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The humble business card remains as relevant as ever. Despite the number of ways to connect digitally, most real estate agents, like many other professionals, still keep a stack of business cards on hand to distribute to potential clients and contacts.

This simple piece of card is actually a great marketing opportunity. Tactile, interesting cards go a long way to making you memorable to those you come into contact with. A simple business card can’t tell the whole story, but it can help create the right impression (although a diamond encrusted card might be going overboard…) 

With so little space to play with – a traditional business card is just 90 millimetres wide and 55 millimetres high – colours, fonts, wording and stock should be carefully selected to maximise the impact on those who receive it. Real estate is a traditional industry, and many agents prefer to play it safe with business cards. That’s fine, but even within limited confines there are ways to make your cards stand out.

1. Start by looking at cards you like, and thinking about why they appeal. Is it the luxurious feel of the paper they’re printed on? The style of the lettering? Premium finishings like embossing or foiling?

2. Engage a professional designer create it. It’s easy to go a cheap printer and get hundreds of cards for under $20, but the inferior results will make little impression on those you hand them to. It seems like a simple task, but it takes a talented professional to breath new life into an age old concept. 

3. There aren’t many elements that go towards making up a business card, so each should be considered carefully. Thick, glossy card feels far more prestigious than lighter paper; certain types of fonts are dated and overused. Your brand colours should drive the colour scheme. Foiling the logo, embossing text or even using spot gloss to highlight particular elements of the design can create a real impression.

4. Keep the design simple and avoid cramming too much onto a small space. Typically, the logo is the main visual element, and it’s best to include only the most essential contact information. For most people, that’s name, job title, company, mobile number and email address. If they’re relevant, you might also consider adding a landline number, street address or post office box number, fax number, website and social media handles. 

5. It should go without saying that the final design must be totally on-brand and and fit easily with the rest of your stationery and marketing collateral. Remember that on occasion it will be presented alongside things like pre-listing kits, so it must work both as a standalone item and as part of a larger whole. All staff business cards should be totally uniform – if you have them on display together at front reception, extremely minor differences in colour, layout and size become painfully obvious. High production standards are essential.

If you’re looking for some more off-the-wall ideas for your business cards, try these:

• Cards that open up, like small brochures
• Cards made of plastic, wood or other materials (like a thin rectangle of wood for a carpenter)
• Cards in a non-traditional shape (within reason – it should still be small enough to slot easily into a pocket or wallet).

You can see some truly unusual business card examples here.

How do you make your business cards stand out?