan, I feel it is definitely worth repeating.
Online print houses can be a great money saving option for entrepreneurs – if they’re used for printing. However, far too many small business people are using these services to also “design” their marketing collateral. Your marketing collateral should reflect YOUR business and personality. This is especially true with your business card. While a stock photo of an outdoor scene might be pleasant enough, it is incredibly generic – only saying something about you or your business if you happen to be an outdoor outfitter.
A business card with a generic background blends into oblivion with your potential clients. Nothing makes it stand out from the crowd, and even worse, it sends a subliminal message that your business isn’t a serious, “real” business. Think about it, let’s say you get two business cards from a potential service provider – say a financial planner. One of them has a stock photo in the background while the other one has a unique, professional logo or graphic. Which one are you going to take more seriously? Which one looks like it’s associated with a legitimate, established and experienced business professional? Who are you more likely to trust and do business with?
Another downside of using the ready made templates – chances are someone else is using the same one. I was recently at a Brighton networking event where I received the same card, from two individuals in two vastly different businesses. And the design of the card didn’t say anything meaningful about either of them.
Putting together a professional, unique business card doesn’t have to break the bank for a new small business, but it does need to be something that has some time and thought put into it. Pay the small amount extra to upload your own logo or images to that online print house. Strongly consider working with a graphic designer. The one time expense to come up with a card that truly says what you mean to say to potential clients is more than worth it – especially considering the negative message that you might otherwise be portraying.
In today’s highly competitive marketplace, we all need every advantage we can get. Do you want to be the one with the card that blends into the background? What are some of the worst business card “sins” you’ve encountered?
I’ve worked a lot with Brighton, Michigan based InSights Group, a very hard to describe and very helpful group of people who assist business owners grow their business through coaching and gosh… just a whole bunch of cool stuff. One of the big things they speak to is persona marketing, or the act of marketing not your business, but you. One important part of this persona branding is to include your photo on your materials (business cards especially).
Now before you say “Whoa… I don’t want to put my picture on my business card”, hear this. I too was a little hesitant until one of their seminars where they threw a fish bowl of business cards out on the floor and asked everyone to pick their favorites. Everyone in the room picked out a card with a photo on it. Now imagine your card in a stack on someone’s desk. Do you want it to stand out? A photo is a great way to do this.
So… once you’ve made that jump to including your photo on your card, here are a couple of tips.
Consider using a professional photographer. Headshots can be found for considerably less that you might think, and will look a heck of a lot more professional than the picture of you cropped out from your vacation photos. There are a number of qualified and affordable portrait photographers here in Brighton, Michigan as well as most any community across the country.
You may want to ask your photographer to use a white background rather than the traditional cloudy portrait backdrop. Should you want your photo cropped in interesting ways or not want that traditional background, it is considerably easier for your designer (and your pocket-book) to crop you out of a white background than a “noisy” colored one. If you do decide later you want that traditional background, it is much easier to add a faux background back in than it is to take it out.
Make sure the photographer is giving you full rights to the headshot. Most will for professional headshots, but you want to make sure you’re not technically supposed to pay them for each time it is reproduced.
Make sure you get a high-resolution version of your headshot. Most of the time this is a given, but be on the safe side. And even if it’s a rather large file, make sure to save that high-resolution image for when you need to down the road not only put yourself on a business card, but perhaps large format trade show materials.
I’m sure you’ve seen the ads from printers offering to design “free logos” along with their business cards. Or maybe you’ve got a web person who put some sort of logo together for you on your website. Or maybe you know someone who wants to put together a logo in Word or Publisher. Sounds like a great deal right?
Wrong. Most likely these great deals aren’t going to give you a logo you can use for anything other than that business card, or that webpage or Word doc. I’ve run into this with several small business clients here in Brighton, Michigan who want marketing materials designed, but only have a low res logo on the website, or they only have it printed on their cards. Then in order to put together a print quality design that includes this “free” logo, I have to recreate it. Now this free logo ends up costing them extra in design fees and it might not be possible to recreate it exactly like what they have. I’ve also seen scores of ads looking for designers to recreate a logo that some unsuspecting business thought was a good deal.
