Business Cards for Bloggers – 8 Things Never to Forget

As bloggers, our marketing arsenals generally include email signatures, Facebook pages, Twitter timelines, but it’s crucial to have good old-fashioned business cards at hand for when you meet people offline. Even if you’re a new blogger, and/or don’t go to conferences yet, business cards are an important tool for introducing yourself to readers or potential partners. Here’s what to include on them:

1. Logo/Blog header

If you have a logo for your blog, or if it’s the same as your header, use this on your business cards; ideally you want the person with your business card to notice continuity when moving from looking at that to your blog. If you have an overarching company that includes your blog, among other things, use the logo for this company. For example, I use the logo for my media company on my business cards because I have multiple blogs within that business.

2. Your Blog’s Name & URL

Obvious, maybe, but even if your blog name is also your URL, I think you should include both on your business cards, not just the URL. And I always abbreviate the URL to be blogname.com (without the http://…..).

3. A Photo

If you’re a personal style blogger, this is a must (I love using moo.com for this and including a few different outfit posts on the backs of business cards). If you’re not a personal style blogger, I still think it’s a great idea to include a photo of yourself on your business cards. With a photo, your business card will stand out, and trigger in the recipient a memory of when/where they met you. You could use a personal photo instead of a logo if you’d like to, although including a logo generally looks more “professional” to most people.

4. Your Name

Sure, this seems like a given, but I’ve seen lots of business cards with just the blog name and not the person’s name on them; I’ve had to go to a person’s blog and look at their about page to find their name – if it’s even on there – if I want to send a follow-up email. Putting your name on your business card is an easy way to help your contacts remember it. And I don’t know about you, but I always remember faces – not so much names.

5. Contact Information

Email address!!! If you have multiple email addresses, use the most “professional” sounding one, NOT info@blogname.com or admin@blogname.com. Also, use yourname@blogname.com, not yourname@gmail.com. Please, when you’re creating email addresses for your blog make sure you have one with your name in it – others like info@ or whatever are okay too, for directing other correspondence, but in your email signature and on your business cards, your email address should ALWAYS be yourname@blogname.com.

6. Phone Number

I didn’t put my phone number on my business cards, but every time I give one out, I wish I had! I don’t just hand out cards willy nilly anymore, so the chances that I actually want the recipient to have my number are very high, and hate to have to pull out a pen to write my number on the back all the time.

7. Social Media Handles

I wouldn’t put every single social media account you have on your business cards, just the ones you are most active with. If you don’t use Google+ very much, don’t put it on there because you’ll be embarrassed when your contact goes to look you up and you haven’t posted in months…

8. Tagline

This is a short, one-sentence description of your blog/business. If you don’t have one already, come up with it NOW! A tagline is important for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is to provide a concise description of WHAT you focus on & WHY YOUR blog/business is relevant/important. It’s even shorter than an elevator pitch, and should describe what sets you apart from other bloggers. I put contact information, etc., on the front of my business cards and my tagline on the back.

This may seem like a lot of information to include on a little business card, but I’m always a fan of making it as easy as possible for someone to remember me, contact me and interact with me online. Having your tagline on your business card may make the difference between getting that next freelance or stylist job, for example. Just make sure to play around with formatting/font/etc., to make sure your card isn’t too cluttered (I ALWAYS use both sides). It should be an “extension” of your blog in terms of design and colors too, so keep that in mind when designing your business card.

I personally use GoPrint for my cards; it’s easy to use and inexpensive, but I also love moo cards for bloggers. And as I mentioned before, if you truly don’t have money for business cards, or need some in a pinch, hand-written cards or stamps on thick card stock can work as well – be creative!