A business card is much more than just a piece of card with your details on it; it is a representation of you, your business and can make all the difference between securing your next client and making that next sale.

Which type of card do you need?

Before you decide anything, you need to make sure you pick the right type of card. Do you want a straight-forward shape with a plain back, rounded corners and an appointment table on the back, or maybe even a magnetic card? Depending on your industry, you can get much more out of your card by making sure you have the best type available.

If you’re a designer or artist, you can use the shape of your card to help emphasise your graphics. Try taking a look at our rounded corner business cards- you’ll be able to choose which corners you have rounded, which will help to demonstrate to potential customers that you have an interest in shape, design and form.

For those in the maintenance, housekeeping, or take-away restaurant industry, magnetic business cards will really make a difference to how your card is used. You’ll be able to attach them to anything you’ve serviced, like boilers or radiators, or stick them to refrigerators, filing cabinets and toolboxes. Yours is an industry in which people will be looking for your details in a hurry, so why not make sure that they are always kept in the most obvious place?

QR code business cards are an interesting and innovative way to bring information to your customers, and will really optimise the amount of information you can provide on the front of a business card. You will be able to use our QR code generator to create your own code which will direct customers to your website, or provide them with discount codes, text or message them, and even stores your contact details to their phone. If you have an internet company, an online portfolio, or simply want to expand upon what your card can do, then this is an excellent choice.

What about the back?

Although many people choose to leave the back of their business card blank, this empty side is a missed opportunity to drive business. Would your business benefit from an appointment table on the back or maybe a company logo? Whatever you decide will ultimately affect how customers respond to your card.

If you’re a vet, dentist, doctor, beautician or anyone who relies on appointments and bookings to get business, adding an appointment table to the back of your card is a handy extra, and also means that your customers are encouraged to hang on to your details for longer. Appointment tables mean that you can secure those all-important repeat visits, and be sure that your card stays inside a diary or stuck to the fridge as a constant reminder- a more useful card that really does more.

Another great way to encourage customers to keep hold of your card is adding a calendar back to it. Having a calendar printed on the reverse of your card is great for encouraging customers to keep it where they can see it.

Continue the theme of your front design by adding a block colour or your own company logo to the back. This will really help to finish your design off (especially for those in a design-conscious industry) and the addition of your own logo is a personal, professional touch which will serve to remind people who you are. There is a certain degree of authenticity which can only be achieved by adding a company logo, so don’t leave the back blank!

You can reward your customers for coming back by turning your business card into a loyalty card. If you add a loyalty card back to your business card design you can ensure that your customers are encouraged to come back to you each time, and once all the stamp spaces are filled you can give them a discount, freebies or whatever you like!

Which design is best?
If you don’t have a design which you can upload for your card, then we have a whole selection of business card templates all tailored to individual industries so your card can be a true reflection of your company. We have cards to suit each different kind of company, so before you select, consider what the images say to potential customers, and whether the colours and the fonts are representative of the kind of image you wish to portray.

If you’re a window cleaner, plumber or car wash, perhaps a design which features a lot of water-coloured blues is best for you? If you have a cupcake bakery, are a beautician or nail salon, perhaps a heavily pink design with a feminine font is more appropriate? Remember, it may not be the design you like best which is better suited to your company- what is your first impression when you see the template? Get inside the mind-set of your customers before you decide.

Paper types and laminations

Now you’ve chosen your card type, design template, entered all your details and chosen your back, you’ll need to add the finishing touches. We offer a range of different paper types and laminations for business cards which can really affect how the card looks, and more importantly, how the design appears.

Standard luxury paper and recycled papers are great for all design types, and the smooth, thick nature of the cards will give a really professional finish. If you want to make sure your card lasts longer, why not choose a lamination? Gloss lamination will give your card a shiny, silky finish, and matt lamination will make the card appear velvety with a low surface shine.

For companies who’d like a bit more of a luxurious or stylised touch, we also offer gold shimmer, cream tinted or textured card. As these are coloured, and the textured card is uncoated, designs will appear very differently on them. We always recommend light coloured and predominantly white designs for the cream tinted card and gold shimmer card, and block colour designs for the textured card. The type of card you choose for your business card will really help achieve a slick, finished design, so give this some consideration before making your final choice!

