How to get the most from your business cards

Electrical Apparatus, Jul 2000

Here's My Card is a 224-page book all about the design and use of business cards. Two hundred and twenty-four pages? We couldn't imagine there could be that much to write about a card no larger than 2 X 3 1/2 inches, but author Bob Popyk has gone on endlessly, there's so much to say that we hadn't thought about.

Let's take a look at some of his topics:

Salesmanship. "You need more than a good looking business card to help create more business," Popyk says. "A jerk with a great looking business card is still a jerk." What you say as you hand someone a card is as important as the card itself. Popyk has a lot of suggestions.

Complete information. Your card should provide useful data about your company. Besides mailing address and telephone, fax numbers, e-mail designations, and Web sites can be useful additions.

Getting attention. Some of Popyk's ideas aren't for everybody, in fact some of his book can be used as a guide of what not to do. Nicknames on cards, cards made of candy, scratch `n' sniff cards, signatures on cards, pop-up cards, cards that go up in smoke (yes, really!) won't work for everyone, but it's useful to see how such bad examples could easily backfire on sales prospects. The book, of course, contains many more good examples, but it's worthwhile being aware of the negatives.

Useful ideas. "There is no end to the number of things you can put on the back of a business card that your recipient would consider valuable," Popyk writes-a calendar for the current year, loan interest tables, metric conversion tables, postal information, international monetary conversion tables, to name a few.

"Here's My Card" is $10.95 ($16.99 Canada) and is available from bookstores and amazon.com.