The trouble with free business cards
You know the ones I mean. The ones that seem too good to be true. The ones that are free as long as you have the company name printed on the back along with “free business cards from…”. Or, from the same company the ones that are dirt cheap.
So what’s wrong with them? Am I simply a printer with a bad case of sour grapes from losing business to this company? Well actually no. The problem I have with these free business cards (or low cost ones) is the fact that they look cheap. They look like you’re not serious about your business. And they don’t inspire confidence.
Add to that the fact that they have a distinctive shape and pre-set designs and you end up with a card that screams “I’m cheap! Don’t take me seriously”.
At the recent Grow Your Business event, almost 50% of the cards that we received were those very cards. And in three or four cases there were two business cards that looked identical. It was only when I looked closely that I realised that they were actually two separate businesses. Now tell me, is that really the message you want to be sending out?
If we start with the premise that a great brand will engage your target audience; inspire confidence and differentiate you from your competitors; then do cards that are from a pre-designed template and distinctively shaped do that? I would argue not.
