4 Easy Ways to Make Your Business Card Stand Out

This is a sponsored post by PrintRunner.com

The friendly folks over at PrintRunner.com asked me to write a few articles about marketing materials.  Yesterday I talked about the issue of whether or not you still need a business card (you do — but what you put on your business card has changed  - so check out that article for the details)

One truism about business cards is that they don’t hang around much anymore — unless you’re one of those people who collects them.  The standard life cycle of a business card may be the couple of hours that it sits in your wallet or suit jacket before it gets transferred into your contacts list.  It might not even be that long — if you use a tool like “CardMunch” where you snap a photo of your card and then have it transferred to your contacts or LinkedIn contacts.

This means that if you want your card to hang around (or if you want to increase your chances of winning at those business card lotteries where you stick your card in a fishboal — it needs to be distinctive and unique.  In this article, I’m going to give you a few ideas on how to make your business card stand out.

1. Change the shape — One sure way to make your card stand out is to change the shape of the card.  You can round the corners, make it round, smaller or bigger.  In the past, when people used to save business cards inside of those plastic sheets, I used to gripe about cards that didn’t fit in the space provided.  But since my cards are digital now – size doesn’t matter.  So let your creativity shine.
2. Play with typography –   There are way more fonts out there than Arial or Times New Roman – Typography is a wonderful design element that a lot of people forget about.  The only word of warning I would give is to be sure to use something that is READABLE and understandable.  After all, the point of the business card is to get people to call you.
3. Color.  The obvious way to use color is to choose a bright one.  But you can also choose unusual colors or interesting color combinations.
4. Paper.  Paper is another overlooked design element.  You’ll have to work with your printing services provider to see what options are available.  When considering which paper to choose, think about what you like to touch — do you like sleek and shiny or maybe you’re more of a raised letter or textured kind of person.

Business cards aren’t just for communicating contact information anymore.  They are a statement about you, your company and your brand.  Use your business cards as a complement to other marketing materials such as flyers or selling sheets.

Here are a few more examples that I found around the web:

After reading this, you may be feeling lost and lonely; wanting to change and improve your business card, but not knowing where to start.  There are lots of online printing services, such as PrintRunner.com  that offer design services and choices that will help your business card stand out.