Getting Your Own Standard Business Cards
In regards to ye olde standard business cards, it’s anyone’s guess what “they” will think of next. For instance, some people have taken to handing out little mini-CDs! They are rectangular like any card but usually have two round sides in a nod to their functionality as multimedia discs. One side is preprinted to look just like any normal business card, with the company name and so forth. On the other side, there is (usually) a multimedia presentation touting some product or service. Pure public relations genius! What ever are they going to come up with next??
Whatever it turns out to be, standard business cards have become so…well, standardized that even you will wind up trying something — anything — to stand out! Naturally, nothing arrests the attention like being given something that looks like a weird little CD and a strange little business car — at the same time!
Of course, gimmicky cards are not new. From the very beginning, folks have been rebelling, shall we say, against standard business cards. One of the most notable fields in all of business to do so is the real estate industry. In contradistinction to just about everyone else in business, real estate folks routinely include their pictures on their business cards. Honest! And no one’s put off by it; the practice isn’t considered unprofessional at all.
Rightly so. It’s a proven fact, as documented by study after study, that people buy houses based on emotional factors that are often intangible, unquantifiable. Part of that involves feeling a sense of trust towards the agent, the realtor, or the broker. Hence the photos on the card — and, for that matter, the house’s very “for sale” sign out front. After all, why waste time with a non-prospect right from the get-go?
Of course, realtors aren’t the only ones in business to take such an approach to the old business card. Still, evertyhing from holograms to folding cards have been tried, especially by those in advertising and marketing. All other departments — accounting, personnel, and so forth — will probably always stay traditional…standard!