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Most business owners don't realize the importance of using a
simple business card to generate tons of customers. It simply
does not matter what kind of business you are in, you have to
utilize this primitive business technique in order to grow your
business fast. The three main mistakes people make when
marketing with business cards are:
1. Not having a business card.
2. Being stingy and only giving out one card per person.
3. Not giving a card to every person they come into contact with.
Not having thousands of business cards at your disposal at all
times is not only stupid it is a crime against your business. If
an employee of yours stole as much money from you as you lose
from not utilizing business cards, they would go to prison for a
long time. With today's super low cost business card printing
prices there is no reason not to have business cards and an
abundance of them for that matter.
I started my professional concrete cutting service business with
absolutely no capital and grossed almost $400,000 in my first
eight months of business. My only means of advertising was
business cards. As many of you already know, it can sometimes
take up to an entire year to get your ad placed into your local
yellow page directory and it can be quite costly to a new
business. The following are techniques that I used to generate
tons of business from business cards and I believe that these
same techniques can benefit any type of business.
1. I started with an eye catching logo and had a design that
really said "this guy is a pro." It is worth the modest initial
investment to get your cards designed right.
2. I kept my message "short and sweet." I have seen way too many
people over do it with tons of bulleted text that cause
confusion with the reader. I do concrete cutting and a few other
services that relate to it but my business cards say only
"Concrete Cutting."
3. I ordered my cards in quantities of 5000 at a time. Too often
do I see new business owners print cards off of their computer
and literally "ration" them off.
4. I never gave out a single card! I always handed out at least
five at a time and sometimes more. I still look at my business
cards as "lottery tickets." The first job I get from the batch
pays for all of them so the rest can pay off huge. If they get
thrown in the trash - Who cares? There are thousands more where
those came from.
5. Any time I would meet someone in the construction trades I
would hand them a stack of cards. I hand them to people that are
standing next to me in line at the Home Depot or that are
pumping gas across from me at the fuel pumps. I get questions
like "What are these for?" or "What do you want me to do with
these?" and I just simply say "You may not need my services now
but when you do, you'll know who to call." At the same time I am
thinking "I don't care what you do with them, they were
basically free and the fact of the matter is that I get hundreds
of calls from people that say "Remember Me?" "I met you at the
Exxon Station or at parent teacher's night." Or "John Smith gave
me your card and said I should call you" yet I have never heard
of John Smith. Or "I've got your business card on my desk and I
don't know where it came from but I need your services." I
simply hand tons of my business cards out to people and the
calls roll in.
6. I buy a mailing list of contractors from a list broker and I
simply put three business cards in an envelope and mail a
thousand envelopes at a time. I do not put an expensive brochure
or a flyer, I simply put three business cards in and I get
hundreds of calls and referrals from the mailing,
I now get hundreds and hundreds of calls from my existing
customers and my yellow page ads but I still use business cards
more than I ever have. I now have five trucks and seven
employees and giving out business cards in the same fashion as I
have described above is part of their job description. They have
all seen the power of business cards and that business cards
ensure each of our survival and actually gives them a good
feeling knowing that they got a specific customer. If I contact
a new customer and they happen to mention that one of my men did
not give them a stack of business cards then I immediately
contact the employee, ask them if it is true and explain to them
that it is part of their job, then I hand them a big box of
business cards and tell them not to let it happen again, ever.
© Copyright 2005 Affordable Concrete Cutting, Inc.
About the author:
Robert Short is a seasoned article writer and an expert on
search engine optimization and linking. He is responsible for
ranking our local service company's website at number one on all
major search engines for more than a dozen keyword terms. Our
website now generates as much revenue as our main service
business. Visit our website for more articles on linking and
webmaster resources
http://www.affordableconcretecutting.com/construction_seo.html
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