Many multi-million dollar deals begin with the exchange of business cards. The establishment of a trusted business relationship go through the stage of introduction, customer acquisition, and customer retention. At each stage of customer relationship management, the little card is the bridge between you and your clients. When you first meet a prospect, the business card is your greeting card. When you work on a deal with a prospect, that little card is a door to your business world - where they will find the phone number to call you to ask for more information or go to you website to do the research themselves. When you work on a project with the clients, that little card is the notepad where they write down the things that are important to them.

Effective business cards make a huge difference in your daily interaction with prospects, customers or clients. But not all business cards are created equal. A business card answers the questions of who you are and what your business do.

Information Elements about You

* Your Name

* Your Job Title

* Brief Description of Your Job Title - If your official job title isn't intuitive to laymen, it's necessary to have a brief description about your job title so a average person, not a expert in your field, can understand. If the job title is trivial, it's best to have a tag line to emphasize your expertise or to distinguish you from others. A freelance writer may have a tog line - "Business writing that actually works". An Internet marketing expert may say "Convert your visitors to sales".

* Phone and Fax Numbers

Information Elements about the Business

* Business Name

* Brief Description of the Business

* Website URL - It's a absolute must to have a website for any business, large or small. This is digital and information age. And leave the back of your business cards blank so clients can use it to take notes. Your website is where they find detailed information about your business.

* Physical Address - They know how to get to your office for a meeting.

Once we've identified the elements of an effective business card. The design of your business card is only limited by your imagination. Though you can do business card printing yourself using many different business card templates, it's wise to spend a little money to order professional designed business cards. For as little as $20, you can order 500 business cards. Color business cards will cost a little bit more.

Copyright @2005, Bruce Zhang

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