4 Business Card Design Faux Pas
Are you proud of your business card? Do you think it’s the best designed card in the world? How many people have commented on the design of your card when they received it? If you’re like most people, no one has said a word. Although good design means different things to different people, designers can agree on the following 4 business card design mistakes. You should avoid these in designing your business cards and if your printed business cards contain one of these faux pas, seriously think about redesigning and printing new ones.
1. A cluttered business card: Appealing cards don’t use up every inch of the cardstock. People get overwhelmed when they see a lot of info in a small space. Too much print looks unprofessional. Keep the vital info – name, your title and company, address, email, Web site and phone numbers. If you have room, you can include a tagline. Use the back of the card if you’d like. Just be sure to leave some white space, which is a design term for empty space.
2. Small print: If people need a magnifying glass to read your name on your business card, it’s too small! Obviously, people aren’t going to take the time to squint their way into understanding your text. Don’t sacrifice readability just to get a tagline or extra info on your card. A good rule of thumb is to make your name 9 points in size, your company name 12 points, and the rest of the type no smaller than 7 points. Using a hierarchy of sizes will also help your design look clean and uncluttered.
3. Having a plain white card: White cardstock with black printing. How original! So many people use this format for a business card that if you do, yours will be hard to find in the sea of white. Make your card a nice cream cardstock, or gray, or go crazy and go for black or some other color that still fits your brand’s image. I love the colors of this card and the design is still simple with the bright blue.
4. Crazy shape: I actually like creative business cards that aren’t rectangles. They look good. But it can be a big design problem because then where do recipients put your card? If it doesn’t fit in a wallet, your business card has a much higher death rate (e.g., being thrown away). Rounded corners are okay because the card will still fit in a wallet or Rolodex, but beyond that you’re pushing it. This business card is almost pushing it, but I think it would still have a high “keeper” rate because it’s the traditional size with rounded corners.
If you wait to redesign and print new cards when your current stash runs out, will it be worth it to lose a few new clients along the way? Clients that you might have gotten if your business card had been more impressive? I don’t think so. Business cards are one of the cheapest marketing tools you’ll ever use, so think of new cards as an investment in your business.
Business Card Design Ideas
In a time of dwindling budgets, many people go back to what has always worked. And business cards are one of those marketing tools that always work because they’re simple and people know how they work. Techies might disagree and think email and contact info on a computer is better than a business card. But you have to have a computer to access your email and your contacts’ info. A business card can be carried with you everywhere and no one needs special equipment to read it.
Business Card Design Basics
Less is more is the mantra of good business card design. You don’t have much room, even if you use the back of the card. That means you must use clean font that is easily readable, colors that don’t make people’s eyes hurt and a design that is logical. People should immediately know what to look at first (your name) and what to look at next (usually your title or your company; it’s up to you which you’d rather focus on next). The basic info you need:
Name
Title
Company Name
Address
Logo
Phone/fax numbers
Email address
Company URL
(Optional: tagline)
I put tagline as optional, because in my opinion, it’s not a deal breaker when it comes to business cards. And, I don’t think people will really remember your tagline from seeing it on your business card. Plus, if it’s longer than a few words it could really take up some prime real estate on your card. If it’s short and people know the tagline, though, I would include it. Everything else is essential.
Design Ideas
Now, the reason I’m bringing up this topic is to share some interesting business card design ideas. Anymore, white cardstock with black ink just won’t do it. That’s boring. Black cardstock with white writing, now that’s more interesting. If you want people to keep your card, it’s best if it’s interesting. You’ll seem more innovative, as will your company and brand. If you have a boring card, your company and brand will seem boring. Your business card is a direct reflection of the personality of your business.
A simple turn of the direction of card to vertical could be all you need to make an impact. I love this card, not only because it’s turned, but because it’s also clear. That’s different. That’s something people don’t expect. It could possibly cause confusion if it’s laid on top of a dark surface, but I’ll bet that whoever takes this card will keep it in their wallet or somewhere organized so that they can reference it.
