When clients ask me to create a business card for them, the most common request is, ‘Can you fit my company logo onto the card somewhere’. The answer is invariably, no.

A business card should be seen as a key. If the key fits it will be used. To fit it must reflect the values of the person and company it represents. Just copying an existing design onto a card is a mistake. It shows a lack of creativity and ideas and will not only reflect badly on the client, but me too.

I try and convince any client to use his business card designer to his fullest. After all, there is no point getting me to do the work an intern could do with a spare afternoon. A good design will take elements or an influence, say a color or shape from the main company brand. Then play around with it a little until it can fit the smaller format of the card. If this is done right then what we end up with is a blank card containing no information, but is instantly recognisable as the company in question. That’s the real test of a good logo or brand design. Does it say what you want it to say without any words? If the answer is no, then it’s back to the drawing board. If it’s a yes then we’re onto a winner.

Adding text to a card is pretty straightforward. The formula is normally the same. Company name, person’s name, number, email and company address. There are sometimes variations on this like adding a Twitter or Facebook address. All we can do here is play with the font a bit. Fonts should still use the influence of the overall brand, preferably the same font if it’s clean enough. There have been occasions when the font used in the brand was distinctive enough to be used as the design element to connect the two.

The material to use is 90% card, with the 10% opting for plastic or metal. There have been the odd fabric card which was a nightmare to design! You have to make the fabric interesting enough to stand out, but plain enough to carry the message. Not an easy task.

Shapes are pretty straightforward too, with most opting for the standard rectangle. Rounded edges can add a nice effect to some designs but not others, you have to be a bit careful with those. Fancy shapes or folding designs are cool, but take a lot of thinking about. You have to be creative while still retaining the portability of the card. You have to remember its purpose.

Overall I like what I do, there is enough freedom of expression while still obeying the laws of design and branding that I don’t think I’ll get bored for a long time to come!

First impressions are everything in business. It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, if you want to get ahead it’s essential to create a good impression. The philosophy should permeate all areas of company marketing and identity.

A business could have the best product or service in the world, but if the company themselves looks bad, the product will look bad. The same could be said to the representatives. A creative may like sitting in the office in flip flops and an AC-DC t-shirt but he wouldn’t, or shouldn’t go to a meeting dressed like it.

Getting ahead is about perception. If you can project a capable, professional company facade it doesn’t matter to crazy things are behind closed doors. As long as the face of the company is calm and composed and the end product is just what they want it’s all good.

Any web savvy businessman will have seen some truly atrocious websites promoting good products. They may have been tempted to purchase, but probably not. This face of the company is just as important as the people that represent it. The website is the shop door of the company 24/7, and nine times out of ten will be the first impression of the company potential customers will get. If you don’t get this right, and make the best impression possible, the company is destined for failure.

Any marketing materials and branding also needs to create those good first impressions. There are hundreds if not thousands of business card examples that never should have seen the light of day. Bland templates, colorless cards with uninspiring text that says and sells nothing. Business cards are almost as important as a website. They are a marketing tool just like any other and should be viewed as such. Branding doesn’t have to cost the earth. Some companies can afford hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on a design or advertising agency to brand and promote them. The vast majority of companies cannot. That doesn’t mean that the designs have to be basic and boring. There are plenty of budding designers and artist out there who will work for little or no money in return for favors or opportunity. A decent bit of free advertising is like gold to the fledgling designer, these arrangements can work out mutually beneficial in the long run.

Adequate though has to be put into the impression of the product itself too. Good quality packaging, speedy dispatch and delivery. If it’s a service, then the quality of that service, speed of response and resolution of issues. It is said that a customer only gets to know how good a service is when it goes wrong. While this isn’t true for all types of service, it is definitely true for some. The speedy and efficient resolution of issues is a cornerstone of any service provider. Reputations are made and broken on it.

Customer opinions and first impressions are vital to any business. Ignore them are your peril.

Offering free samples of your products is an effective way of generating custom for many businesses. It gives your potential customers something to look at, as well as giving the confidence that you are professional enough to allow inspection of your work before being employed.

There are small industries that grew up around collecting samples of things and trying them out, even without the intention of buying the whole product. Some of my student years were spent doing just that! There are even schemes now where you can volunteer to receive regular free samples of stuff if you provide feedback on it. This is a useful marketing tool where companies who are planning new products or to rebrand older ones can test it out before releasing them to manufacturing. This is being increasingly adopted by companies to enable them to talk directly to their target market and gain valuable feedback on their products.

This has seen a massive increase over the past year as more and more people are getting wise to the idea of getting things for free, while only have to spend a few minutes a week giving feedback. I fully expect this expansion to continue for years to come. Nice to see that it isn’t just in the realms of student life anymore!

There are obviously industries and products where this isn’t possible, but alternatives are always there for the imaginative. Examples such as impregnating a business card with perfume for a fragrance company, or the “new car smell” for an auto retailer. Neither of which could feasibly give away free samples of their product but can still market it via giving away business card samples. There are plenty of examples of fragrant cards being used to promote business and specific products. There are wedding planners who make their cards smell of fresh flowers or marzipan. Candle makers who make their cards smell like their fragrant candles.

The process is simple enough if you want to try it yourself. Simply get a sample of whatever fragrance you want to use, such as marzipan or essential oil and put it into an airtight container. With liquids I suggest soaking a rag or handkerchief to stop the cards getting wet. Add some cards to the container and lock them all in together. Leave them for at least three or four days to enable the card to absorb the fragrance, and viola, you can now communicate with your audience on another level. Not only are you appealing to their eyes, but their sense of smell too! Smell has something to do with triggering memories, so it isn’t a bad idea to try this out, especially if the fragrance then triggers memories of your company!

Offering free business card samples of your products, reminders, or suggestions of your products is an effective call to action for your target market. It literally adds an extra dimension to your marketing strategy, and as long as your business isn’t waste management or septic tank cleaning, using smell as an extra element is a good idea.