DON'T GET CAUGHT WITH YOUR CARDS DOWN!

By Ben Pedersen (c)2000

http://ProfitQuick.net

"I'm all out of business cards!" I tell the person I'm

having a conversation with at Peet's Coffee, the local

coffee house. "I'm all out! I'm still waiting for the

new cards to arrive."

It's a sad tale really. Another aspiring "netrepreneur"

marked as an amature because he hasn't a set of good old

fashioned business cards.

You see for me, everything I do is online. I promote

online, communicate online and of course, work online. I lurk

the web's finest forums. I publish a newsletter that's sent

via email. My entire business is ONLINE!

Back to the conversation at hand, I hand my "real life" chat

buddy a piece of scratch paper. On it I scrawl my URL and

the name of my ezine. I enlighten him to my ezine's

treasures and hope he'll subscribe. Chances are though he

wont. Most likely, he'll inadvertently lose or discard my

"home made" business card.

It's an oversight committed by many an online entrepreneur,

omitting the business card from their marketing arsenal.

We do *everything* online. In that, we tend to forget that

prospects exist OFFLINE too. They're presence is not

measured in "Bits N Bytes" as it is online. Rather, it's

"in the flesh." The sad tale is, this oversight could cost

us many valuable prospects and thus, profits.

In my case, this oversight in possessing business cards cost

me a subscriber. And subscribers are the "real-estate" of

any small ebusiness. That's a sad tale and I want you to

avoid it.

My plan?

It's simple.... GET SOME BUSINESS CARDS!

I hope you follow my lead and do the same. They're rather

inexpensive. Compared to how effective they can be, they're

*really* inexpensive, especially if you go a little further

and make your "business card campaign" an effective one.

So, how do you do that?

First, before you even design your business card, ask

yourself WHAT it's purpose should be.

Do you want your business cards to generate more visitors

for your website?

Do you want it to get more ezine subscribers?

Should it net you more sales?

This is an important step. Your business card should

have ONE and only one purpose.

In my case, I'd like my "card holders" to subscribe to my

ezine. And, I need to create the desire for them to do so

BEFORE the even arrive at my site.

I'll accomplish this by adding value before they arrive.

I'll place an exclusive offer on the card that isn't

available anywhere else.

With the above in mind, here's what I might put on my

business cards.

*The name of my ezine. Because I want them to subscribe to

my ezine, I'll place that on my business cards as the

"business name" or main title.

*The key benefit that my ezine, "The ProfitQuick eGazett"

has to offer. Of course I do this to create the DESIRE or

CURIOSUTY for one to actually visit my site.

*My name. After all, it IS a business card!

*eMail address. That's another no brainer, a way for the

prospect to contact me.

*A URL. Remember when I said that I would set up a special

page, an EXCLUSIVE offer for nobody other than the card

holder?

That offer is on a special page where the URL on my

business card should point.

 

TO CONCLUDE.........

In short, get some business cards. Save yourself from the

doom I had to face.

Business cards are cheap, simple and fun. If you stir in

some creativity like I did above, they can be very

effective!

The key point is this: Do what you feel you have to do to

make your prospect ACT. Your business card should do one

thing and that is to make your prospect take an action. In

my case, that action is to subscribe to my ezine. What's

the action you want your prospects to take?