Get the Most Out of Your Creative Business Cards

Do More than Pass Out a Stack of Business Cards

Here’s the thing. You’re at the annual conference of a professional association you’ve been a member of for five years. Because you spent twenty minutes helping your youngest daughter with her homework, you rushed out the house door, arriving at the conference seconds before the keynote speaker took the stage. You spent the first several minutes at the conference kicking yourself for not only arriving late, but for leaving your stack of business cards at home on the dining room credenza. That is until the speech ends, people rise from their seats and start handing out their business cards, some professionally designed, others obviously homemade. 

To get the most out of networking with your business cards, think about the types of connections you want to make by passing out the cards. Also make sure that you include three to four or more different ways you can be reached on the cards (e.g. email, telephone, mobile, website URL). To get the most out of your business cards, you can also:

• Insert your business card in a thank you note to a colleague, other creative business leader, potential client, etc.
• Place business cards at the backs of books, pamphlets, white papers, etc. you wrote and distribute them at speaking engagements, professional business events, etc.
• Commit to engaging in two to three minutes of genuine, sincere conversation with a person before you hand them your business card
• Create electronic business cards and post them at the bottom of your signature  

Use Business Cards to Expand Your Clientele and Customer Base

Handing out business cards as a creative business leader may not be enough to generate the type of follow-up contact required to expand your clientele or customer base. But if you engage in genuine conversation with people who attend similar events that you do, you can create lasting impressions on people you speak with, making eye contact, asking sincere questions and sharing humor. It’s the relationships you create with others as a creative business leader that will be remembered.  

Build the start of a good relationship (this requires sincerity on your part; you’ve gotta really want to get to know the people you talk with) and people can refer to your business card each time they want to telephone or email you. Of course, after awhile they won’t need your business card because they will have come to know you to the point where they have your contact information stored in their brain, ready to pass it on to their friends, family, colleagues and other creative business leaders. 

Get into Spiral online at:  https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000841/Spiral.html

Check out Long Walk Up online at:  https://www.ebookit.com/books/0000000531/Long-Walk-Up.html