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Market Yourself With Business Cards

One Who Can Use Viagra the most effective and economical (read really cheap) self-marketing techniques is the use of business cards. You can go online and pick up 500 attractively designed cards for less than twenty-five bucks. Five hundred cards will get you started with your personal networking and will probably last six months to a year. Don't buy more than 500 to start because you may decide you'd like to change the design a bit once you begin using them.

TIP: Pass up the offers for free business cards. Free cards usually have the name and logo of the printer on the back of the card. They're free because every card that you hand out advertises the printer. The idea is to promote you, not somebody else.

TIP: Avoid using blank forms that allow you to design and print your own business cards using your computer and printer. The edges of micro-perforated forms will feel rough and homemade when you separate the individual cards. It's less expensive to use a professional printing company, and you get a clean edge.

If you haven't yet established your own business or decided what you want to call yourself, get some cards anyway. Have them printed with just your name, address, telephone number, and email address. If you have a Web site, include the URL. The idea is to plant your name in people's minds, and a simple card can do that when used properly.

How to use business cards

First, the don'ts
Don't design cards that are oversized, overly cute, or hard to read.
Don't thrust your card at every warm body that passes by.
Don't student debt consolidation loans "I'm looking for work. Call me." as you hand over a card.

Instead...
Use your card as a tool for you and a resource for your prospect. Getting your card into the hand of a prospective client or useful contact should be the beginning of a relationship, not the end of a conversation. Successful self-marketers don't sell themselves or their business; they help others.

TIP: During a conversation, it's more important to listen than to talk.

If your new acquaintance says he likes Indian food, tell him you know a great Indian restaurant. Take out your card, write the name and location on the back, and hand it to him. If she says she loves foreign movies, jot down the name of a film you've seen and liked and hand it to her. If he's going to London next month, write down a museum, shop, or pub you think might interest him. The better the value (not necessarily the lowest prices) the restaurant offers, obscure the film, or offbeat the site you describe, the better.

Find common ground. It's all right to guide a conversation toward a topic that favors your area of knowledge and to add nearby others to your discussion. Ask for opinions. Encourage the other person(s) to relate personal experiences. Try to lead the conversation, but don't dominate it. Talk about ideas; don't make a pitch. Remember: You sell (help) best when you're not "selling."

TIP: Never enclose your card with a holiday or birthday card.

TIP: Always enclose your card with any business correspondence.

Brief personally written notes are best when sending greeting cards, and it's okay to include your business's name if, and only if, you think it's necessary for the addressee to identify you. It's crass and opportunistic otherwise and will be viewed that way by the recipient.

That aside, you can not send out too many cards. Include them with business letters, proposals, invoices, brochures and other collaterals, and always with promotional correspondence. Some of your cards will get into the "wrong" hands (there really aren't any wrong hands), and some will be duplicates. It doesn't matter; you're risking only a penny or less.

Never go anywhere without cards, not even to the laundry room, grocery, or drug interactions office. You never know when you might run into someone whose acquaintance, no matter how brief, could lead you to someone who, in turn, could lead to someone else whom you might be able to help. Cards very often are passed along to others you may never personally meet. Help people help you so that you can help others.

This article may be reprinted with credit: Jim Kepler owns Adams Press, a family-owned producer of books for small presses and self-publishing authors since 1942. Visit adamspressadamspress

He is the presenter of "You Ought to Write a Book" and other writing workshops.

posted by datdk @ 2:07 AM