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If there’s a way for you to capture the essence of your business with your card design, by all means do it! That could mean a carpenter creating a card made out of a thin piece of wood, or cardstock colored to look like wood. For a photographer, it could mean using film, such as this card. Film is an integral part of a photographer’s life, and the design is still simple, clear and effective.
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Another one I like is this envelope supplier’s card. It’s simple, yet effective because it represents a part of her job, and makes it look professional and innovative. If she has a great card like this, what else can she do?
That’s the kind of thinking you need when designing your business card. You need to impress people into wanting to contact you for more information and to find out what you can do for them. Use interesting textures, fonts, and shapes, but keep it clean, simple and clear. A confusing business card or a card with bright colors that don’t coincide with your brand will just confuse people. Think about your brand’s personality first, and then design from there.
Carefully Choose Your Marketing Colors
If you choose the wrong color for your marketing materials or Web site, it’s possible you could be turning potential customers away before they even read a word. There’s much psychology behind color, and knowing how to use colors to get the feelings you want people to experience will help you get the marketing results you want.
Understanding Color
All color comes from two basic colors: red and blue. Browns come from a mixture of both. Purple, indigo, green and others on that side of the color wheel come from blue. Orange, yellow and pink all stem from red tones. The eye focuses on blue colors in front of the retina, which means blue tones move away from the eye. This makes them seem non-threatening and can make people feel drowsy or relaxed. The eye focuses on red tones behind the retina, which means red tones move toward the eye. This makes red tones seem energetic, aggressive and excited.
Color Psychology
So, from how we see color, it’s easy to speculate that blue tones will make people relaxed and red tones will energize people. And that’s exactly what color studies have found. In one study that was featured on the ’70s show “The Human Body”, colicky babies in a hospital room lit by red lights cried more often and more intensely than when the same room with the same babies was lit by blue light. The researchers switched the lights of the room from red to blue and back again, and when the lights were red, the babies cried more than when the lights were blue. The blue lights actually quieted the room.
Blue shades and tones emanate feelings of stability, logic, relaxation and professionalism. A spa or a doctor’s office would do well to create a blue motif in their marketing materials. Since red tones get people excited, red would work well in marketing materials created for a sports items, money, motivating products and cars.
Of course, each color on the color wheel can produce different feelings. For instance, black is seen as a color of authority and seriousness. White implies cleanliness, which is why surgical gloves, and doctors and nurses wear a lot of white. (Notice white, blue and green scrubs and items in many hospitals? This combination produces a feeling of cleanliness and calmness.) You can check out more color meanings at InfoPlease.com or do an Internet search for “color psychology.”
As you can see, colors can mean all the difference in whether your marketing materials are read with an open calmness or a distrusted aggression. The right color for your marketing materials depends on your brand message and what you want consumers to feel. There is no right color for everyone, but there is a right color for your brand and your product.
Marketplace Influence of the Affluent
Avner Offer, professor of economic history at Oxford University, has said that “today’s rapid pace of innovation includes developments in science and technology, a widening range of consumer goods and services, and the powerful effect of media, advertising and the Internet—all pressuring us to make choices….”
What does this lead me to believe? That the affluent influence the marketplace – for themselves and for other classes below them. The middle-class and lower-class are offered what the affluent class decides is needed or wanted. The rich people are those that drive the marketplace offerings. People can afford to get high-end cars, which makes other classes of people get high-end cars, but it leaves the lower classes in a debt situation. This leads to more and more people taking out loans and using high-interest credit cards that they can’t afford. This leads to our tough economy where people can’t pay back what they’ve borrowed so the government has to step in.
Now I’m not saying that the affluent are bad in shaping the wants and needs of the lower classes; I’m just saying it’s a fact that we should be aware of. As marketers and consumers. The younger generations are used to getting what they want without having to pay for it. Mommies and daddies are charging everything for their precious little ones. And there are even games like Electronic Monopoly in which you charge things on a credit card instead of buying them with cash. Now what kind of message is that sending?
And as packaging and production methods get cheaper with outsourcing, we’re just filling up our landfills with last year’s products.
