• Personal touch - With all the digital dealings and electronic exchange of information, you need a way to connect on a personal level with your customers. Something as simple as business cards can make a world of difference and give your customers a point of connection that you just can’t make with an email.
• Generational gap - Not everyone is tech savvy. With generation X, generation Y, and the millennials all in the same work force, you need more than just one form of contact information sharing. Emails are invaluable. But many people, especially in upper levels of management, still rely on a Rolex and a book full of business cards to maintain their contact list.
• Brand recognition - Like any marketing manager will tell you, you need more than one medium on which to brand yourself. When people are exposed to your logo on the Internet, seeing the same logo on a business card works to reinforce their recognition of you. So, don’t neglect the business card as a method for exposing your customers to your corporate identity.

Don’t phase the card out just yet. You still need to print business cards. Your customers want to connect with you on a personal level, many of your customers do not rely on emails for contact information, and the business card provides one more opportunity to reinforce your brand. These reasons alone are enough to keep the business card around for many years to come.

1. Will you include your logo? (If you don’t have a logo, you should create one, pronto.)

2. Does your logo include your company’s name? If it doesn’t, you need to decide what kind of font you want your company’s name to be in, along with the rest of your business card font choices. Your company’s name should stand out from the rest of the business card text.

3. What colors do you want to use? If you have colors in your logo, you’ll need to complement those colors with the rest of your business card. If your logo is colorless, choose colors that give off the look and feel of your brand. A baseball stadium using pink or orange for instance, doesn’t quite make as much sense as using green, brown or tan would.

4. What type of paper do you want to use? The heavier your paper, the more polished your business card will look, which will make people think your business is polished. Most business cards are printed on a 76 lb.- to 80 lb.-paper stock.

Once you have decided on these basic questions, you’ll be ready to design! Here are some design ideas to make your custom business cards effective.

Design your business card to read vertically instead of horizontally

This is an easy way to change up your business card design that will attract attention. Most business cards are designed horizontally because that’s the way they are stored in wallets, Rolodexes and other business card holders.

However, as long as you have a simple, striking design using a font that is easy to read, you can pull off the vertical design without making your card hard to read. You don’t want everyone craning their necks to read your vertical card in their Rolodex, so design it with simple, bold fonts and graphics.

Use a folded card

A folded card is the shape of a business card when folded, but with a panel you can lift to reveal info underneath. This design works well for businesses that offer a lot of services or products that most people don’t know about. If your company’s name doesn’t hint at what it does, like “XYZ Corp.”, you can place your usual info on the outside of the folded panel and then include a slogan and/or a list of what you offer on the inside fold.

Have your text trace a path

This is easiest and most effective for simple shapes, like a wave or a rooftop. Just design your words (most likely your slogan) to follow a curvy line or to trace what looks like a gently rolling wave or a rooftop with a chimney on top.

Special text effects

Using a special metallic ink that catches the light will make people look twice at your business card. Anything you can do to add visual spice, like embossing for texture or using foil stamping to color your text will make people want to hold on to your card.

Product differentiation is distinguishing one product or service from another that you offer or from the products of the competing business down the street. Differentiation is merely creating the perception of a difference, even if there really is none. You are simply trying to make your product more desirable to a niche market by listing the differences between your product and another.

Many factors affect product differentiation but, contrary to popular belief, are separate marketing strategies. Branding, changes in the product itself, and distribution are all different marketing tactics that can influence product differentiation but are not differentiation itself. For instance, your brand is simply a packaging difference, not what makes the actual product unique.

When using product differentiation to reach your target audience, compile a list of what makes your product better than the rest. This list should be tailored to the consumers you are trying to reach. Some examples are differences in quality, price, features, or design. You may also want to reveal the limits of the competing product. Remember that the purpose of product differentiation is to make your product appear different even if it is very similar to competitors’ products. Your job is to take a stance in advertising that influences customers’ perceptions of your product. For successful product differentiation, you must make consumers believe that your item is the best out there.

Mailing Layout

The back of the postcard can contain other information besides the mailing information but must follow postal placement rules. The bottom 5/8^th inches of a standard 5x7 postcard should be free of information, since this is where the post office prints bar codes. Keep the mailing address on the right, preferably no higher than 2 3/4^th inches from the bottom of the card. Also be sure to keep it above the bar code area. Leave enough room for the postal stamp in the upper right hand corner along with the postal date that the post office will stamp onto the card. If you include any other address on the back, besides the return or mailing address, be sure to leave off the state and zip code. The post office scans the lower 2/3^rd of postcards for the mailing address.

