subject: How To Motivate Clients To Keep Your Business Card [print this page] How To Motivate Clients To Keep Your Business Card
A number of articles have been written about the various aspects of the business card. From card etiquette "It's a tattoo, this won't hurt a bit", how much information is too much information "Joe Smith, taxidermist and culinary genius" and even what your card should be made of "Here's my biodegradable cardplant it where the sun don't shine". This article, I hope will be an equally fascinating journey into the psychology of why a potential prospect would be more likely to keep your card. Regardless of design, your target audience will keep your business card if they are in immediate need of your services but, what if they don't need you now? This is exactly where the challenge comes in to play.Card Throwing Penn & Teller Would Be Envious OfA couple years ago I was blindly strolling the third day of a Las Vegas business tradeshow (I left my glasses back at the booth), when I noticed that strewn all over the purple carpeting were small rectangular pieces of paper. I gingerly reached down to pick up a handful of them hoping there'd be an un-scratched lottery ticket, only to find they were business cards from various vendors at the event. After picking up a number of them, two things struck me. #1 Most were very traditional in size, shape, color, texture and layout. #2 The kind folks that handed these out had their hopes and dreams of success riding on the prospects retention of their card, but consequentially found their potential hopes dashed by the casual flip of the wrist.Cheap Is What Cheap DoesA common assumption is that business cards are low ROI and expect that most will be disposed of. If the card is traditional in composition and the services it offers aren't immediately needed, then it most likely will make "carpet hell" as well. Some might say that the vendors wasted their time handing out the cards to non-qualified prospects in the first place. Partly true if they were just thrown at anyone with a pulse, but I say the card did not deliver its intended message in a impactful way. Beyond the budget issue, why design a card with the throw away assumption in the first place? There must be a better way to prompt people to keep the card and more importantly, remember where it is when they need your services or product the most. But how?Creative Juices!Let's revamp our cards to include psychological associations whenever they look at the card. Similar in fashion to how specific songs conjure memories some of which are so detailed they can be tied to a specific moment in time, even down to the second. How about your first kiss? The client also can be triggered by different elements such as an image, scent, texture, color and even sound. Interactive design elements will increase perceived value, differentiate you from the competition and ultimately will diminish the likelihood of round filing. Let's assume you sell produce to the major grocery chains, you'd want your card to not only feature delicious looking photos of fruit in all its glory and color, but you can also look into other ways to enhance it. For example; the card can be textured like a peach and can be supplemented with the appropriate scent & slogan as well "For Farm Fresh Service" etc! What's In Your Wallet?The wallets hold all of our personal info. For women this is no big deal due to the purse, but for men, being the bag-less creatures we are, have it rough. From our Social Security cards to store discount cards and credit cards, our wallet usually measures the thickness of a fast food burger and has actually been known to create hip pain from sitting with one bun (pun intended) higher than the other. If you guys are anything like me, the last thing I want is a bulky new addition that adds to this girth (we're talking about the wallet here). The point I'm alluding to is for you to consider when designing your card, both the thickness and shape should be heavily considered. The business cards I readily accept for inclusion in my leather vault are "wallet cards" because they have rounded corners and are usually the same size as a drivers license but thinner, this enables them to effortlessly slide in & out of the card slots, plus they're often plastic laminated which repels body heat and hold up much better. For those reasons, the wallet card is my personal card of choice.No Autographs PleaseFinally, I'd like to share with you is how I personally perceive my own business card. I think of my card as at the same level as signing an autograph for an admiring fan. It's my way to commemorate the moment in history & place I meet a prospect for the first time. It's so unique, that they'll share it with others as a conversation piece. They'll remember to refer friends and peers because it creates top-of-mind awareness. When they contact me, they always comment about the card, in particular how it makes them feel and that they keep it in their wallet. My business card fosters immediate rapport, and with a little effort on your part I hope yours will too.