Of course, there is also global warming. With all of this extra production of products that people are just going to throw away, the factories are working year-round, 24/7 producing lovely smog clouds that are tearing up our atmosphere and killing us underneath.
And, one last effect of our affluent tastes – we’re getting fat! Obesity is at an all-time high due to the processed foods and easy access to drive-thrus every few blocks.
So what does all of this mean for marketers?
Market your line of products to all classes. Market your more affordable items to the middle- and lower-classes so that they know they have a choice. Two widgets sold at $20 each is just as much money as if you get an affluent person to buy your $40 widget. The lower classes shouldn’t be ignored – they have spending power.
Green your production methods. Whether that’s just for marketing – using recycled paper or using more online initiatives – or whether you can talk the CEO into using greener inks, greener packaging or whatever, you can then tout your greener methods to consumers. Everyone is concerned about the environment now, and you can get customers from all classes by showing how earth-friendly your products are.
Market to the affluent responsibly. While marketing to the tastemakers of society, use your marketing prowess for good. Tout all of the socially responsible things your company is doing so that the affluent will tell their friends and family. This word-of-mouth marketing will trickle down to the lower classes and encourage them to buy products that are more socially responsible.
The Five Best Books on Advertising, as Chosen by Ad Exec Jerry Della Femina
I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Jerry Della Femina, but I hadn’t until today. As I was perusing through advertising articles (as is my usual), I came across an older Wall Street Journal article that asked Della Femina to list the top five books on advertising. I was thinking, who is this guy and how is he qualified to answer that?
Turns out the guy has been named as one of the most influential advertising people of the century by Advertising Age (#71, by the way). Interesting. He called himself a “publicity slut” – even more interesting. He has made other outrageous comments throughout the years that’s gotten him some headlines. (Good work for the ad guru!). He also wrote an anti-establishment book in 1971: From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor, which was a best-seller. He’s owned a few advertising agencies since 1967 and is still going strong.
So, now that I’ve established for myself and for you what Della Femina’s credentials are (and someone should probably shame us both for not knowing) let’s move on to his expert opinion.
1. The 100 Greatest Advertisements 1852-1958 (Julian Lewis Watkins, Dover, 1959)
A collection of the best print ads that produced remarkable results, such as spots from Coca-Cola, “The Pause That Refreshes” and RCA Victor “His Master’s Voice.” It opens with a classified ad published in London in 1900: “Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success — Ernest Shackleton.” He got a ton of responses! And yet, we can’t get enough recruits in the U.S. Army, which spends millions on advertising that promises an education and a future.
2. Confessions of an Advertising Man (David Ogilvy, Atheneum, 1963)
And of course, no list would be complete with a book by David Ogilvy. This is the ultimate how-to book on advertising from the “Father of advertising” who reigned from the 1940s to the 1970s.
3. Bill Bernbach’s Book (Bob Levenson, Random House, 1987)
Written by Levenson, whom Bernbach mentored, about “the man who changed the face of advertising.” Bernbach earned Advertising Age’s top spot of the most 100 influential advertising people of the century. Bernbach changed the way ads were designed and influenced the advertising world into what it is today.
4. A Technique for Producing Ideas (James Webb Young, Advertising Publications, 1940)
A short read at 60 pages, this is a great resource for learning how we get ideas, and the steps everyone “must take to stimulate their minds and produce ideas.” As Della Femina says, “Without ideas, there would be no advertising.”
5. Reality in Advertising (Rosser Reeves, Knopf, 1961)
You’ve heard of a USP (unique selling proposition). Here’s a book by the man who created the term that helped his ad agency, Ted Bates, to sell more candy, cigarettes, toothpaste and breath mints than any other agency in the world. Ever heard of this one? “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” Reeves was a serious man in his ad agency, but he allows some humor and flair into his book.
3 Basics of Target Market Research
When it comes time for business owners and CFOs to cut budgets, marketing and advertising are often the first places they turn to. As a marketer, you need to be able to recognize why this isn’t such a good idea and be able to voice your reasons. It’s tempting for businesses to try to cut money from something in which they don’t see immediate results, but doing so could spell disaster for the business in coming months and years.
