Marketing Tools 

Business Cards and Stationary

Business cards and stationary are often the first marketing tools a business owner will acquire. Private practice owners must pay particular attention to their stationary and card sets. Unlike product-oriented businesses, your clients and potential clients perceive your business cards to represent and reflect not just the business, but also you and the quality of the services that you provide.

When designing your stationary and business cards, you will find that you must make decisions in two different areas:

  • Content
  • “Look and Feel”

Content
Content is the most important of these two items. While selecting colors and papers is fun, don’t spend your time there first. Focus on the content. That’s the reason anyone would want your card. Content becomes even more important when you consider that many cards get passed along to people who haven’t met you personally.

It’s a good idea to design the business card first, and then pull elements from that to develop your stationary. Here’s what should be on your business card:

  • Company Name
  • Tag Line (or promotional message, positioning statement or call-to-action)
  • Your Name
  • Your Title (humor may work well in your industry – Dave of Wendy’s Fame used “Wendy’s Dad” as his title)
  • Address
  • Phone
  • Toll-Free Number (indicated since the new prefixes may not be recognized as toll-free)
  • Web Address

The most significant piece of information on your business card is the tag line or promotional message. Your business card should “speak” to your ideal client. It should contain enough information so that when someone comes across it again, even if they have forgotten meeting you, they know when looking at it what you do and why they might need your services.

Example: “CPAs Specializing in ElderCare” tells what you do and who you serve.

If you don’t have a company name or tag line, get creative with your title. It will have to convey what you do.

Example: “Criminal Defense Attorney” says more than “Attorney at Law”.

Additional Information
There are several additional items to consider for your card. These should be selected based on whether or not your client or potential client would need this information in order to do business with you.

In other words, you would not give a cell phone number if you don’t regularly conduct business in this way, and you don’t routinely keep your cell phone on.

  • Cell Phone
  • Mailing Address (if different from location and if clients would need this)
  • Fax (if clients would normally need this)
  • Email (if you routinely check it each day)
  • “By Appointment” if you are not available in your office to walk-in traffic
  • Photo of Yourself (if you are in a relationship-oriented business)
  • Photo of Your Service (carefully selected)

Logos
A logo is a graphical representation of your business. Many private practitioners do not have a logo, and it is not “required”; however, having one does help you to brand your services. Your logo should be professionally designed.

The Back of Your Card
Make your card something people will keep by adding value to it’s content. The back of your business card can serve this purpose. Try adding:

  • space to record an appointment
  • a list of services or products
  • overview of the benefits you offer
  • a quote or favorite saying that’s significant for the work you do
  • tips, facts or other short information
  • lines to jot their own notes
  • informative charts or tables
  • map or directions
  • your practice philosophy
  • other useful information

Keep in mind that business cards do get passed along, so yours should be able to “stand alone”. In other words, when someone is given one of your cards, it should be able to speak for you in your absence.

“Look and Feel”
Now it’s time to decide how the content will look on the page. This involves layout and design, colors, ink and paper selections. This is the fun part! But don’t ignore the serious aspects.

Your business card and stationary set should match your business image.

Here are some sample words that describe different private practices:

  • creative
  • serious
  • techno-savy
  • caring/nuturing

What word would you use to describe your practice? If your materials don’t match the nature of your work, there is a disconnect that’s unsettling to the client. Who will seek out a divorce attorny with a card that looks like one of an interior designer?

Be cautious about trying to crowd too much information on the card. To get an idea of what your card might look like, use one of the several online services where you can design the layout of your business card. These allow you to try several designs and to see just how much space, say, your tag line takes up. While intended for you to order directly from them, you can also print-out your ideas and take them to your printer for refinement.

  • iPrint.com
  • VistaPrint.com
    This company offers 250 free business cards (their logo is on the back in small light gray print).

Ideally, your stationary and business cards will be printed using the same quality paper. Many manufauctuers make paper in several weights so that you can create matched sets.

Unless you are in a creative industry (e.g., interior designer) or you have a very specific reason for not doing so, stick with basic business colors: white, cream, light blue, light gray, light mauve.

Your printer will have a selection of papers and ink colors. Select good quality papers and coordinate the ink colors with the paper and the image you want to project.

Quality Control
Don’t print your cards yourself – the fuzzy edges say “homemade” and suggest a cheapness that you don’t want to convey, especially at the prices you charge for your services (doesn’t match, does it?).

Review the proof very carefully before giving the printer the go-ahead to process your order. When you get your cards back from the printer, check for:

  • missing content
  • spelling errors
  • correct alignment
  • ink smudges

The wrong proof has been known to be used, so even though you approved a perfect sample, you’ll still need to check the final product.

Stationary
Once you have designed your business cards, you can pull elements from it to design your stationary. Order them at the same time and you may be offered a discount.