Business cards & taking them into the modern age

Embrace social media – even just links to you
Website addresses have long been a staple of business cards, though others continue to forget to include more social links, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Pinterest. You can always customise two sets of business cards for different audiences and means, showing that you can interact with people on the level they choose – for instance, social-only and personal-only.

Look for strong designs, or the chance to use your own graphics

Too many established companies have gotten a little lazy with their stock template offerings, meaning you can often see the same ones cropping up between completely different organisations. However, many newer firms coming to the printing market, such as business cards specialist Flyerzone, offer a lot more customisability for the same low prices. It’s important to keep an open mind and not always head to the one or two with large TV campaigns; after all, that’s where most others will go.

QR codes are more popular than you think
The use of QR codes is still really rather high. These black-and-white cubes may puzzle some, but those who use their smartphone over them can be led to any webpage you like. You could even customise these QR codes, once again, for different types of customers. It removes the need for them to type in a longer web address, and could even be used to forward people to promotions, discounts or other bonuses they could only get from your card!

Don’t even use card, if your budget stretches
For a little more money, and with the right organisations, you could have a business card that’s, er… not made of card. For example, a popular gambling outfit once used thin wooden poker chip-shaped pieces to circulate the names of its team, while other people in the metals industry have etched their details into aluminium.

One company even designed heat-sensitive cards that could be peeled back, pressed upon with fingers to make a unique design, before drying to give each one a person-specific design. The options are endless – just think outside of the (cardboard) box!