It’s obvious that internet marketing and advertising are taking precedence in most businesses today. For many businesses, that works just fine. An increasing number of business transactions are happening online. Many industries lend themselves to remote transactions.
For that reason, though, many businesses are ignoring some tried and true methods for establishing and retaining a customer base. There are some very real reasons you should not ignore these methods, however.
Not Everyone Is a Teenager
Many companies have stopped issuing business cards in New Port Richey. That’s a shame. It’s easy to forget that not everyone is comfortable with the new methods of marketing and advertising. There’s a concept called the curse of knowledge. Essentially, it theorizes that once we’ve learned something, it’s hard to grasp how that idea or action could still be difficult for someone else.
Don’t forget that even though it may be easy for you to keep track of important things in digital notebooks, contact lists, or internet pages, many others in your generation or in older generations still won’t be comfortable with this.
Not everyone you speak to will want to keep a physical card with your contact information, but you can’t know who will prefer this method and who won’t. Depending on what industry you do business in, earning a single customer could be worth hundreds or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The Personal Touch
Never forget just how important trust is in business. How many times each week do you get e-mails with subject lines that read “business proposal.” Don’t you delete most or all of those e-mails? Without a personal, face-to-face interaction, it’s difficult to get business going.
Business cards are much more personal than a digital interaction.
Be Prepared
You never know when you’re going to come in contact with a potential client. If you don’t have a business card with you when you meet someone who could benefit from your services, what are you going to do?
Without that physical object, you lose control of the situation. Instead of taking control and getting them your information, you’re asking them to take control and remember how to find you. More often than not, they’ll forget they even met you.
It’s also important to remember that people you encounter may ask for your card. Imagine how bad it will look if you don’t have one.
Look Serious
Besides helping you to be prepared, business cards help you to appear professional and serious about your trade.
In reality, anyone can get a card printed up inexpensively, but the perception from most you’ll encounter is that these cards are only carried by people serious about their professions. Even if someone loses your card after you hand it to them, they’ll still remember that you had one.
