Being consistent with professional business cards in their design and appearance
is vitally important as they represent you and your business; including your company's branding throughout is just as essential and too often overlooked. Many people understand the advertising skills of the business card but knowing how important it is and actually creating a decent design are two totally different things. Customising everything that you use for advertising is the basic rule of thumb and if you follow this as a guideline for all of your marketing then you are likely to succeed; unless of course you are branding a chocolate teapot as the next best thing.
Your brand should always appear on everything. Letterheaded paper, professional business cards, flyers, leaflets, the signature in an email; they should all include your company logo and ideally in the same place. i.e. top right hand corner. Being consistent in business with something as small, easy and as seemingly obvious as branding and customising speaks volumes about your professionalism and it almost works as a subconscious advertising tool as your customers will not necessarily notice the consistency of your branding but they will notice if it is not consistent.
A personalised appearance of quality business cards is effective but it is important to avoid overcrowding. Simple and clean designs give a professional air and make sure that your cards are readable and concise as well as including the basic information. i.e. name, contact details, business type. It is easy to use your own graphics and a preview of your design, if completed online through a professional company, can be viewed before it goes to print. You can also tweak them and play with the design until you are happy with it and as long as you include your company logo and name throughout all of your marketing techniques; you should be able to create an unbeatable advertising campaign.