Ideally, when you have a logo designed the final product you receive should include a vector file as well as high and low res images of your logo. Not only will you need these formats to design other materials, often the companies who sell promotional items like pens will want a vector file. Sign companies and trade show vendors will also most likely want a vector.
Save yourself trouble down the road. Get a real logo designed to start out with and don’t bother with the free options. Not only will you get the right formats, chances are you will also be getting a better and more original logo.
As I’ve mentioned before, I do alot of networking here in Brighton, Michigan and I see a wide variety of people at these events. Have you ever been to a networking event and run into someone in torn jeans and a t-shirt? Were you more or less likely to take them seriously as a business person? Would you go to a job interview in yoga pants and a fleece jacket? For most of us in the business world, we know these are no nos when you are out marketing yourself or your company. You don’t always have to wear a suit, but you have to dress in a manner appropriate for the level of professionalism that is expected.
The same can be said for the look and professionalism of your marketing materials. Passing out a business card that was put together on your home computer, printed out on plain paper and sloppily cut out instantly says, “I’m not professional”. So does some clip art you threw together with a whole bunch of different fonts. You don’t always have to hire a professional graphic designer (although it can’t hurt, and let’s face it, as a graphic designer I would advise you to hire one), but you should at the very least educate yourself on some very basic graphic design principles to help make your materials look appropriately professional.
More in the next several posts on some of these basic principles…
I got the chance to design some very funky business cards when Betsy with Michigan based OpenDesign came to me to design unique business cards for her and her up and coming interior design business. Betsy’s tagline is “The Smiling Eclectic Designer”, and it suits her to a tea. Fun, energized and anything but stodgy, Betsy wanted cards that represented her… definitely different, and definitely not corporate.
She had developed a swirly graphic, sorta yin yang, sorta stylized woman, and had been using that as a logo of sorts. She also had a photograph of herself, somewhat out of focus and generally soft with flowers in the background. We decided on a two sided card, with the photo on one side and most of the business information on the other.
For the photo side, I added an earthy gradient to the photo to leave room for some text and also to allow the image to take up the entire area of the card. For the other side, I took her swirly graphic (a low res bitmap), redrew it as a vector file and then colored it in four earthy yet funky color versions. These four swirls were strategically placed in the background of the card so as not to compete too much with the text, but so that they also definitely stand out. I then added her company information and other tagline of “life is too short for white walls”. She was thrilled with the results, which capture her style and creativity with a card that is far from just another business card.
Everyone likes new stuff. And this applies to marketing materials as well. I’ve worked in the marketing department of companies here in Michigan where we get the box of new brochures, or even pens with our logo on them and get all giddy at the newness of them. And I see this continue in my own business.
When I first started my Brighton basead graphic design business, I immediately got to work making a logo, and then got a couple clients and stalled on putting out new marketing materials. Then I finished the work for those clients and saw myself losing some of my enthusiasm as no new clients came in. Which could have been a death spiral. The less enthusiastic I was, the less chance of getting new clients and the less enthusiasm I would have.
The thing that eventually broke this cycle was when I got that push from my husband and actually put together my website, a new leave behind and other marketing materials. Seeing my information in a new light made me feel better about my company. It gave me new confidence to go out and get more clients and thankfully that has kept going.
I’ve seen this enthusiasm work for my small business clients as well. I can see the glint in their eyes when they get those new business cards or leave behinds – that new found pride in their company. And even if they aren’t in the horrible cycle I was, that new boost to their enthusiasm can be seen when they talk about their company. And when prospective clients see that excitement, it can be contagious.
What do you think? What could updated marketing materials do for your company? For your enthusiasm?
I do a lot of networking here in Michigan, giving out my business card to everyone I meet. And I’ve discovered a bonus to having a unique card. Have you ever been excited about giving out your card? Do you get a response to the actual card before it is put into the pile of other cards? Chances are, if you’ve had the same old card for a few years, or if you’ve just got a nice generic card, you give it to people so they have your information, but you fully expect them to not pay attention beyond your contact info.
