Promoting Our Photography – Death Of A Business Card
Post Excerpt:
Promoting Our Photography – Death Of A Business Card. Is the standard business card really useful for promoting photography?
Sometimes I’m not the most organized person in the world (well, okay, more than sometimes), and I actually ran out of business cards a few weeks ago. Since we recently moved the studio from our home to a retail space late last year, I needed to redesign the business card anyway, and have been trying to get around to it.
So, this week, I sat down at the computer and produced a new design that I was fairly happy with (it looks pretty, has all the right information on it, no spelling mistakes etc.), fully intending to send it off to the lab to be printed.
Then, this morning, I opened up the files for one last check, but a single thought stopped me in my tracks:
“Is the business card, as we’ve all come to know and love it, dead or dying?”
What could prompt such a thought? After all, everyone is supposed to have a business card, right? Where would society be without those credit-card sized pieces of paper that we love to swap like trading cards?
The vision I had that stayed my hand was simply nothing more than handing someone a card and watching it vanish into a pocket or bag, never to be seen again.
What possible use is a business card that can be forgotten about so easily?
Then I thought more about the purpose of the card itself. Why give it to someone in the first place? Is it to encourage them to call us to create a family portrait, photograph a wedding or their high-school senior? Or, is it to lie in wait until they decide they need a photographer and it can magically influence their thoughts to call us?
Thinking back, I think I can honestly say that I believe the number of jobs I’ve received directly from the act of handing out a business card has been about zero.
Why is this? Are my business cards that bad? Did I put the wrong phone number on them?
No (at least I hope not)…
Is it because photography is an emotional purchase? There’s nothing emotional about hiring a plumber, for example, (except for the feeling of panic one gets at watching gallons of water pouring through a ceiling), so we can easily grab the nearest business card or scan the Yellow Pages to find someone (let’s face it – anyone!) that can serve our immediate plumbing needs.
But (with a few possible exceptions), photography is not an emergency need. Emotions and other intangible forces come into play when someone decides they would like to hire a photographer. A business card that fulfills only the function of giving name, rank and serial number doesn’t do anything to encourage someone to call unless they are already familiar with our work.
So, I’m trying an experiment…
Instead of a standard business card, I’m going to try something a little different. The new “business card” is now really a bookmark, about 2×8 inches in size. Now, with all that extra real estate, I can include an emotional personal message about my approach to photography and what it means to me, as well as some sample images.
It should be interesting to see what happens when I give this thing to people – it’s too large to slip into a wallet and is not so easily forgotten. Maybe it will make it to that most hallowed of places where useful information is stored – the door of the family refrigerator!
I’d be interested to hear of other innovative approaches to the standard “business card”. I’m sure there are many indeed, most of them far more inventive than the one I’ve described here. Please feel free to share them via comments.
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I use a “foldover” design, so that I have extra “realestate” to include several photographs on the card. It stands out well in a pile of cards, because laid out flat it’s twice as big as all the others, and folded over, it’s going to knock the pile down (due to it’s tendency to want to un-fold), or it’s going on the top of the pile.
Additionally, in it’s folded state, it fits into regular business-card-sized pockets, which exist with near ubiquity.
I'm keeping business cards around, but switching to a postcard with several photos as my primary handout. Test drove some I printed up real quick at Ritz, and the response has been positive. Going to get some real ones printed up with some back messaging as well.
I guess it all depends upon what function you feel your business card serves. If your card is intended as a sales tool, or even advertising, I would at least partially, if not totally agree with you. But my business card is a reminder and a little insurance that when a potential client wants to reach a photographer, and specifically wants to reach me, that they have my contact information. Whether that is a traditional card, a postcard, or a bookmark is immaterial. That being said, there are different types of recipients; those who want, expect and need a card that is in a traditional format, and those who are much less traditional. I get much of my business from person to person networking and referrals. So handing out my card when I meet someone is essential and I hope that they will find it when they want to reach me.
Adrien