By: Steve Perkins
Submitted: 2011-05-02 16:49:14 | Word Count: 617
Business cards are important. There's no doubt about it. They can be the simplest yet most effective marketing tool that you can use to compete head to head with your competitors. Even the most successful businesses still use business cards these days, be it paper based or digital business cards. So if you are a startup or small business, it can help to create your own business card today.
However, with the thousands of cards in the market today, it can be a bit hard to get noticed easily. You need to be more resourceful and come up with ideas that can help you be unique and stand out in the market. So, aside from personally giving out your card, what could be other ideas to get your cards in the hands of your prospects, even in times when you are not around to directly hand them? Below are some guerrilla marketing ideas that you can put into practice to help you out in your business card campaign.
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• Leave your business cards in unlikely places. This can be in a restaurant, the reception area of a building or office, in cashier counters in grocery stores, or public bulletin boards. The stranger the place is, the better.
• Use them as bookmarks. Every time you are returning a book you used or borrowed from the library, why not leave your business card inside. But be sure that the book is the one most of your target customers will be reading. You can also consider designing your card like a real bookmark or be more creative in its design to encourage people who see it in between pages to keep it.
• Turn them into a coaster. Yes, it can get wet, but people will surely notice it when you leave it in a café where most of your target customers are. A good way to make a coaster out of your card is to use plastic business cards. This will ensure that people will notice a cup sitting in a plastic card.
• Use magnets. A growing trend today is magnet business cards. There are actually packs of magnets you can buy that are sized as business card. You can use these magnets to stick your business card. Then stick your card on street poles, metal mail boxes, or any flat surface where your prospects are likely to see them.
• Coupon or referral cards. If you haven't tried this yet, it's time you try this one out. You basically print a discount coupon at the back of your business card templates, and then leave a space with the line "referred by". Give your friends or colleagues 20 to 100 of your card and tell them to write their name in the referred by line. This is to give credit to the referrer, which when they have referred a certain number of people, they can get a referral bonus. Not only have you provided a discount to the customer but given an incentive to the referrer as well. It's like hitting two birds at a time.
Hopefully, one of these ideas can turn your business card into one great marketing tool. It doesn't hurt to try one or two of these ideas. So, grab the opportunity to strengthen your marketing campaign today and see the difference these guerrilla techniques can do to their business.
Author Resource:-Steve J. Perkins is a specialist of printing and is also a graphic designer. He is dedicated in the printing industry and continues to support the developments in the field of marketing.
