Your business card is a valuable piece of real estate and a powerful tool for making a connection and starting a relationship that can show your potential clients the valuable solutions you can offer them.

1. Your business card is marketing real estate. Marketing is all about making connections and building relationships. Using all of the real estate on your business card is a powerful and cost effective way to do that. If you are designing a traditional business card make sure to use both sides of the card. Most printing companies only charge a few dollars more to print on the second side in black ink. Using both sides will allow you to have plenty of "white space" and give plenty of information so you can start making connections.

Some valuable things to include on the back of the card:

The name of your book
Testimonials from satisfied customers
Information about your free ezine
A famous quote that reflects your mission and vision?

2. Don't make it hard for people to do business with you or refer you! Make sure it is clear what you do. If your business has a creative name that doesn't clearly illustrate what you do make sure you have a tag line or provide a list of services and solutions in the text on your card.

3. There is no rule that says you need to go with white card stock, black ink, one side and four lines of text when laying out your business card. Make an impact and a lasting impression with your business card. You want people to remember you and either keep your card handy or pass it along to a hot prospect. A folded business card increases your marketing real estate three fold and turns your business card into a mini brochure. Unique colors and textures give a lasting impression. There are also interesting shapes and sizes but be careful not to get too large, the beauty of business cards is that they are small and easily fit in a wallet for handy reference.

4. Business cards are handy because they are an inexpensive way to express the unique qualities and strengths of you and your business. Because they are easy to carry and fit in your potential clients wallet, purse, or pocket and easy to pass along they are an excellent source of instant pass along word of mouth about you and your business so make then stand out. There is no rule they need to boring. At one convention I attended there was a spiritual coach connecting with people; she based a lot of her work on intuition and synchronicity and designed several business cards that reflected different themes of the solutions she provided for clients. She walked around and when she connected with a potential client she fanned out a bunch of cards and offered them to chose one. This was an excellent way to start up a conversation and provide insights for the person. Let your business card provide the essential business information and the essential ingredient of saying something about you.

5. Make sure key information like your phone number, email and website address stand out. It's also important to have your mailing address or cell phone on the card as well. You want to make it as easy as possible for your prospects to contact you. Putting all of your contact information on your business card will also give the person more confidence in your credibility and desire to build relationships.

6. Use a positioning statement or tag line to clearly call out the benefits of doing business with you. Remember the "what's in it for me" question. People don't want to hear about your business features, they want to hear about the solutions you provide. When you are creating your business card and are thinking about the services you provide keep finishing the sentence What that means to you is? This will help you be more customer benefit focused in your language.

7. Always include your website address prominently on your business card. Your website is one of the most effective ways to build a relationship with potential clients and let them learn how you can be of service to them. If you have a free newsletter you can call attention to that on your business card. Be sure to include your email address as well. To be professional and credible its important to have your own domain name and corresponding email address, rather than a free email or aol email address.

8. What is it that makes you stand out; that lets people know how your product or service will provide them with the solutions they want? This is your unique selling proposition or positioning statement. This is so important it should be right under your business name and title or under the name of your business in the logo area. If you don't have one of these clearly articulated yet, this is an excellent opportunity to create one and clearly position yourself in the hearts and minds of your clients.

9. It is important to have a consistent feel and look to all of your marketing materials. Your logo should be something interesting, something that calls attention to your business and marketing materials. When you design a logo keep it simple and make sure it will reproduce at different sizes so you can easily fit it on your business card and on your website. In marketing there is the law of seven. Potential customers will need to see your name at least seven times before they take action. Having a recognizable and memorable logo will help keep you top of mind and makes it easier to make an impression on prospects.

10. When someone says, Do you have a card? You should ALWAYS be able to say YES and hand one right over. No matter where you are. Remember marketing is about building relationships and connections not about selling. If your service or product provides real value and solutions people will be delighted to learn about you and recommend you to others. Make it easy for them to remember you and spread the word with the convenience of your business card. Business cards are not just for business settings. Leave one at the restaurant with the tip, include a few in with your bill payments, put them in with than you notes to clients, or with product orders. Have them handy and leave them everywhere.

?BZ Riger-Hull. Author of The Soul of Success http://www.allowingprosperity.com, she is certified as an Attraction Coach, Prosperity Guide, Four Agreements Facilitator & Tele-Course leader. Start THRIVING in your Career, Business, Relationships, Bottom Line & Life. Receive $535 in free services take the 90 Day ALLOWING PROSPERITY CHALLENGE. The only risk to doing business with us is achieving success beyond your wildest expectations. mailto:BZ@allowingprosperity.com