Do you need business cards or website first?

This is a question I hear from time-to-time from small business owners and start-ups. You can actually have your cake and eat it too. Here's how. This article is for those of you who have some knowledge of conducting business using business cards without a website and the opposite - conducting business with a website and no business cards. Then there are those of you who need both. Either is fine and useful in the right marketing arena. I've used a few questions and answers to help you see if you need business cards now that you have a website or if you need a website if doing business with cards already works. 

I have a website but I don't have business cards. What can I do? You can conduct business online without giving out a business card to get people to visit your website. Before you go out and have business cards designed and printed, look for websites that allow you to build online business listings, and offer you marketing tools to increase your business connections. Go to websites like MerchantCircle.com, Kudzu.com, Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local Listing, Yellowpages.com, etc. These are just a very few so jump on the search engines and start listing your business online now. People browse for local business reviews on every topic you can imagine. Choose the listing that best fits your business. Now go out and have at least 100 business card printed so you have another channel to drive traffic to your website. Best of all many of these business listings are free. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true. It probably is. 

 I have business cards. When should I get my website? With the saturation of text messaging and email, it's very easy to pass along the phone number of your favorite salon to your friends. It takes about 1 minute. You can even send them the salon website address and name of your hairstylist if you want. So why do a business card design and printing for nothing? The truth is there are times when you don't have your cell phone or computer under your fingertips - or should I say you should think twice. A wedding is not a great place to do business, and being on your cell phone is even worse. So if you choose the lesser of the two; go with the business card pass over texting your business info. Since you have a channel for telling people about your business with your business card, now is the time you can add a website address to your business card. You can gain information by having a simple form on your website, update potential clients on new offers or innovations in your industry. Your website can help you tell people about the benefit of conducting business with your company. Your website need not be more than 1 or 2 pages to add value to your brand. It's perfectly fine to conduct business when you have business cards but no website. Keep in mind that a website will offer your company additional exposure and potential for winning new customers. So it's really up to you when and if you want to turn up the volume. Take it one day at a time and make your best-educated decision after your research. 

I have a website. Why do I need business cards anyway? Business cards are a great way to advertise and market your business or push more people to your website. They can help you give people a glimpse of what your business can do. You can start building your brand's mood with different colors and images that represent or back up what you have just vocalized. The business card can be passed from one recipient to a third party. Most importantly the business card allows you more opportunity to give something physical and they are a powerful way to increase referrals to your small business. 

The best answer in my opinion is to go ahead and knock-out both at the same time. Have business cards printed and your website design at the same time – if at all possible. If you receive your business cards first, don't hold back on handing out your cards if your website is not finished. You may be thinking that potential customers will go to your website and see a big-fat goose egg, zero, nothing, nada, zilch, zip. To keep this from happening, tell your web guy to add a small statement to your website about your company that tells visitors how to communicate with you while your site is being "updated." Never say "under construction." Nobody wants to hear that their dinner is almost ready and that's what "under construction" sounds like. Additionally, your visitors will be hungry for information (the main purpose of the Internet anyway) and you need to at least give them a nibble. Chick-Fil A does a great job at sampling. Take note and use the same principle.

This is Gibron T. Williams, Head Honcho at Oevae Marketing Consultants and these are my opinions.

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Do you really need business cards today?

We recently scored a gig for The Wedding Architect who's an outta-this-world wedding planner. I mean this guy has got it. I'm not trying to score kudos because I personally have shared my thoughts, opinions, suggestions, advice, and the thoughts of others with him. So the air is clear in that area. Ricardo Tomas aka The Wedding Architect is the b. o. m. b. Okay, now really! You're probably thinking, this is supposed to be about business cards. It is. Hang with me. My marketing company has landed 3, 4, 5 maybe clients because of Ricardo's branding. Most say his brand is really busy or that the website has some nice Flash programming. And others comment on his business cards. Note: 80 percent of Ricardo's business is generated face to face. As it should in his line of business. This includes referrals from his past clients. So this means? The Wedding Architect's business cards are dangerously important to the wedding planner, wedding consultant, wedding professional, and wedding industry as a whole. If you're thinking about entering the wedding planner industry make sure your business cards have the power to communicate your style and professionalism in less than 5 seconds. 

Why five seconds to read a business card? Think about the last time you had a conversation with someone you found to be interested in what you had to offer or your new business. This is a person that you've never seen before in your life and chances are you may never see this person again. Now then. While standing, sitting, lounging... whatever it is you do when you communicate, at some point in time you pass your business card(s) to this person of interest. After you hand your card over, the person receiving the card normally (hopefully) says "thanks" or "okay, great" and then looks at your card for 5 seconds tops. For this reason, your business cards need to be the shiznit (great). Kudos to Snoop Dogg with the smirk and the braids tight for the Shizzolator. Anyway, that's only part of the solution. Knowing you can use a business to capture attention like a wedding planner might do. But what does it take or where do you get business cards? Well, there's FedEx Office (formerly FedEx Kinko's, formerly, Kinko's), Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, Speedy Print, Overnight Prints, MOO, 4by6, and a host of other business card printers online and probably not far from where you are right now. 

What about adding the Wow factor to the business card? Who would have thought in today's world we would still be using business cards? Please. As long as we have magazines or until cell phones are free. The staple business card will be around. The point here is that you'll most likely need a business card if your industry uses them (business cards) as a mode in which business can be conducted. However, I doubt that Michael Phelps really needs a business card to promote his business. He's a pretty well know guy. I think he's doing okay in the branding department. But not everyone can have it like an Olympic Gold Medalist with 120 of your faces on isle #12 at the grocery store, ear to ear on the Wheaties box. No. Not everyone has that much exposure. Take advantage of the business card in a positive way. Not pushy, shrewd but not hurting anyone... as you would normally do while attending a business conference, at your child's parent-teacher meeting, during a business mixer or happy hour, while talking to some random guy in-line at Wal Mart while holding a box of "unmentionables" under your arm. You know you have a great business card when people compliment you about them. Come on, complements are normally for great hair and or a great meal. Receiving a compliment on a business card that is only 2 inches by 3.5 inches and just a bit thinner than a time, that's a big deal. Business cards are very important when used to strategically marketing your brand. When you use your business cards as a method of building your key relationships or praying for that next big referral. Stay consistent and work on your plan. And business cards a part of your marketing plan, if you communicate with people, face to face for business. Leave your business card with your tip at a nice restaurant, with people you meet at the gym or yoga studio. My business card was the most expensive way I could afford to pay for when I first started Oevae back in 1999. I had a mound of creativity and many different cards for the first few years while I molded the final brand in 2001 and as it is today. In the beginning, I knew that black and white was the least expensive printing so I could cut the cost on printing and today it's all the same. Back then I needed some way of holding my prospect's attention for more than 5 seconds. 

Yeah, I need more than 5 seconds. When I planned to make Oevae Marketing Consultants, I need to express what our creative marketing was about and tell it quickly with something they would taste later. I need my business card to cut through a steak. So this has to lead many new clients and now friends our way. So I may be slightly biased in my opinion. But again, the business card orders keep coming our way. Our clients keep telling me how much people admire their business cards and where did they get them printed. My vote is yes. You really do need business cards today. 

This is Gibron T. Williams, Head Honcho at Oevae Marketing Consultants and these are my opinions.