The science of choosing the best business card designs, papers and features is a lot more complex than meets the eye, but the choices you make can really help you make the impression you want for your company, so choose wisely!

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Lesley Beagley is the Admin Guru and CRM Queen. She runs an online course for small business owners to learn some of the techniques she uses to help her Admin Consultancy clients to streamline their admin processes and free up time for the important stuff. You can download her free INSIDER SECRETS report at www.SmallBizAdmin-sorted.co.uk

I remember when I set up my first business. There I was with my ‘Big Idea’ and my enthusiasm, frantically trotting round to every networking event I could get to, collecting bucket-loads of business cards and believing every single person I talked to would be a customer before the end of the first quarter!

It was brilliant. I was so excited. I felt like I’d finally escaped from the drudgery of employment and as my own boss would have the freedom to do what I wanted, when I wanted. But oh how quickly things can change!

I actually was pretty successful early on, and I started getting lots of enquiries through my networking, but with the phone ringing with new customers and repeat clients, and suddenly I realized that stuff was falling through the cracks. I was forgetting to follow up with new leads, not getting my invoices out quickly enough and worse still, not really keeping on top of making sure I’d been paid! The work I was delivering to my clients started to suffer; definitely not the way to build a business.

I was working all hours and at the weekends, stressed out and exhausted before the official working week had even begun!

That’s when I realized my fundamental mistake. I’d gone into business to follow a dream, and only thought about the good bits. What I hadn’t really counted on, or allowed for in my ‘Time Budget’ was having to do all my own admin as well as delivering the work for my clients, on top of being my own Marketing Director, Finance Director and general fixer of all things!

Now, as an Administrative Process Consultant time and time again I see business owners, maybe a year or so into their business, struggling because they didn’t start out with some basic processes and systems in place that would simplify their lives. Often, they are now so busy they just don’t have time to change things, so they muddle on through, working more and more hours yet standing still in their business.

So, whilst your business is young & fresh, get ahead of the game by making sure you can MANAGE your business before you start to market it too intensely!

Get your cores systems in place:

• A filing system – both for physical and electronic files. Ideally set them up with the same basic structure
• Marketing communications system – something like MailChimp for newsletters and autoresponders, ideally linked to a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system like Capsule
• Accounts system – whether it’s based on excel spreadsheets or a cloud based package that both you and your accountant you can log into from anywhere.

Start with the end in mind:

• Set up your systems in readiness for where you want your business to be, not where it is right now

Plan your work and work your plan

• Get into the habit from day one of planning your diary – at the start of each month and at the start of each week
• Plan your admin, marketing and accounts time in for specific days each week or month – make these strict appointments with yourself
• Review your diary each night before closing down for the evening so you don’t get caught out by forgetting early appointments
• Build in buffers between appointments to allow time for interruptions, a coffee or even just 5 minute off to enjoy the sunshine!

If you are a business that has been around for a while and is already beginning to struggle?

Take a little time to implement these ideas now; as the ancient Chinese proverb says:

“The BEST time to plant a tree was 20 years ago…the second best time is NOW!”

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Direct mail is one of the most effective ways you can promote your small or start-up business and engage with your local community, one of the many reasons why it is continually used by companies of all sizes. Just think of all the leaflets and flyers you get through your letterbox for take-away food companies large and small.

Direct mail isn’t always easy to get right so we’ve put together a short list of some of the most common mistakes so you know exactly what you should avoid while you’re working on your next campaign.

• Poor copy

Poor quality copy and spelling mistakes will lead to people losing respect and faith in your company and certainly will not encourage potential customers to engage with your brand as it isn’t professional.

• Not including contact info

Common sense, we know, but an easy mistake to make. It’s one of the most obvious things you need to include but occasionally people are so absorbed by creating the perfect design that the simplest things slip their mind. You just need to remember, how can people engage with your brand if you haven’t told them how? You should also always include your social media accounts as these days these are the first places many people will start to research your brand.

• Not including a promotion

Promotions and discounts are two of the most effective ways you can convert people into customers. Everyone loves free stuff and you’ll find that you’re likely to see higher levels of engagement through these mailers than through those without.

• Not stressing the benefits

Why should people want to engage with your brand? What’s in it for them? You need to emphasise why people should be using your brand rather than others.

