Business Cards
Updated June 19, 2020 • 7 minute read
Should you put anything on the back of a business card? Is it important to list your website url?
Just because you only have a few inches of real estate to work with doesn’t mean you still can’t get your message across and do it in a way that doesn’t require packing every possible bit of information about your business.
Your business card is often the first place prospective customers look when they’re searching for contact information for your small business. Having a professional looking business card forms a first impression that can mean the difference between them picking up the phone or throwing your business card in the trash.
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If you want your business card (and your business) to really get noticed, it all starts with great design and quality printing. Your brand should be immediately recognizable. That means should always include the name of your business, logo, and tagline (if applicable) somewhere on your card. Need help creating a tagline for your business? Check out this article.
One of the questions I see the most frequently from small business owners is whether to list a title on their business card and, if so, what exactly to include.
There are a lot (and I mean a lot) of opinions and discussions around the topic of what job title to use on a business card when you own a small business.
Typically, job titles fall into 3 categories--no title, organizational role (ex. CEO or President), or function (ex, Director of Sales and Marketing).
Here's my take...
Back in the day, businesses had one (or at most two) telephone numbers. Now you’ll often see business cards that include an 800 number, a direct line, a cellphone, and possibly even a home number. Totally ridiculous! Your customers shouldn’t have to play a game of telephone tag.
Why not keep it simple? Include the one or two numbers where your customers will be able to reach you. That’s all, that’s it!
Along with your phone number, always be sure to include your email address. Notice I said “your” email address and not some generic “info@yourcompany.com.” Nothing says “Please don’t contact me—I really don’t care about you” more than pointing people to an anonymous inbox.
Do you need to include a physical address?
That depends on your business. If you have an ecommerce store with no brick and mortar storefront, operate out of your home, or there's no reason customers would need to visit you, leave it off. Otherwise, it's entirely up to you. However, I have spoken with a number of folks over the years who feel a physical address helps validate the legitimacy of a business.
On the front you'll typically want to include 1) a contact name 2) email 3) phone number 4) address and 5) website--all the information prospective customers will need if they want to get in touch.
Of course I can’t talk about business card content without mentioning the fax. Of all the superfluous information you could possibly include, this has to be at the top of the heap. With the ability to scan and email documents, listing a fax number generally isn’t necessary (unless you know your customers are going to use it).
Let's just nip this one in the bud right now. Including a QR code on your business card isn't going to make you look hip or cool.
The fact of the matter is most people aren’t actually going to “do” anything with your business card until they get in front of a computer or tablet. At that point, it’s going to take just as much time for them to pull out their phone, waste time scanning a QR code, connect to the web, and check it out as it would for them to just type in your url.
If your small business is on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+, it doesn’t take long before you wind up with a proliferation of social media profiles on your business card. Instead of giving people different ways to connect, you end up overwhelming them with a sea of social media icons and links.
Focus on the 1-2 primary social media channels your customers actually use and leave all of the other links for your website.
If you have the room including a short list of services can definitely help reinforce your offerings with current and prospective customers.
Notice I said short. Trying to list everything under the sun will only junk things up. I know when I get business cards that have a massive laundry list of services my eyes usually just glaze over.
If you have a business website, an ecommerce site, a blog, and three social media profiles—you’re much better off pointing prospective customers to one url where they can then access all of your other information. In other words, don’t junk it up.
Don’t be afraid to use both sides of your business card. Doing so gives you more space so you allow your content to breath and also make it easier to digest for current and prospective customers. For starters, add your small business logo and tagline to the back side of your card. Then use the front side for your name and title, physical address (if you have a brick-and-mortar storefront), your phone number (one is almost always enough), and your email address and website.
Two popular options for ordering custom business cards online are MOO.com and Vistaprint. Vistaprint is definitely cheaper running promotions for 500 business cards for $9.99, but speaking from personal experience the print quality of MOO business cards can't be beat.
MOO.com and Vistaprint both make ordering business cards online super easy. You can browse their business card design templates or upload your own design/logo.
Have additional questions about what to include on a business card for your small business? Leave a comment below or send them to me directly.
As a disclaimer, I use affiliate links for some of the products listed. They are all products I absolutely love and trust and would recommend regardless of whether they have an affiliate program.
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After you send out your wedding invitations, the waiting begins. Who on your guest list will actually attend? You can’t just sit around until the day of the event to find out, especially for an occasion with as much advance planning as a wedding. Asking invitees to send you their RSVP is common practice.
An obvious benefit of asking for an RSVP is that you want your guest count to be as accurate as possible when it comes to finalizing orders. This number will be important for everything from catering to wedding favors. But there are other benefits of having your guests respond to your invitation, too. Think dietary restrictions and finding out if they’re bringing a plus-one, for example. And how you ask wedding RSVP questions is just as important. Here’s how to nail your wedding RSVP card wording so you can get responses on-time and finalize your guest list.
The type of card you send can influence how quickly you get a response. And while wedding RSVP cards are a must, here’s some good news: You have options. Ultimately, you want to make the process of responding as easy as possible for your guests. Sending paper and digital RSVP cards gives people the option to respond in the way they are most comfortable with.
