I miss the age of handing out business cards.
The grainy scans above are from Business Cards I did a couple of years ago, but to be honest, I have very rarely handed out business cards for at least a decade now, and most of those were handed to hotel receptionists and others so I didn’t have to spell out my Scots surname for them!
I do miss Business Cards though. I worked in the travel and tourism industry for many years and loved some of the imaginative and impactful cards I used to receive. I also liked those that had lots of white space, as (at conferences in particular) I would get out my pen and scribble some keywords from my interaction with that person on the card itself so I could recall what we talked about.
Business cards, done thoughtfully, were and are, then, a way to quickly communicate the essence of what you offer.
The three key themes on the latest evolution of my home page are:
- What’s Next
- Massive Impact
- Authentic Insights
Take a look at that home page, and then imagine I carried three different types of business cards with me to meetings and events, each using the words and background picture for that theme. I could then hand the most appropriate one to someone at the end of our conversation, depending on what was most relevant and resonant.
Ah, but it isn’t quite the same when we meet so often on Zoom these days, but we can still have the discipline to distil our message down to a few keywords that can be relevant to our chosen market.
If you do still or were to consider carrying a business card, would it simply have a corporate logo and address information on it, or would you be more imaginative and also focussed?
Oh, and if you do still use a Business Card, I’d love to see it!