What's the cheapest, most under-used marketing tool you have?

The answer's no secret ... it's your Business cards. If you aren't making them work for you, you may be missing an excellent opportunity at leveraging a cost effective marketing tool.

By the time you have read this article, you'll know several ways in which you can increase your profits by wringing every last cent of value from the advertising power of Business cards.

Business card content

Everyone knows what a Business card contains, so I'll keep this brief and focus on what some people don't have on their cards.

Every possible way to contact you. Don't just give your address and telephone number - give it all; fax, phone, mobile, email, street address, postal address and if you're keen, an after hours contact

Your Internet site URL. If you have one, put it on EVERYTHING

In Australia your Australian Business Number or Australian Company Number (or equivalent elsewhere). People may not deal with you if they think you are not equipped to handle Goods and Services Tax or are too small to have an ABN or ACN

Use the back to advertise. This can change each time you print or you can summarise - in dot point, the services you offer which are not always obvious from your name.

A byline. If you don't want to advertise on the back, think of using a byline, a short statement about what you do, 'Producers of the best hamburgers in Cuba'

Colour and professional design. People like colour. They like attractive design. Make sure your cards have both

Cost effective advertising

The last supply of Business cards I bought cost me 0.07 cents Australian per card; the last classified advertisement I lodged cost me $72. While the newspaper advertisement will get much more coverage for a day or two, I have no control over who reads it. Among those who do, thousands will have no personal interest in my offer and still others might never get to the classified advertisements pages. Many will throw out the paper in a day or so and my three line ad will be gone forever from their houses and minds.

With my business cards, however, I can target where and when I leave them or to which individuals I hand them in order to get the greatest advantage. Of course, there is never a guarantee that where I leave them will result in sales, but at least people do keep Business cards. The idea is to increase probability ... the probability that the recipient will want my goods or services. Here's an example.

Target marketing

Recently I attended a workshop about Email Marketing which was also attended by about 50 others. As the products I sell include three high capacity email management software systems, this was an opportunity I couldn't miss. I left a card at every place mat on every table.

If the target audience was interested in Email Marketing, wasn't there a probability they might also be interested in email software? Sure enough, I received 11 enquiries within a few days of the workshop and sold three copies of the

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