What to Put on a Business Card and Tips to Design It

October 11, 2024

Monica thought everyone just knew what to put on a business card and how to design it so it’s a functional marketing tool. But, alas, a recent visit to a tradeshow revealed a sizable knowledge gap in that very area. 

You want your prospects and your clients to have a streamlined, easy interaction with you all the time, right? And anytime you have an opportunity to control that process we want to take advantage of it to give them the best possible experience with your company. 

This episode is all about how to do just that, with a lovely checklist to make your business card easy to use, beautiful, and a reliable representative of your organization.

You want your prospects and your clients to have a streamlined, easy interaction with you all the time, whenever possible, right? And anytime you have an opportunity to control that process we want to take advantage of it to give them the best possible experience with your company. 

The two most likely return points of contact for initial prospects are your business card and your website.  And we’ve talked ad nauseam about how to make a website that offers an amazing user experience. Now we shall extend those strategies over to the business card with a lovely checklist to make your business card easy to use, beautiful, and a reliable representative of your organization. 

✅Download a PDF of the checklist and tips for easy reference!

Not every community is a business card community.

To be fair, I’m not lobbying that everyone even needs a business card in this day and age. If you’re networking solely online, you probably don’t. 

But if you network face to face and are contemplating the necessity of a business card just think back to the last event you attended. Did people ask you for a card? 

When I lived in a larger community people would just say, “I’ll look you up online!” Which might have just been a nice way of saying they’ll forget me altogether.

Now, I recently moved to a smaller community and find myself regularly digging through my tiny wallet sized purse to unearth my professionally printed and beautifully designed yet somehow forgotten and slightly smooshed business card to hand out (with an apology for its state of being, of course). In face, I do this so often now that I updated my business card design and printed a new flight of them.

All this to say, if people are asking you for a card, you should have one. And if they say they’ll look you up, you should probably still have one so you can foist it on them and force them to see your brand one last time before they throw it away. 

What to put on your business card.

I feel like there are two categories of information to potentially include on your card: mandatory items and optional items.

And how do you fit all that stuff on a tiny card and not make it look like a hot mess?

I thought you’d never ask!

Business Card Design Tips

Even if you’re not a creative genius or trained designer you can still have a well-organized easy to use card. After over 20 years of designing these lovely bitty things I have a few options and tricks up my sleeve to get the job done.

Use the Front AND the Back

It often costs the same to print front and back in 4 colors so have fun and use all your space!

Do you want to be able to write on your card?

If so, leave it uncoated on at least one side with white or a light color so you can write whatever your heart desires. Coated shiny cards are very durable but they’re difficult to write on with anything other than a permanent marker and even then you have to let it dry before handling it…not really ideal in a networking situation.

Choose easy to read fonts.

Since your business card text will likely be small choose a font that’s easy to read at a small size. Steer clear of very thin fonts or ones that go from very thick to very thin. They aren’t easy to read when they’re printed (even if they look good on your screen). 

This thin font looks OK fine on this document but it still vibrates a little.
When it’s super small it’s not as easy to read 

A regular or medium weight font is far easier to read when it’s small. 

For more crazy thoughts on fonts checkout our blog post/podcast combo where we go on a tirade about the right fonts for your logo.

Your text needs to be 8 or larger.

8pt is this small…that’s really small, even on a small card people shouldn’t have to break out a magnifying glass to read your card!

Zoom Out

Designing your card while zoomed in makes the process easier BUT don’t make the rookie mistake of not zooming out every so often. You’ll end up with a brochure’s worth of content on a teeny tiny card.

Color Combos: ADA

Make sure your background color and text have enough contrast to be seen by all people. The really small words on your business card require far more contrast than larger words to maintain legibility. If in doubt, test it. The MayeCreate designers often use the WebAIM contrast checker to ensure the colors on the websites we build are ADA compliant. 

Beware of Maroon, Navy and Purple

They can print funky…just sayin’. If you have a very specific Maroon, Navy or Purple and you are not going to be happy with even the slightest variation of hue, go to a local printer, spend a little more, and ask them to use a Pantone color for you to make sure you get it right.

Group Information Logically

For example, if you have lots of contact information to share you might group personal contact information together and group general contact information you might share with others in your company, like your web address or physical location separately. 

The goal is to give people’s eyes a place to rest and see information in groups instead of just putting it all together  and making them hunt for it.

Add Emphasis

Adjust font sizes, colors or add icons to add emphasis to key information. My favorite trick to add emphasis is to change up the background color!

QR Codes Don’t Have to be Huge

Your QR code, if you choose to have one, doesn’t have to be huge but it can’t be microscopic either or it won’t work. Test different sizes by using your phone to test the code.

See – it all seems pretty logical, right? 

And now you have a list to get everything you need on your card and make sure you design it like a pro! Plus you can download it in PDF form to use a reference.

If you’re having creative block look at Canva business card templates, there’s a boatload to pick from. And even though the cardstock is a bit lighter than I prefer, you can order your cards straight from Canva as well. It’s a pretty streamlined set up.

Make sure to download the checklist and use it to organize your new business card! And, of course, if you want me to design ‘em, all you have to do is ask! Send me an email (monica@mayecreate.com) or give me a call 573-447-1836.