Your Business Card - Is It Working Hard, or Hardly Working?

Marketing Materials: Installment - 3 Business Cards



1. The Questions
2. Do You Need a Logo?
3. Is Your Business Card Working?
4. The Brochure
5. The Press Kit
6. Cohesion: Why Does It Matter?
7. In Conclusion


Wow. I just learned a great deal about business cards. You think you know a thing, and then you sit down and try to write about it.


The history geek that hides in my soul went looking for the reason we even have these things. The fact that I actually guessed the correct answer makes me think I might spend too much time reading period literature.

So, if you care to read about it...Here is the history of business cards.

"How did a simple card, 3.370 x 2.125 inches come to play such a central role in the business cultural of the world? Depending on the sources consulted, the cards may actually have originated in China in the 15th century."

The number of links I found that gave advice about business cards was extensive. There are lots and lots of things that people suggest about business cards. Some of the advice is contradictory.


So, I've endeavored to collect up what seemed to me like some best practices.


The first thing you should do is go and get your business card. Got it? Great! Now, let's see if your card is working for you.



1.What does this card say about you?


  Look at your card. What is the first thing that draws your eye?

1. Is it obvious what you do at a quick glance?
2. if you have a logo, does it convey what you do?
3. Does anything on your card draw your eye?





If it is not clear what you do or what you offer, then your card may not be working for you. If someone has to hunt around your card for some idea of why they have it, that is a problem.



2. Does your card look professional?

There are so many services you could use to get your card printed. These services offer cards at great prices.

You could go to Staples!
You could try Vistaprint!
Go Eco Friendly!
You could even have Vegan Cards!
Do It Yourself All Over The Place!

There are tons of services, and you can get fifty of the things for ten bucks!

You could drop some bank and let someone else take care of designing it.


You have so many options!

Here is one recommendation I've seen all over the place!

Don't do them on your home computer.

If your business card does not look professional, then you won't be taken seriously as a professional.



3. Be creative, but beware
















I have seen some really cool business cards. People do what they can to stand out from the crowd. Well, it turns out if you are too creative, your business card might be remembered, but it won't be kept.

Most people have a system for keeping cards that assumes a standard size and shape. If your card doesn't fit into that standard, it will most likely be lost or tossed, according to the experts. Oversize cards are also a no go according to the people who claim to know such things. Better to find a creative way to stay in the standard size and shape...or so I've read. Several musicians I know have guitar pics as their business cards. Pretty cool. How many of you have ever seen a musician misplace a guitar pick during a set?



4. What size is your font?

Do you have teeny tiny writing on your business card? Would someone over fifty struggle to see what is in front of them?

Is your font in a really light color?

Don't miss out on a portion of your business because those who might purchase your services can't read your card.


5. Is your card too wordy? 

You need contact info, maybe something graphic, and something to identify what you are offering. If your font is big enough you won't have space to list the twelve things you do on the front of your card.

If your card is cluttered, then nothing draws your eye, and your customers have nothing on which to focus. (psst. this is where a logo would come in handy)


6. Are you using both sides of your card?

If there is nothing on the back of your card you are missing out on marketing space. This can be where you put your tag line, or a picture of yourself or something graphic and grabbing. You could also put info on the back. Again, make sure the font is good sized.

7. What kind of contact info is on your card?

Do you have your street address on the card? Apparently, giving yourself an address that isn't virtual makes you look more legit. Your virtual contact should be there as well. Some sources suggested putting the company blog or a link to a video about the company on the card instead of your website. I suppose that depends on what is on your site and how often it gets updated.

8. Is your card glossy?

This was a tidbit I found that had detractors. Some people like to write on business cards. They record information that helps them remember who they saw, and where. In some cultures, writing on a business card is considered taboo, rude beyond reckoning. Either way, if you get a glossy card or one that has an unusual surface, nobody will be able to take notes on it.


9. Is your card boring?

Your personality ought to be on this card. At least, that is what it is for in our trade, so if you are an artist and your card is boring...


10. Now, look at your card beside the rest of your marketing materials.

Does this card fit with the other bits of your marketing? Does the card reflect the brochure, reflect the marketing sheets, reflect the pictures, reflect the website, reflect the press material? If not, how different is it? Is there any cohesion in your marketing?

So, what do my marketing materials look like?

Stationary

Back of Card

Front of Card

Brochure

  When we run out of this batch, I'm going to change the font to black instead of the mustard yellow, despite the fact that it is in keeping with the color scheme!

Pocket folder for Press Packet

I have a brochure. I'll discuss what we do with this thing in the next blog post.















This is the front and back cover of my pocket press packet. I will unpack this thing in a future post and show the contents. This is a clever thing that looks really cool.

So, is your business card working for you? 

Here are some more links if you want EVEN MORE information about business cards.

21 Huge Business Card Mistakes You Must Avoid

8  Ways  to  Make  Your  Business  Cards  Stand  Out

Is it time for an upgrade?