With paper cards, make sure they are pre-addressed and the postage is paid. This makes responding as simple as filling in the card and dropping it in the mail. Any extra steps your guests have to take will likely just lead to more delays. Even if you are using paper RSVP cards, it’s also a good idea to include your email address and the link to your wedding website. Giving people more options on how to RSVP can only help get them in faster!
Combining your digital RSVPs with a guest list management tool can really come in handy.
Joy’s guest list tool
automatically creates columns for your wedding RSVP questions and fills them in when invitees respond. It also allows you to see your RSVP rate and current guest count at a glance. Even if you have guests who prefer to respond by paper mail, you can easily add in their responses and have everything in one place.
There are really just two things that an RSVP card must have: the RSVP deadline and a place for invitees to indicate whether they plan to attend or not. If you’re allowing single guests to bring plus-ones, it’s also essential to include a way for them to indicate if they will.
We usually recommend gathering other relevant info, but if your main goal is to keep it simple, these are the best RSVP questions to ask your guests. Regardless, you’ll want to make sure that your RSVP card is easy to read and understand. You don’t want your loved ones accidentally marking “not attending” because the design isn’t clear! In keeping with the spirit of giving your guests options for responding, we also recommend that you include your email address and a link to your wedding website.
As for your RSVP deadline, set it for two weeks before you really need responses. This gives you time to contact invitees who have forgotten to respond. You can also check, double-check and triple-check your final guest count. You won’t want to end up panicking at the last minute because your cousin forgot to respond and is away on vacation the week you need to have your final guest list!
Of course, you also need to have a way for invitees to indicate whether they will attend with a simple yes or no. If you are allowing plus-ones, it can be a good idea to make that a yes or no question as well. Just keep in mind that if you do allow plus-ones, you have to be prepared for the possibility that all of your single guests will bring someone else along.
Other Wedding RSVP Questions
Digital RSVPs make it particularly easy to ask all the relevant questions, since you don’t have to worry about fitting it all on a physical card. However, you still don’t want to send all of your guests a questionnaire that takes them 15 minutes to fill out. Remember, making it easy for your guests to respond is key. From the questions below, you’ll want to choose which ones are most relevant to your wedding. If your really do need to include a lot of questions, make as many of them multiple-choice as you can.
With digital RSVPs, you don’t have to worry about getting all your text on a physical card. It makes it particularly easy to get answers to all the relevant questions. However, you still don’t want to send all of your guests a questionnaire that takes them 15 minutes to fill out. Remember, making it easy for your guests to respond is key. From the list below, choose only the questions that make sense for your big day. And if you really do need to include a lot of questions, make as many of them multiple choice as you can.
Use your digital wedding RSVP card as a way to get everyone’s address for sending thank you notes after the wedding.
It can be a good idea to have a phone number for all of your guests. Ask for a cellular number to contact them in case of last-minute changes to the schedule or location, for example.
It’s a great idea to include this question to better accommodate guests at meal time.
You can ask your guests whether they need help finding accommodations. If a lot of guests are traveling for the wedding, it’s a nice gesture to secure a discounted block of hotel rooms or at least provide suggestions for good places to stay near the venue.
Consider travel arrangements specific to your wedding. If you’re providing a shuttle from their hotel to your venue, for example, you may want to have guests indicate whether they plan to take advantage of the ride.
Though being relegated to a singles table may not be something your guests want, this is still a useful detail to gather. Use this information when creating your seating chart to ensure tables have a healthy mix of singles and couples.There are plenty of other fun things you could ask as well, from what song they want to hear at the reception to their best marriage advice. If you have a Joy wedding website, the RSVP question tool will give you lots of creative suggestions!
In a perfect world, everyone you invite to your wedding would read your invitation and respond right away. And even if in reality things aren’t so perfect, many of your guests might do that! But the obligations of daily life and the constant barrage of communications through email, text and social media, can make it easy to get distracted. Your guests definitely mean to let you know ASAP — it’s just that sometimes life gets in the way. Keeping this in mind can help you manage your expectations and focus on what’s important.
If you’re worried that some invitees may have missed your invitation somehow, Joy allows you to see whether guests have viewed the email. You may have an invitee who receives hundreds of emails a day, and it’s possible they just didn’t see it. If someone has viewed the email but has yet to respond, they may just be taking some time to make sure they are able to attend. In most cases, it’s best to wait until the RSVP deadline you indicated before using other methods to ask guests for a response.
Once the deadline has arrived and you really need a final guest count, it’s time to send some polite reminders. For some, this can be fraught with worries of offending potential guests. While it’s always important to be polite, you have every right to reach out to someone to confirm whether or not they will be attending. And in the real world, stuff happens. An RSVP card could have gotten lost in the mail or someone may have forgotten to click send on that email reply. To make the process easier, Joy also provides templates for reminder emails to help you with wording.
Your wedding RSVP card is a vital part of your guest communication plan. Carefully planning the questions you want to ask and how guests can respond will only make things easier once it’s time to finalize your guest list. That way you can spend less time worrying about who will show up and more time planning a party that your guests will love!
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