When I got my first job, most business cards ended up in Rolodexes. Today though, many are scanned and destroyed almost immediately. One Sock has some great tips for creating business cards that are easily scanned:
- Putting half your contact details on the front and half on the back is irritating as it means the card has to be scanned twice. I don’t care what your corporate image people say — I’m your customer not them.
- Putting your details on more than one plane plays havoc with the scanner. Put your details either landscape or portrait. Not diagonals and certainly not both.
- Paying a premium for a funky shape or rounded edges is a waste of money as I am am going to rip up your business card up within 24 hours — not save it and sleep with it under my pillow.
- The scanner doesn’t like tiny business cards the size of my thumb. I don’t like them either as the text is normally tiny and difficult to read when I have to enter it manually.