4 More Back of The Business Card Ideas

A lot of time can elapse between when you hand out a business card and when the recipient uses it or looks at it. It helps to have a unique card design that makes another successful "first impression," days or weeks after a face-to-face meeting. Using the real estate on the back of the card, you can say more about yourself and your business. In a previous post, I discussed the first four ideas for printing content on the back of your business cards including: maps or additional locations; a headshot and mini-bio; coupons or discount offers; and finally guarantees, policies or a mission statement. Now here are four more ideas for including content on the back of your business cards: 1. Community service and charitable contributions Print a list of your nonprofit organizations your company or employees support, or a tally of how many community service hours you've completed and with which organizations. This is something you can do enterprise-wide, compiling information from all your staff and putting that on everyone's cards, or on an individual level. If your company has a donation matching program, that would be a good blurb to include on the back of the business card as well. 2. Riddle or game Here's an idea, put a tic-tac-toe board on the back of your card and an offer: If the recipient beats you in tic-tac-toe, they get 10 percent off their purchase. Now you've got a fun excuse to interact with the prospect, and even if you win, you can still be nice and give them that discount. Riddles and connect-the-dot games are also fun, especially when the resulting answer or picture are related to your business. Wouldn't it be great if a potential client called because he or she was desperate to know the answer to the riddle on your business card?

3. Testimonials or a list of clients In the age of internet reviews and ratings, nothing makes customers feel better than what their peers really think of a product or service. Add testimonials to the back of your cards to show how happy others have been with your product or customer service. Remember, testimonials work best if they are specific and linked to a real person. Otherwise, the potential customer might think you just made them up yourself! If you have a good client roster, with either national accounts that folks will recognize or prominent local businesses, get permission from those clients to list their company names and/or logos on the back of your cards. 4. Leading question A leading question or call-to-action is a great item to feature on the back side of your card to increase sales. Treat this like direct marketing. For instance, if you are a personal trainer, try: "Want to fit into your skinny jeans?" or for a graphic designer, "Is it time to rebrand?" Below the leading question, tell prospects they can find out the answer by going to a landing page URL. On that landing page, provide more information on how you can help with the specific issue listed on the card, and provide a contact form to capture contact information and follow up! NB* In case you're wondering if I practice what I preach, I did use the back of my own business cards. On the upper left hand side of the card, I list my name and URL again, then on the bottom left, I list my specialties as a writer. On the right side of the back of the card, there is a headline, "How did we meet?" and a space for the card recipient to write the date, event and any notes.