When you order dinner, you normally select different items for each course. It’s the same with marketing.

You want to reach your prospects in numerous ways because people respond to various media differently. You also want to choose your marketing strategies according to your individuality, both personally and professionally.

Regardless of whether you’re a start-up or a seasoned company, a business card is a marketing necessity in the business world. It’s part of our culture.

Your business card can be an inexpensive but very effective means of marketing when you personalize your approach. Consider:

• Write a brief description of the nature of your business underneath your name on the front of the card. This reminds (educates) people what it is you do or sell.

• Use different business cards for different markets or specialties.

• Use the back of the card to describe your business, or to print helpful information. (A mortgage broker can list the documents used to process a mortgage application.)

• Take a good supply of business cards everywhere you go. Hand them out generously at meetings and other gatherings. Depending upon the nature of your business, hand them out to people such as waitresses, the checkout person at the grocery store, and anyone else you meet.

• Place a small photo of yourself on your business card, this connects the card with you.

• Include your business card when paying bills. Someone processing your bills may be interested in what you do.

• Post your business card, along with tear-off strips giving your telephone number, in apartment buildings, laundromats, grocery stores, and other areas where your market gathers.

• Think about the size and design of your business card. Oversized, folded and vertical business cards have certain advantages because they stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, they may be less practical because they can be more difficult to store and (sometimes) read.

• Create a business card that serves as a Rolodex card, complete with a small tab at the top. This can be printed on a quality paper stock; it need not be hard plastic.

Another business tool you should be using to expand your company name is barter:
BARTER

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 22nd, 2008 at 9:40 am and is filed under Marketing, Purchasing & Financing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.