Mailing List

Whether you address the postcards yourself or use a mailing service, an updated client mailing list will save both time and money. One way to keep this list current is by including your return address. That way, the post office will be able to return the postcards with invalid or outdated addresses, and then you can delete those from your list. Two programs that can also help keep your list current are the NCOALink 18 and NCOA. These two programs alert you to whenever a change of address has been made at the post office. The difference between the two is that the NCOA keeps track of 48 permanent address changes, while the NCOALink 18 only provides information of 18 changes per address.

Use these guidelines for easier mailing whether you do it yourself or hire a mailing service. Just be sure to check with the service providers for their postcard mailing requirements, if you do decide to use help.

1.       Keep it interesting.  Obviously, your readers are not going to like your newsletters much if you throw in a bunch of junk material.  Make sure you use fresh and interesting content in each and every newsletter printing campaign that you send out. 

2.       Write short articles.  While all of your newsletter content must be interesting, it also should be short.  The simple fact is that most people have very short attention spans, especially when it comes to advertising literature.  Write short, interesting articles that your readers can digest quickly.

3.       Use some interesting visuals.  As important as the words are within your newsletters, the visuals are just as important.  Add some visually stimulating images that will attract the readers.  Be careful not to overdo it, though.  Too many images will simply overwhelm your readers.

4.       Organize your newsletters.  Make sure you design your newsletters in an organized format.  Use headings and subheadings, lines and bulleted lists.  Keep everything structured.  If you allow your content to look disorganized, it will confuse your readers and make you look unprofessional.

5.       Utilize lists.  Bulleted lists are easy for the reader to see and read.  If you can put some of your content into list form, it will really stand out to your readers.

6.       Offer free advice.  If you can add in some advice for your customers, and make it relate to your company in some way, your newsletters will be more effective.  People like to read things that help them improve some area of their lives.  This is especially true if you can offer money making advice.  That is always in demand.

7.       Make white space your friend.  A lot of businesses try to fill up every millimeter of available space when they design their newsletters.  Do not make this mistake.  White space is what makes the pages readable, so do not be afraid to leave plenty of white space in there.  Leave some room between all of the portions of your newsletters, and it will be much easier to read.

8.       Calendars are nice.  If you can add some type of calendar to your newsletter, it will make it more useful for your readers.  If you write a monthly newsletter, simply throw in a month-long calendar and list business related events on it.  Many of your readers will use the calendar for their own purposes, meaning your newsletter will be looked at quite often.

9.       Don’t forget the offers.  Every one of your newsletter issues should include some kind of benefit for your readers.  Include a special offer or a coupon or something that will make reading the newsletter worth their while.

I am going to run through some of the most common forms of advertising literature, and explain why simplicity is so important for each one of them.

Brochure Printing

Yes, brochures are expected to be packed full of information.  But it is very easy to overdo it.  Try to focus on just one or, at most, two aspects of your business that you are trying to convey to your target customers.  If you are trying to get the word out that your prices are better than those of your competitors, keep the emphasis of your brochures on that topic.  Do not stray into a lot of other areas, and keep the design of the brochure relatively uncomplicated, too.

Postcard Printing

Postcards are nifty little tools because they are ready to mail and you can really do a good job of reaching target customers with them.  However, because there is not a whole lot of room on a postcard, it is especially important to keep things simple.  Do not try to add too much information to your postcards.  Be straight and to the point.  Customers can be quickly overwhelmed by too much advertising info, so be careful not to do that to them.

Business Card Printing

Now, it is a good idea to make business cards that stand out from the crowd and look unique.  But, at the same time, avoid giving the customer information overload at all costs.  It is fine to have a somewhat outrageous business card design, but keep the content on them to a minimum.  At most, they should display your business name, personal name, and a few forms of contact information.

Media Ads

For this, I am talking about radio and television ads.  If you can afford to run an ad like this, you certainly do not want to waste that money by overloading your listeners or watchers with too much information.  Again, pick one of two aspects that you are trying to emphasize with your advertisement, and stick with them.  Television watchers will quickly ignore a commercial that tries to do too much.