Happy Marketing!

Branding: Do You Have A Logo?

My first logo

This is the second post in my series on Marketing.

1. Marketing 101: Part 1 - Questions.
2. Branding: Do you Have a Logo?
3. Is Your Business Card Working?
4. The Brochure
5. The Press Kit
6. Cohesion: Why Does It Matter?
7. Conclusion








I learned to write cursive in the third grade. I loved it. I watched as the elegant letters I'd always seen my mother make, come flowing out of my pen.

Words and how we use them have always fascinated me. Writing words and letters in interesting ways has been a passion of mine since I was little.

I am an unabashed logophile.

I started playing with different ways to express my initials somewhere around fourth grade, and within weeks of graduating from college, I put together the logo you see at the top of the post.

I put that logo on everything. I included a little graphic of it under my name when I applied for showcases or grants. For many years it was on everything I sent to anyone.

Now, some of you who have known me for a long time are staring at that thing and saying, "If you used this everywhere, how come I've never seen it?"

This brings up a good question. Do itinerate performers actually need a logo?

This short article by a company that generates logos doesn't think so.

"...ask yourself, do I really need a logo for my business?

Here’s how to tell…

Think about what a logo’s primary job is: to help customers distinguish between products on a shelf, or to tell one service apart from a competitors. For example, take a look at this glass of cola. Can you tell what kind it is?"

The image is a glass of brown liquid with ice. There is no way to tell what it is unless it had a logo.


So, I thought I'd go that way. A few images.

Who made this cap?

Who made this cap?

 What is in these bowls?



Is one of these pairs of shoes a knockoff? Maybe.











Obviously, branding matters when you have a shelf full of similar or possibly the exact same something, and you are trying to distinguish what is what.

Advertisers also use logos in order to subtly influence our brains for preferential treatment. They spend years telling us that their brand is different from other brands because they use 'better', 'stronger', more 'durable', 'tastier', 'organic', blah-de-blah-de-blah than their competitors.

We, as performers are not shoes, hats, or generic bowls of goo. Does having a logo make any difference in the world?

I would argue that while nobody is going to mistake me for Sherry Norfolk...

this is not me.

there is still a place for logos in our business.

The logo can be used to give your marketing materials a more professional look. Though nobody is going to look at a graphic and say, 'hey, that means that this is storyteller is more durable than that other one!' having a logo can make your marketing look fancier.

So, where could you find my logo?

I put it on my stationary. This is the same paper I used for my contracts, invoices, communication, and handwritten notes.

The little bit of writing you see on the left side of the page is something I said offhand once when someone was asking me a question about the veracity of my tales. It got a laugh, so I decided to keep it.

"Every story I tell is true...except for the parts I make up."

That little phrase has been used for so many introductions and bios that it is way more associated with me than the logo.

What is nice about the logo, however, is that it can be put on anything that is part of my work product. It gives my marketing cohesion.

One of the things I will talk about over the next few posts is having your marketing materials support each other.



Eight or nine years ago, The David and I decided to redo the marketing material. I had designed my business card and logo, but we chucked the works and rebranded the whole thing. We sent our old stuff to one of them slick marketing groups, told them what we were looking for, and they designed a brand new logo for me.

Simpler. Cleaner. I hated it at first.

This new logo arrived with mock-ups of all sorts of interesting things and a new look for the company. We redid the business cards, the stationary, and got new marketing toys. We even got a color scheme.

So, here are some of the things that changed after we put our marketing materials in the hands of people who actually know how to create stuff for marketing....

Stationary with contact info on the bottom

My new stationary doesn't have that little phrase on the side, but at the bottom, in that gorgeous purplish-red color is all of the contact information for the business.

We use this for contracts, invoices, letters, and anything else you would need for correspondence from the company.

There is a new addition to the stationary...that little frog. Don't forget him, he's everywhere.











The business card is less wordy, laid out in an easy to read manner, and my manager's name is  listed as the contact, not mine! Not only that...if you flip that sucker over....











My tagline is on the back, and there I am in technicolor so that it would be impossible for you to confuse me with Sherry Norfolk.

So, here is the thing about the logo. 

1. It isn't likely anyone is going to associate you with a particular logo since so much of our business is word of mouth, watching people on Youtube, or listening to CDs, mp3s, or finding us on the radio.

2. At some point, if you are working this as a business, it will be necessary for you to produce materials for marketing, legally binding agreements, or correspondence, so having a logo gives you something to put on all of that stuff.

3. If you don't want to create a logo, you don't need to do so. You are a unique performer, and there is no chance someone is going to distinguish you from someone else because you have a puppet theater emblazoned on your jacket. 

So, do you need a logo? Nope. Not a bit of it. Lots of people don't have them. You can have lovely marketing materials without using them. 

In our business, your name is far more important than your logo. Your name is your brand. All of this other stuff, well, that's just frosting on your cake.

Logophiles Unite!

Happy Marketing.