I was doing some meet and greets at a recent training event and I noticed something that puzzled me.
When we asked the attendees to put a business card into a raffle so they'd get the presentation PDF and other goodies, about 20 designers said they were out of business cards.
Now, the only time I say that is when I don't want to give my contact.
I have a separate business card for market, inexpensive with my mailing address so vendors can mail me catalogs and samples. (And if I don't want to hear from someone "I ran out.")
You ALWAYS want to have a business card because you never know when you'll meet your next lifetime client worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in business to you!
(Oh, and I watched as these designers were genuinely searching their purse or wallet for a card and came up empty, they weren't "faking" it.)
After the training, we moved up to the Century showroom for lunch and I was having a conversation around rates and marketing with 8-10 designers.
One of my favorite coaching exercises is to check out your business card and see if it's serving you or costing you clients.
I saw a lot that weren't working well and provided key take-aways on how to fix them. PULL OUT YOUR CARD NOW, and compare it to my HOT 10 list.
- Does your card have a quality weight and feel to it? I see a lot of cheap, thin, and sometimes glossy cards.
**Your card represents your brand, a luxury feeling and matte finish (not glossy) will enhance your image and brand.
- Do you have a jumble of fonts and colors? Or are you using fonts so small, you have to pull out your glasses to read them?? (My pet peeve!)
**You want a header font, body font, and accent (or logo) font maximum. And you can use 3 colors + black and white, not more unless it's part of a design.
- If you have a logo (and it's not essential) does it look up to date, or out-of-date? Is it easy to read the name of your company via your logo?
**You aren't Nike or AT&T, it's unlikely you'll be recognized by your logo so it needs to be easy to read with the name of your company.
- Unless you have an open studio or showroom, leave your address off. It may actually limit you instead of adding value.
**You can simply state the cities you work in…Chicago – NYC – Washington DC even if you only work in one and aspire to being bigger.
- Your email address should be BRANDED as in your first name@yourbusinessnameURL. If you prefer to use concierge@, info@, or clientcare@, go for it.
**If you are using Hotmail, yahoo, aol, or even gmail, you can get a second email address (an alias) and have it redirect to your primary email so you aren't checking a second address.
Every email you send will reinforce your brand unless you prefer to reinforce yahoo, Hotmail, aol, or gmail. Think about it.
- Drop the fax number. You can put it on your market card if you need to for vendors who are in the dark ages, your clients do email.
**And drop WWW. you don't need it, everyone knows to use it for a website. You need .com, .net, .design because it does vary.
- You do NOT need your face on your card, you aren't in real estate. You can include images on the back make sure it isn't busy and the color looks great.
**My favorite business card source is MOO and they use Printfinity which means you can have a different image on every single card if you wanted to.
- If graphic design isn't your thing or you designed your card when you came out of design school and haven't updated it in the last 10 years. UPDATE NOW!
**True confession, I'm kind of graphically blind. I can't design a card to save my life, I use the templates in MOO, they are classy, chic, and I get tons of compliments.
Better yet, I'm remembered as the designer with the beautiful card and that means I do beautiful work. (You do too, does your card show that?)
- Are you on social media, get it on your card. You just need the icons because I just know that your "handle" is the same across all channels, isn't it?
**That means you get social icons in your brand color and show them on your card. If you aren't on any social channels, then we might want to have a conversation about your idea client and where you need to be. My basic recommendation is Instagram and/or Facebook.
- What's on the back of your card? That's valuable real estate don't squander it by leaving it blank.
**At the least you want to showcase a client testimonial there, you can even do that over the image of a room you designed.
My second favorite is a quote or image that speaks to your brand specialty. MOO does this really well, so you don't have to.
Yes, I know you may be using VistaPrint and I like them for postcard mailings, brochures and my market cards (non-client.)
I'm a diehard MOO fan for anything my clients and potential clients will see, touch, and experience on a personal (not mass mailing) level.
If, based on your comparison here, your card came up short, either hire a graphic designer (don't DIY this, you rock interiors, not necessarily print media), or check out my preferred resource.
Even in our digital age, we still meet a lot of potential clients face to face and need to have a card that matches our image and our brand promise. Does yours?
Each week in my Facebook Group, I'm do a business card review. It's no charge to participate as a designer, just JOIN THE GROUP.
Post your card in the group and I'll randomly select one to review and make recommendations. You'll get a quick start to updating your image and your brand!
(And yes, you will want to carry that through your website, social media and more.)
If you haven't joined, just go to Facebook, and in the search at the top, type in Prosper by Design and look for How Interior Designers Can Prosper by Design.
We can't wait to have you join us! Just complete the three questions after you tap join and know that I'm waiting inside to WELCOME YOU!!
Mega Hugs,
Melissa
PS. And post your business card in the group to win a review and recommendations!
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