Small Business Marketing Guide - DIY (do-it-yourself) BRAND MARKETING STRATEGIES to HELP YOU GROW YOUR BUSINESS

What is your business card doing for you? Is it a plain piece of card stock with your logo and contact information printed on it? This is okay for most companies, but for a startup, your business card is one of the easiest ways to spread word of your brand.

You could take Ji Lee’s simple–albeit a bit risky–approach:

This business card will certainly get you noticed, but perhaps not for the right reasons, depending on what shows up when your name or business is entered into a search engine.

What about a business card that’s so visually engaging that it gives you an opening for your elevator pitch–that bite-sized summary of what your company is all about?

This is what the back of a TrendHunter.com business card looks like. Each tile is an actual image from one of the innovations we’ve highlighted on the site. By pointing to and briefly describing some of our favorites (toupees for babies born without hair and the half-suit for telecommuters are my perennial picks), we’ve introduced our brand, given some teasers and ensured that our business card will stand out from the pack.

At Trend Hunter, we’ve featured a number of other innovative business cards to help businesses shine despite the gloomy economy, from edible business cards to plantable ones. All of them have two things in common: They accurately represent your brand and they allow you to give your elevator pitch every time you meet someone. That’s how to make your business card work for you.