• No testing

Testing is one of the basic fundamentals of direct mail. Testing gives you an insight into whether or not your campaign will be successful or it will highlight the areas where you’re going wrong. Whether it’s through your design, lists or choice of promotion.

If you’ve made any other mistakes we may have missed through your direct mail campaigns, let us know in the comments below

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Instagram is rapidly becoming one of the most popular social media platforms and it grows every day. Over 40 million photos are uploaded to the platform every day with more than 100 million active monthly users, from standard user accounts to celebrities and even businesses, us included.

As with any social network, it’s not easy to promote your brand on Instagram and it can seem rather daunting, but as it’s a more visual platform you are able to use your creativity to capture the attention of your audience and enhance brand awareness.

A lot of people are still unfamiliar with the platform so if you need some help getting started, here are a few top tips from the Goodprint team.

Set up your profile

Nice and easy to start off with. See if your brand name is available for your Instagram handle and make your profile as ‘on brand’ as possible. Use your company logo as your profile picture and add your company website to your description.

Promote your account on your site

To build your Instagram network effectively, you need to make sure people know you are there. One of the easiest ways to do this is by targeting your current fan base; add the Instagram buttons to your website and even share your most recent uploads on your blog through something like a monthly Instagram roundup.

Use your other social channels

Since the Facebook purchase of Instagram in April 2012, it’s now even easier to share your Instagram uploads on the platform so that they are seen by a larger network and so more people know that you are using Instagram. If you choose to share through Twitter as well, even though it’s not as visual the use of Hashtags in your post will cross over and your Instagram posts will become a part of more conversations across the two platforms.

Use Hashtags

Just like Twitter, using hashtags in your posts will include your uploads in a much larger conversation. There are lots of ways you can use hashtags to optimise your reach; you can use them in your username (although this option isn’t for everyone), include them in your photo descriptions, include them in comments and even use them to promote your latest offers and competitions. You’ll be surprised how popular #competitions is. Don’t over do it though otherwise you’ll risk looking like a spam account.

Engage with others

Instagram isn’t only about sharing your photos, it’s a social network so you should be using it as one. Interact with other users by liking and commenting on their photos and watch your following grow as you gradually appear in more newsfeeds.

Show your product

Ultimately, as a business one of your main objectives behind using social media is to reach out to new audiences and increase your sales. In order to do this, you really need to be showing your potential customers the quality of your product, how they can use it and how it can benefit them.

Introduce your employees

One of the problems that many people see with businesses on Social Media is that they can seem robotic and soulless. One way you can avoid this is by introducing your employees. Upload photographs of them or tag them in photo descriptions, this humanises your account and gives your followers a ‘behind the scenes’ insight to your business.

If you have some favourite Instagram shots you can order your Instagram photo prints and magnetic prints from Goodprint.

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In the next of our Design Tips series, we run through all those technical parts that scare some people off creating their own business card designs.

Not everyone wants to use a template for their business card design. Creating your own design from scratch will give you a more unique and personal set of cards that are more suited to your brand. However, if you’re not a designer, all the technical points can appear a little daunting.

To make things a little easier here are some of the most important things you need to remember before you send your deign to print.

• Design in CMYK
The majority of printers already print in CMYK. The RGB colour spectrum is smaller than CMYK so if you supply artwork in RGB it’s likely that some of your colours will appear duller when printed whereas with CMYK your finished product will more likely resemble what you see on screen.

• High res images
For the highest quality result make sure that any images you use are at least 300dpi. If you use anything smaller you run the risk of your images appearing either pixelated or fuzzy.

• Remember space for bleed
The standard bleed area is 3mm around the edge of your design. Keep the bulk of your design within this line and extend your background past it right to the edge. This will minimise the chances of a white edge appearing on your finished piece.

• Avoid using borders
With any printer, there is always a margin for error when cutting your business cards. Borders may look great on screen but when they are cut there is always the risk that you will be left with lopsided edges. The millimeters difference where the blade falls while cutting can really make a difference.

• Save as a EPS/High res JPEG
Even though we accept a range of file types to make ordering your business cards as easy as possible, EPS’s are the recommended format for most printers. When you save your artwork as a low res JPEG or PNG your artwork can occasionally come out a little fuzzy or pixelated, this work is minimised if you save your artwork as a EPS and the design will be of a higher quality.

If you have any more questions about your artwork you can use our Email Support section or you can leave us a comment below.

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