Revamping your business cards can give you the opportunity to turn your business card into much more than just a bunch of contact info. Your business card is a tiny piece of marketing material for your small business, and should be designed as such. It should stand out when the people you have given it to take it back to their office along with all the other cards they were given. It should invoke a response when you hand it out.
Imagine handing out your card and having the other person actually look at it, and mention it… Something along the lines of “Ooh, nice card”, shouldn’t be out of the ordinary. The true beauty of this is that it makes one more impression on the person you’re talking to. One more thing they will remember when they leave the event and have to mentally file away everyone they met… And during this mental filing process, memorable is always better than blending in.
What are some memorable cards you’ve seen? Does a cool card help the owner of that card stand out to you?
A few years ago I was dieting and read that I should eat my food off of blue plates. Turns out I already had blue plates, and was still needing to diet – for me more to do with sheer will power than psychological color cues. But regardless of whether or not blue helped me lose weight, it is still true that colors do, in fact create emotional responses. And these emotional responses have a ton to do with graphic design and marketing. And as you may have guessed, blue is up for discussion today.
Blue is a very popular color, both in marketing and if you just ask a bunch of people what their favorite color is. Blue is also very versatile, because there are so many variations. From baby blue to a solid navy, the word blue describes a very large number of colors.
Generally, blue is a very soothing color. It creates a sense of calm and serenity. In fact, blue can actually lower your pulse and blood pressure. You will see blue used a lot in healthcare materials. Meditation centers and spas would also do well with blue.
Go with navy blue and you’ve got a very safe color. It still has that calm, but also with a very stable connotation. You will see blue in the logos of many, many large corporations for this reason. If you are starting a new business that needs to project a stable, safe image, blue is good for you. However, if you are looking to start a hip new club, or any type of business that is meant to shake things up, blue might be a little too safe, unless it is mixed with other, more energetic colors.
Blue can also have connotations of sadness. Think the blues. I’m feeling blue. Generally, this can depend on what shade of blue you are going to use. Warm hues of blue have a much more “sad” feel than a vibrant cool blue. Again, if you are starting a business that needs to portray energy, blue might not be your best choice.
Going back to dieting and plate color, blue is generally one of the least appetizing colors. It is believed this has something to do with the fact that very few foods are naturally blue, and that when we do see blue in food it is often because of spoiling or some sort of toxin. Restaurants and food related industries would do well to avoid the use of blue.
Like with any colors, if you have a business that needs to project an emotion opposite of what blue creates, you can still use blue. But consider what shade of blue you use. Again, there is that huge range of blues, from warm to cool, pastel to navy. Also, consider making blue a smaller part of your branding, perhaps as an accent to a color that does create the emotional response you want your customers to have.
How does blue make you feel?
There’s a cute commercial for a paint company where two kids are tearing through the house at full throttle while their parents paint a room this very cool color of green. Suddenly it’s quiet and the parents turn around to see the kids in the new green room, sitting quietly and reading. While there is in reality no color that will suddenly tame children, it is true that color elicits emotions and can have an effect on our mental state.
This is important in graphic design and marketing. You want the colors you use for your branding and marketing to elicit the right emotional response from your customers. Let’s take red as our first example.
Red is a strong color with a multitude of associations. It can portray danger, love, passion, aggression, heat, strength,urgency, excitement or debt. The color red can stimulate your appetite – for food or for more sexy pursuits. It is a high energy color.
If your company specializes in something relaxing like massage or meditation – red is a bad choice, not relaxing enough. If your company is involved in finance – red is a bad choice, since red in finance means negative. In healthcare, red means emergency. If your company is trying to appeal to patients and make them feel safe, red is a bad choice.
If you are a restaurant, red can be a good choice since it stimulates appetite. A high energy entertainment company can use red to very good effect. A sexy clothing line or jewelry shop can do well with red.
Does this mean that you have to entirely avoid red in all your materials if it doesn’t entirely fit with the emotions you want your customers to feel? Not necessarily. Just use it in small doses, tempered with other colors that do elicit those feelings.
How does red make you feel?
