What makes a good business card?

     I was asked recently what information should be printed on a business card.  So I thought I would try to make it easy to understand and hopefully helpful to someone else asking the same question. 
     First and foremost, the role of a business card is a tool. A tool that gives someone your contact information so they may later contact you when they actually need your product or service. It gives people all the information needed to make contact in any way, such as fax, cell or toll free numbers.
    The business card can be in any form, it does not necessarily have to be the standard 2"x3.5" size that approximately 95% of people print. But it needs to be legible and hold all of the necessary information. 
     Below is a list of the necessities as far as contact information goes:

• Name of contact (you)
  
• Title
• Identity & business name (Logo)
• Contact numbers (Phone and fax)
• Address of business
• Email address
• Website address
• Your company's main message or slogan     

     It seems that the more contact information you have on there the better. Do not overcrowd your card listing the 20 services you handle, create a brochure for those services. A simple slogan or message, along with your contact information is all you need on that format.
     Electronic business cards are really starting to become popular. With a simple text message from your smart phone to someone else's smart phone, all of your contact information can be saved into their phone. No printing needed. Only one problem, not everyone yet has a smart phone, so we always need to keep the standard business cards handy.
     A valued special offer is a great way to further encourage someone to save your card for future use or a map giving the exact location. Many people use the back to print a yearly calendar. This is another incentive for people to keep the card. And many people will keep a calendar for reference in their wallet.
    There are many people out there that would say you should invest thousands into your cards on folds and die cuts, etc. And you certainly can do a lot to them to make them stand out, including printing to plastics or using metallic inks. Whatever you decide, make sure it fits into your overall image and be consistent in your message.  You do not want it to lose its purpose; which is to have all of our contact information in a neat easy to read place so it can bring you more business.