Business Card Advice Needed!

Hey guys,

I've started up a business and would like to know what contact information should I include on my business card, besides the obvious? Should I include only the following; address, email, telephone and website despite having a twitter, facebook, linkedin and youtube account? Any help would be greatly appreciated please :)

Thank you.
 
Include the information that you would like people to contact you via.

For example, if you don't people sending you letters then don't your address on it.

If you prefer conversations over email - then put this on it and not your phone number.

Some people still put fax numbers on theirs.

Some put their mobile phone number above a direct line, or vice versa.

Basically, it's up to you. If you want your business card to drive people to your website, then put that prominently on the card.
 
Further to Hank's point, it also depends on the type of business and the customers/clients you work with. At the most basic I'd have:

Name
Some form of phone number
Email address

I find a lot of clients prefer to speak to me directly, rather than spending the time composing an email and waiting for me to respond, so having my phone number visible has really helped with work. Often emails are just clients looking around, or contacts 'touching base' after we met recently. I'd forget about social media links, unless they're imperative to your business. It's just extra fluff on the card and chances are nobody will even bother checking them.
 
Further to Hank's point, it also depends on the type of business and the customers/clients you work with. At the most basic I'd have:

Name
Some form of phone number
Email address

I find a lot of clients prefer to speak to me directly, rather than spending the time composing an email and waiting for me to respond, so having my phone number visible has really helped with work. Often emails are just clients looking around, or contacts 'touching base' after we met recently. I'd forget about social media links, unless they're imperative to your business. It's just extra fluff on the card and chances are nobody will even bother checking them.

Sports Management is what our company is all about. We will have a website, offices (co-working space), facebook, twitter, linkedin and youtube accounts in terms of social, email and mobile phone number. Would this be too much info?
 
Sports Management is what our company is all about. We will have a website, offices (co-working space), facebook, twitter, linkedin and youtube accounts in terms of social, email and mobile phone number. Would this be too much info?

I'd leave off the social media links, presumably they're for marketing purposes anyway? Keep the business card professional and to the point, maybe with just;

Name
Job title/position
Phone Number
Email address
Website

I'd leave off the address too since it's a shared space (you don't want to have to re-print them if you move in future. If someone needs your address for a meeting or to post something to you, they'll ask for it.
 
I'd leave off the social media links, presumably they're for marketing purposes anyway? Keep the business card professional and to the point, maybe with just;

Name
Job title/position
Phone Number
Email address
Website

I'd leave off the address too since it's a shared space (you don't want to have to re-print them if you move in future. If someone needs your address for a meeting or to post something to you, they'll ask for it.

Thanks Paul. What about the layout of that info? Is there a specific standard?
 
Sports Management is what our company is all about. We will have a website, offices (co-working space), facebook, twitter, linkedin and youtube accounts in terms of social, email and mobile phone number. Would this be too much info?

It's a bit unusual to put them all on your business card.

Have them on your email signature, website, and other digital material. But the business card should have your direct way of contacting, going through social media to get to you is an added step.

Although no reason you couldn't put those logos on the back of the card to show your diversity in social media.
 
It's a bit unusual to put them all on your business card.

Have them on your email signature, website, and other digital material. But the business card should have your direct way of contacting, going through social media to get to you is an added step.

Although no reason you couldn't put those logos on the back of the card to show your diversity in social media.

Ok. On the front of my business card is my company logo and on the back is the contact details, etc. Where would be the correct placement of social media icons on the back? Are you referring to the logo icons of twitter, facebook, linkedin and youtube along with the links to our pages or just the logos?
 
Personally I wouldn't have social media links on a business card either...on your site, yeah fine but on something where you print in bulk I'd keep to things you know you'll always keep active/alive.

As a side note: As much as the companies are trying to hide it social media like those you mentioned are actually losing traction with the core market they're trying to attract. More people are heading to things like snapchat and instagram...
 
It depends where you want people to go to to connect with you. Are you a big social media driver? Do you want people to make contact through social media?

Is the website the main way you want people to contact with you? Or is it your mobile phone no., your email, etc. If you don't really want people connecting via social media, then leave these things off it. But if it's what drives your business then by all means include them.
 
It depends where you want people to go to to connect with you. Are you a big social media driver? Do you want people to make contact through social media?

Is the website the main way you want people to contact with you? Or is it your mobile phone no., your email, etc. If you don't really want people connecting via social media, then leave these things off it. But if it's what drives your business then by all means include them.

Well YouTube is strictly for our player video profile content and some interviews with sport athletes, Facebook is more of a way of contacting potential clients as they are on there most of the time, twitter is used to update our followers on who we have signed to the company and generally what is going on in our company and LinkedIn is to make connections with professionals in the industry. Having the links on the card was just a way of making them aware of our presence via those platforms but also an easy way of saving client(s) time rather than going to the website to find out these contact details. What do you suggest?
 
I'd still leave them off, you're going to end up with a business card with a lot of content on there. Just keep it simple.
 
If you really want all the 'extra links', personally don't see a need for them still, then you could consider nfc and qr codes as alternative ways of showing links, alternatively your web address could have a custom business card landing page which has links to website and each social network page along with say contact details/form
 
I'd still leave them off, you're going to end up with a business card with a lot of content on there. Just keep it simple.

I see. Well I think I will go with your advice guys and keep it simple. Once last thing though. In terms of the layout for my Name, Job Title, Phone number, email and website...is there a certain way it has to be?
 
My business card has: My logo/name of company & tagline, my name, highest qualification, website, e-mail and my phone number. I find clients tend to e-mail me initially (& throughout the duration of the project), and then I may call them or they call me if needed. I find e-mails are far more useful in our line of work, as more often than not, we need to be able to see or show images to and from clients, which obviously email attachments allow for. I usually call or receive calls from clients when a query needs answering more instantly and we cannot wait for an e-mail reply. Or simply to make a courtesy call, to ensure everything is ok and they are happy, but more often than not, I receive a delightful 'thank you' email once the job is complete, so I don't bother calling.

More recently, as unprofessional as this may sound, I find clients tend to text me more than call! Which again is a way to get a more immediate response than through e-mail, but less urgent and more discreet than a phone conversation. Texts also allow them to send images etc obviously too. I guess it's just a more convenient way to make contact, when they are otherwise engaged.
 
This is a card I designed quickly about 5 years ago (which Boss Hog printed for me) – https://dribbble.com/pmurraydesign/tags/business_card

It just has my name, and my profession and preferred contact details. It's nothing special, but I get calls from them quite often, even from people I've never met (there's a version of the above example floating round somewhere that has my actual phone number listed and people call me from seeing that).

In terms of layouts, anything goes, but I always feel the order/hierarchy should be name first, then contact details in the preferred order. Have a look online for some examples, I think there's even some on this forum.
 
This is a card I designed quickly about 5 years ago (which Boss Hog printed for me) – https://dribbble.com/pmurraydesign/tags/business_card

It just has my name, and my profession and preferred contact details. It's nothing special, but I get calls from them quite often, even from people I've never met (there's a version of the above example floating round somewhere that has my actual phone number listed and people call me from seeing that).

In terms of layouts, anything goes, but I always feel the order/hierarchy should be name first, then contact details in the preferred order. Have a look online for some examples, I think there's even some on this forum.

Great feedback guys. Is it necessary to add the word 'Email' and 'Telephone' before the actual contact detail?
 
Back
Top