By evaluating how effective your marketing is, you can present a strong argument to the CFO about why marketing and advertising budgets are not where cuts should be made. Or, maybe you can at least lessen the cuts and allocate the marketing budget into areas that will prove to be stronger than others (like moving money into the successful direct mail budget from the unsuccessful billboard budget). But evaluating your marketing is hard to do if you don’t first do research into who makes up your target market. Once you know that, you can measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaign more accurately.
Do Your Target Market Research
Traditionally, marketing involves four broad steps, which all have their own sub-steps: planning, creative development, execution and measurement. I’d like to talk more about the planning step, because I think it’s most important. Good planning sets the stage for the rest of your marketing campaign.
The insight you get from knowing your customers and their preferences will impact your marketing position and distribution channels, your media selection, the price of the product or service and your advertising offers.
Of course, researching your target market could go on for months, and can get as detailed as you want (and as detailed as you can afford!). But there are three absolute basics you must know about your customers:
Demographics: This consists of age, gender, occupation, education, income level, location and family circumstances (kids, single, married?). Lifestyle factors can also be included here. Do people have a long commute? Do they spend a lot of time outdoors? What roads do these people generally drive on?
Behavior: Is your target market full of people who love the outdoors? Are they spenders or savers? Do they like to watch TV or read magazines? What do you they like to do and what do they spend their money on?
Needs: What do they need? Why would they need your product or service? Do they know they need your product or service? Do you need to have late hours for those that work or can you be open during the day for stay-at-home moms? How can your product or service fulfill a need?
These three basics will help you create a rough sketch of what your target market looks like. Knowing these basics will allow you to create and product effective print brochures and color posters, choose the right colors in your logo and choose the right distribution channels for your marketing efforts. You have to know your audience before you can create a product or service that they’ll want to spend their hard earned money on.
Inspiration for Creative Ads
When it comes time to map out a new ad, whether for a billboard, brochures, a magazine spot or any other multitude of media, it’s hard to come up with something creative that people can just look at and instantly “get it.”
And creating a creative ad doesn’t automatically mean success. If your target audience doesn’t understand it, or if the content isn’t relevant, no amount of creativity will bring in sales. It’s easy for designers to forget that the purpose of the ad is to bring is sales when all they want to do is be creative. Likewise, it’s easy for the ad account managers to see the positive attributes of a really creative ad if they don’t see the sales potential right off the bat.
But, a creative and effective ad can be done. There are plenty of successful, creative ads out there that prove it. Get inspired by this Exposed SEO blog post that showcases 23 interesting, creative ads that don’t need to be contemplated to be understood. Many of these use the environment or an existing venue to play the ad off of (check out the bus exhaust coming out of a person’s mouth like cigarette smoke). Creative, clear and motivating.
And creative ads don’t only come from pros. Students show just as much, if not more creativity, in these ads on Advertnews.com. These feature an ad for Toblerone using what looks to be a bike rack and an ingenious, yet so simple, Windex ad.
To get a creative idea, you have to look outward, I think. Yes, inward is where the creativity flows, but you have to look outside yourself for ideas. And not stealing other ad ideas, but just looking at a tree and seeing it as a palette for something bigger, like a landing spot for a blown piece of gum (see the Exposed SEO blog).
There are four key elements of making an effective, yet creative ad:
1. It must be relevant to the customer.
2. It should contain a promise to the customer.
3. It should be well understood by the customer, yet not talk down to the customer.
4. Always put the product in the center of the ad.
Many creative ads get the creative part down almost too well, which means the product gets ignored. A number of studies have shown people remember a certain TV commercial, but they can’t remember what product the ad was selling. This is referred to as vampire creativity. If your ad is too entertaining or too involving, it obscures the product.
As you can see, there’s a fine line between being effectively creative and obscurely creative. By having your creative mind(s) working with the business-oriented mind(s), you have a better chance of achieving the right balance for a great ad. Teamwork is what it’s all about, just as in any other business.
