In the early days of doing business in North America, most people thought that business cards were designed to tell people your name, address, and telephone number. In the age of the guerrilla this is no longer so.

Here are some factors to consider:

1. Your business card is now a marketing piece or, at least, it should be.

2. Your company slogan and your important customer benefits should also be listed. If customers need to find you, maybe a simple map should be there. Do you have a FAX, an email address, or a web site? Are they listed?

3. Do you have an 800 number? Customers, even those living in your county, are six to seven times more likely to call you if you have a toll-free telephone number. Get it on your card!

4. Have you considered a fold-over card? The front is more like a traditional card, but the inside is like a mini-brochure. Customer response to these cards is very positive. We appreciate having a complete description in one easy place.

5. Make sure that we, including us mid-life plus-ers, can read your card. Keep the print large enough.

6. Make your card a "keeper." That is, give some important information on the back that your customers will want to keep with them.

7. Make sure there's some room to write a message if you need to. You should always write some kind of personal message even if it's only "Best Wishes!" and your first name.

Take your guerrilla business cards to the big game. When we score a home run or a touchdown throw about twenty of them into the air as you shout "hurrah!" Big dividends will follow.

Give them to well-dressed strangers with your compliment on their appearance.

Put your lavish 20% tip on top of your business card whenever and wherever you tip.

Pass them out in the elevators where everyone's a bit too close and uncomfortable.

Staple them to a dollar and pay for that car behind you on the bridge, the turnpike, or the parking lot. The response will be terrific.

Use your cards. Put a quarter in the meter for that BMW over there about to get a ticket. Write, "U O Me" on the back. Watch what happens.

Spend a lot of time on your business card. Make it a guerrilla business card. Now, pass them out to everyone. They should be in your shirt pocket, in your purse, in your wallet, in your attache case. Refill daily. Pass them out on every greeting, every introduction, every service, every meeting to everyone.

Give them out with purpose and intent. You have a serious business. It is important and it is designed to really support your customers. Don't pass them out casually, except at sport's events. Give your cards to others with two hands. Yes, hand them to others with both hands. Notice the difference it makes.

Business cards are marketing cards. Don't forget it!

Bill Gallagher, Ph.D., is coauthor of Guerrilla Selling and a trainer for over half the companies featured in the best seller In Search of Excellence. His clients include: American Express, Bank of America, Dean Witter Reynolds, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Levi-Strauss, Nortel, National Association of Realtors, Stanford University, and Tyson Foods, Inc. Based in Diamond Springs, California, he can be reached at (800) 800-8086.

Read about company slogans.
Read about logos.
Read about visibility.
Read about networking.

Copyright 1996 Bill Gallagher, Ph.D.All rights reserved.