Business cards are direct promotional tools for offline marketing. When you build your brand image and promote your business, nothing is better than sharing your business cards with people to gain prospective customers.
However, for a business card to be effective, you must ensure that it is well designed and contains the right info. This is because a business card helps build your impression.
About 39% of people don’t do business with a brand with a poor-looking business card. Therefore, you must start with the design of your business card.
Did you know that 68% of small business owners consider business cards to be “very impactful”? This is because business cards are the quickest and simplest form of sharing your contact details. Thus, you must know where to leave your business cards to generate maximum leads.
Things to Consider When Distributing Your Business Cards
Before distributing your business cards, you must consider a few factors. For example, where can you find potential clients, business partners, employees, or employers for your industry?
Suppose you own a fast food restaurant. You wouldn’t leave your business cards at a gym or a yoga studio because it is paper waste.
About 80% of business cards passed to another person are thrown away within seven days. Therefore, you need to understand your business niche and distribute your cards accordingly to generate maximum leads.
Importance of Leaving Business Cards in Places
While digital media makes it easier for people to distribute their business cards, traditional cards still hold a more significant impact.
Traditional business cards are the most straightforward way of direct marketing. Therefore, you must keep a handful of business cards when you visit places.
Here are some reasons why leaving business cards in various places is a clever business marketing strategy.
- Business cards can provide your prospective customers with your contact details.
- Customers can keep the card to contact you anytime.
- Business cards are your physical impression and stay with the customers who sometimes end up contacting you.
- Business cards allow customers to discover solutions and come to you when ready.
- Business cards are multifunctional. They add value to your business by creating a good impression and promoting brand awareness.
Best Places to Leave Your Business Cards
Before you leave a stack of cards somewhere, you must ensure that the place is capable of helping you generate leads.
For example, libraries, coffee shops, and banks are some excellent places to leave your business cards. Here are some ideas for leaving your business cards.
Library
The library is an obvious choice because it has a bulletin board or a small area for promoting products and services in the community.
If your neighbourhood has a library, you must have seen community meetings where people promote their local businesses. This is why the library is a good choice for leaving your cards.
Moreover, people also announce trade fairs and small events to promote their products. Since the library is a home for business owners looking to promote their brands, you can leave your business cards here. People can stumble across your card and contact you for your services whenever needed.
Estate Agents
If you provide commercial services to building owners, then it’s wise to leave your business cards with estate agents. They often have a list of buyers, renters, and commercial customers.
If your business is also associated with apartment leasing, you can leave the cards with the estate agents. You can ask for permission from a front desk agent and leave a handful of cards at the property. Then, when people who are interested in this industry niche will stumble across your cards, they may contact you for your services.
Banks and ATMs
Leaving your business cards at the bank is one of the most clever ways of offline marketing to well-off people. Leaving your cards at a local bank will help you capture an audience that needs money management or finances-related work.
Moreover, banks have a high influx of traffic. These people come from different backgrounds. All sorts of people are associated with banks and ATMs.
When you leave your business cards there, some prospective customers will likely contact you. Moreover, banks also help promote local businesses. For example, asking a front desk manager to distribute your business cards will help promote your business in the local community.
You can also keep a handful of business cards at the lobby tables where people stand in queues. They may look at your business details on the card and find something helpful.
Hotels
Hotels often help promote local businesses. Even if they discard your cards, it is an excellent idea to always leave a handful of them at the hotel.
Hotels often have big conferences, trade fairs, or other events. As a result, your business will likely get noticed if you leave your cards at the hotel desks or the bar.
Some hotels also display activity brochures. Therefore, leaving your business cards at the hotel can help promote your business by generating leads.
Yoga Studios and Gyms
Gyms, yoga studios, and personal training centres are excellent business promotional destinations. In addition, yoga studios and gyms are familiar places where employees, employers, business partners, and entrepreneurs can be found.
Many people hang out in these places after their workouts. Thus, there are high chances of generating business leads there. But before you leave your business cards at the gym, you must ask the manager or the owner.
Trade Shows or Business Conferences
Trade shows are fantastic for promoting local businesses. If your community holds a trade fair or a business conference, it is best to set up a business booth.
But customers do not stand at the booth for hours. Thus, you must keep hundreds of cards so customers can instantly take a card. In addition, if your business card is attractive, the customers are more likely to contact you for your services.
Besides this, you can also give out brochures at business conferences and staple your business cards with them. In addition, you must give a handful of cards to your existing clients.
They can attend trade fairs and conferences to promote your business. You can reward them with discount codes or incentives for introducing your business to new customers.
Malls and Food Courts
Malls and food courts have a diverse crowd. Thus, finding a secondary market here for your business is easy. In addition, malls have various spots where people hang out.
Leaving your business cards in such places allows many people to stumble across them. For example, if you leave your business cards at a food court where people are waiting to get their food, they can stumble across your cards and idly read them.
If someone needs your service, they can take the card to consult you later. Besides this, the mall has many other spots where you can find something related to your business niche and keep your business cards at a counter.
Public Bulletin Boards
Many community centres, libraries, and other places have public bulletin boards. You can pin your brochure with business cards on these public bulletin boards. Some common places where you can display your cards include:
- Libraries
- Churches
- College Campus
- Community centres
- Shopping malls
- Grocery stores
- Gyms
- Recreational centres
Waiting Rooms
The waiting room has a captive audience. Thus, you can leave your business cards in waiting rooms. During a long wait, people often flip through brochures, magazines, or cards.
You can use this opportunity to promote your business. Some common waiting rooms with high traffic are the following.
- Hospital waiting rooms
- Airport lounges
- Bus stations
- Train stations
- Auto repair shops
- Employment agencies
- Real estate offices
- Doctor’s waiting room
- Vet’s offices
- Restaurants
- Hair salons
- Retirement homes
- Local government buildings
Industry Specific Places to Leave Business Cards
Every business has a different target market. So if you want to make the most of your business cards, you must devise a clever strategy to leave business cards in industry-specific places.
For example, leaving your business cards at real estate offices is a perfect choice if you’re working in furniture, home improvement, or interior decor-related niches. Similarly, if you want to promote your business amongst female clients, nail salons and spas are an excellent idea.
All you have to do is understand your business niche and how to attract prospective customers from industry-specific places before you leave your business cards. Then, for maximum leads, you must look into business card marketing strategies to bring more customers.
Final Words
Before leaving your business cards in place, you must understand your target audience. Next, you must find where you will find your prospective customers.
Once you figure out places where you can attract an audience through your business cards, you need to visit them. Talk to the front desk managers and leave a few cards to promote your business.
If your business cards are neat and attractive, they will easily catch the attention of your potential clients. Then, you have to devise clever strategies to market your business offline through the cards if you don’t want them to be paper waste.
Ready to decide on a business card? Have a look at our handpicked cards by Occupation or Design.