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Enhancing your brand with business cards

Enhancing your brand

with Business Cards

design notes  |  compelling business cards

Business cards can be very effective to build a professional and thoughtful reflection of you and your company. You can make your business cards really appealing to valuable prospects; your business card will depict the core values of your company. Wonderfully presented information on quality business cards surely reflects well on your company’s integrity. Well presented business cards with your personal and corporate details can improve the way people see you by the professionalism displayed on the card. Your business card must be excellent quality to reflect good quality.

There are certain unique strategies through which you can make your business card effective and that will enhance your profitability:

Your business card is what you are advertising to other people. Advertising is all about making associations and building interactions. Using your business card is an influential and cost-effective way to do that. If you are designing a traditional business card, make sure to use both sides of the card. Give ample information so you can start making connections.

Some important details that can be helpful to you are:

  • Name
  • Testimonials
  • Information
  • Your mission and vision

Make sure it is apparent what you do. If your company has a creative name add a tag line or provide a list of services and solutions in the text on your card so that it becomes clear to the client what actually you are providing.

Make an impact and a long-term impression with your quality business card. You desire people to consider you and either keep your card handy or pass it along to a hot prospect. Exclusive colors and textures give fresh look and attract customers. There are also fascinating shapes and sizes but are careful not to get too large, the magnificence of business cards is that they are small and fit in a wallet.

Business cards are practical because they are an economical way to communicate the exclusive qualities that you are offering. Because they are trouble-free to hold and fit in your probable customer’s wallet, purse, or pocket and easy to pass to other people who might be seeking the same service that your firm is offering makes it valuable hence increasing your profitability

Make certain key information like your phone number, email, and website address are mentioned in your business card. It is also important to have your mailing address or cell phone on the card as well. Providing this basic information on your business card will be helpful for potential customers to interact with you when they need to.

Include your website address significantly on your quality business card. Your website is one of the most successful ways to build an association with probable customers.

It is important to add a logo to your business card. Your logo should be something interesting, something that calls attention to your business and marketing materials. This will help your clients remember you for a longer time.

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Why resolution matters

Why resolution matters

printing terminology

We see every manner of artwork, from the sublime to the …not so sublime. We check the specifications of incoming artwork to make sure it complies with our pre-print guidelines. We check sizing, bleeds, and safe zones, color spectrum, and resolution among others. Here we discuss image resolution, what it is, and why it’s important.

CMYK is the color spectrum preferred by most commercial printers. Indeed most won’t accept RGB colors at all. Think of a color advertisement in one of the finer magazines. This CMYK image is composed of thousands of tiny dots of color. Get in close with a magnifying glass and you may be able to discern them. These dots of color are Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and black in 100 levels of intensity for any and all combinations of colors. At common reading distances, these color dots converge to display the full depth and color of the spectrum.

But color fidelity alone will not produce good results on a printed work. The resolution must be of a certain number so the resulting imagery is smooth and crisp. Most commercial printers have agreed on 300 dpi (dots per square inch). So if these color dots (actually squares) are too spread out, the eye does not discern solid color or smooth text and images. We get a fair amount of artwork that is 75 dpi, a common web resolution. That works OK in that medium but is woefully inadequate for commercial printing, whether digital or offset. Simply ramping up the resolution on our end involves interpolation, which is the manipulation of the pixels where the program attempts to fill in the missing dots. This works satisfactorily on small incremental increases, say 275 dpi to 300 dpi. But nothing can be done after the fact to make a 75 dpi file into an acceptable press quality work.

So, remember to pay attention to resolution throughout the designing stages. Any image brought into your piece should also be 300 dpi. Beware of large size increases of imported photos or other images such as logos. Most bitmap and other common image types don’t take kindly to this, even though it may still look OK on your monitor. So keep re-sizing to a minimum.

You can set your resolution in your graphic software. If you can’t, that software is probably not going to give you a result that will print well.

Here you can find NexCards specifications.

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Getting the most from your custom business cards

Getting the most from

your custom Business Cards

design notes  |  compelling business cards

First impressions are everything, a fact proven over and over again by countless scientific studies. It is this basic facet of human nature that necessitates having a high quality, professional business card.

Because your business card is often the very first marketing piece given to your clients, it is critical that it represents you and your company in the best possible light. Whether you’re looking for silk business cards, glossy business cards, plastic business cards, follow the tips below for maximum positive impact.

Design Tip #1: Include Relevant Contact Details but Avoid Clutter

At a minimum, your business card should include your name, title, phone number, fax number, email address, and your company’s name, address, and logo. In addition, it’s a good idea to include a memorable and descriptive tag line that explains your position or what your company does. However, do not put so much information on your card that your message gets lost in a sea of clutter.

Design Tip #2: Consider Ways to Stand Out from the Crowd

There are many ways to make your business card jump out. For example, you could print your cards on premium cardstock – silk business cards, suede business cards, one of our deluxe, or even plastic business cards definitely stand out from the crowd.

Also, unique features like rounded corners, foil stamping, embossing, or spot UV are all terrific ways to differentiate your business card. One of the most creative examples I’ve seen is from an interior designer, who used a hologram to show a room before and after a redesign.

Design Tip #3: Keep Your Layout Simple

Always try to use a clean layout – white space is your friend because it facilitates easy reading. After your logo, your name should be the largest piece of information on your card, but make sure that all the information is printed in a large enough typeface to be easily readable.

Design Tip #4: Synergize with Your Company or Professional Image

Since your business card is an important part of branding, it should follow the same graphics standards as the rest of your marketing materials. Additionally, its look & feel should synergize with whatever image you are trying to portray.

For example, if you are an artist or designer, it is OK to use hip colors and non-traditional cardstocks such as metal business cards or plastic business cards. If you are a banker, a less flamboyant color scheme (blues, grays), and traditional cardstocks such as silk business cards or glossy business cards, will work better.

Design Tip #5: Have Them Professionally Printed

Finally, always have your cards professionally made by a printing company. Remember that your business card will be the first impression your prospects receive of your business, so do not skimp on this critical marketing tool.