How to Upgrade Your Business Cards for Meaningful, Memorable Networking

In pre-pandemic America, print shops produced more than 27 million business cards daily. During the past year, our use of business cards has slowed but not completely stopped. In our return to a post-pandemic new normal work life, we’re considering how adding a new formal approach to even the littlest things might improve sales.

Upgrading to high-end business cards is one small decision many of our customers are making. The urgency is real: our customers are asking us to fill same-day business card printing orders! This article will explore why you may want to seriously consider upgrading to a high-end business card as your business emerges from the pandemic.

Print Marketing Begins With Business Cards

We’re noticing an uptick in high-end business card sales at Bestype. Our customers are rethinking branding and logo design and ordering new business cards, stationery, and other essential paper products used in business communication. Spur of the moment marketing pivots are easy to handle through our same-day business cards NYC services.

Upgrading to High-End Business Cards: A Worthwhile Investment

Investing in an upgrade to your business card can be a genius move that will help you navigate the new normal in your field. Bestype suggests considering how your current card reflects your business and your brand as you and the rest of the world slowly return to in-person networking.

Take a look at the sleeve of business cards that you currently use. Do they get noticed? Does their design stand out? If you have control of your design choices, did you order them from a mass production printer?

Ordering hundreds of template business cards can be a convenient, cost-saving option for many entrepreneurs. However, what does this say about you and the unique skills you offer? The saying, “you get what you pay for,” is true. If you only need to communicate essential information to your prospects and leads, then maybe a quick digital template card will be just OK.

Effective High-End Business Card Design Suggestions

But Bestype believes your business card can be better, just like you think your offer is superior to your competition’s. Applying a few design rules could quickly and affordably adapt your concept to a high-end business card format without costing considerably more than cookie-cutter template designs. Even if you need same day business card printing, many unique design and style options are available that fall within these guidelines, which are:

Be selective about what you decide to include on the front of your card: include only your name, company, title, and the best way to connect with you. Simpler is better.

Choose uncomplicated fonts so that your recipients can read your card at a glance. Avoid funky fonts that are too large, too small, or appear distorted. Your logo can be creative, but keep your contact information legible.

Make friends with blank areas around your name and logo so that your recipients have room to make quick notes on your card. Consider making the back of your card blank. Designers use white space on the front of business cards to draw attention to areas that do not include text or a logo.

Be selective about who prints your high-end business cards and inspect your sample cards in person before committing to a print order. Bestype makes it easy to do this for our local New York customers, even for rush orders to print same-day business cards. Viewing your card samples and digital proofs online may hide flaws that will show up noticeably only when you see the cards in person.

Don’t cram the cards with multiple lines of business. You may feel tempted to list all of your combined services on one business card. Suppose you are, for example, a freelance desktop publishing expert who also is a professional dog walker. In that case, we recommend that you design separate business cards for each service you offer. Separate your business lines with individual cards for each one. When your prospects are searching for your card in their collection, they’re scanning for:

• Your name
• Your company
• Your skill or service

Make it simple for prospects to easily find your card in their pile by only presenting them with card information they can easily see.

Judiciously apply finishes to your business card. Keep cards uncomplicated, functional, and elegant but add one or two options that create textures or visual pop. Subtle effects can draw appropriate attention to your unique offer. Too many bells and whistles are distracting. If you use too many finishes or coat your entire card in varnish, it prevents taking notes directly on its surface.

Make room for a CTA. A short call to action statement on your high-end business card effectively leads clients to do something to move your connection forward. You could offer a promotion, direct your recipient to a website or provide a helpful, relevant tip. Using a CTA helps your card lodge in your prospect’s memory.

Crafting High-End Business Cards

Once you’ve worked with a friendly Bestype technician to finalize your new card’s design, you select a texture. How your card feels in your recipient’s hand is your next step in creating a luxe experience.

Bestype believes that creating your custom high-end business card is a craft, not a commodity. Our commitment to quality is as valid for our standard orders as it is for the same-day business cards NYC rush orders we process.

Printing method. Bestype can print the highest quality, digitally printed, high-end business cards in small batches. Offset printing produces higher definition images and text on each card through lithographic techniques. Offset cards are also less expensive for larger orders. Your recipients will notice a subtle difference when you choose offset printing. Letterpress business cards express timeless elegance and style.

Stock and Ink. The card material you choose and the inks appropriate for each type of cardstock make a tremendous difference in how your recipient views and feels your card. Yes, feels — texture matters. Bestype is always happy to recommend materials that will bring attention to your design.

Paper Coatings and Laminates. Printers can apply enhancements after the ink is dry. A popular, high-end business card trend applies glosses and varnish finishes to part of the cardstock. In contrast, the rest of the card is finished with a matte film. Choose from silk and suede-type coatings and even raised gloss polymers that create a three-dimensional embossed texture to your card.

Hot Foil Stamping, Inline Foil, and Raised Foil. Metallic effects are added to the card to add texture and contrast. These effects play nicely with matte and suede finishes. Stamping includes techniques that emboss your business cards for another type of three-dimensional effect that appears to lift text and images off the surface of the card.

Cutting, Rounded Corners, Die Cuts, and Nontraditional Sizes. There’s no official rule that demands your business card measure 3.5″ x 2″, the standard size typical in the United States and Canada. Your business card can be larger, or its width can be slimmer: we recommend applying high-end designs to standard, slim, super slim, square, and credit card-sized business cards.

Instead of traditional squared edges, Bestype can softly round the corners of your standard business card order by 1/8″ or 1/4″. Rounding adds an element of protection to the corners of each card, preventing edge creasing when cards are tucked away in pockets, wallets, and handbag pockets.

Printers can also add different die-cutting effects to each card, from subtle to dramatic.

Bestype Provides Unique Guidance for Your High-End Business Cards

Bestype has spent much of its 40-year New York City history printing high-end business cards for professionals from every conceivable industry and field. Our business card designers are experts in translating design ideas from your marketing and branding into business card form.

Whichever style of card and finish you select, we will work with you to print your card order quickly so that you will never be without something to give away. We will review your design ideas and printing options with you during our high-end business card consultation. If we discover that the options you would like to include on your card won’t technically play well together, we will guide you to choices that work better. We will always offer alternatives to achieve your design goals.

Before we print your final high-end business card New York order, we check to make sure that all the elements of your order work well. We produce a business card sample for you to review. If you are happy with your card sample, we will commit your order to print and production. You are welcome to stop into our SOHO print shop at any time to ask questions and check on your order.

We will perform one more quality check on your completed order and notify you when your order is complete. You are also welcome to pick up your order in person or arrange delivery by carrier, USPS, or messenger and courier. These last options are helpful for same-day business cards NYC orders.

When You Trust Bestype With Your Print Marketing

Your complimentary consultation and project planning session can get your new, high-end business cards into your hands and ready to share! We’re here to help your company succeed, which means helping you always make a great first impression through the products we print. Contact us today for any printing needs, including same-day business cards for NYC delivery. You never know what can happen in a New York minute, including the opportunity to connect with someone who wants your card.

Image Credit: Unsplash @Creative Commons