Know How to Print Out Cards for Your Boutique Business
If you think that handing out elegant business cards is irrelevant in today’s business environment, think again. It has, in fact, become even more important because brands have become more image-centric. With the popularity of Instagram, Facebook, and other social media accounts, you need to be conscious about the image that you are portraying as a brand. If you will hand over a poorly-designed business card that’s printed on thin paper, what image do you think will be left in the minds of your clients or potential customers? They will most likely think that you are offering poor-quality products or services as well. To prevent this from happening, it does pay to invest in thick business cards or fancy business cards, especially if you are in the creative industry. Here, we will delve a bit deeper into how you can print out elegant business cards if you are a boutique business owner.
What is a Boutique Business, Anyway?
What exactly is a boutique business? Basically, boutique business owners sell specialty or high-end products in a very limited amount. If you built a brick-and-mortar boutique, you might specialize in selling evening dresses and casual wear, or bridal gowns. It doesn’t necessarily have to be clothing – selling any line of specialized products will make your business fall under the boutique category. There are also boutique businesses with purely online instead of physical stores.
If you are a boutique business owner, it pays to keep your space and inventory small. That’s actually the appeal of boutique businesses – the limited products make it easier for customers to select what they want. If you give them a practically endless selection, it is more difficult for them to choose and they might end up not purchasing anything at all. If the items are difficult to find, you can build a niche market for yourself and they will keep on coming back to the store to buy your items or pay for your services. Once your boutique business is up and running, continue catering to your niche market and buy inventory or offer the services that’s specifically suitable for them.
Elegant Business Cards for Your Boutique Business
Whether your boutique business is up and running or if you are still on the start-up stages, it is important to design elegant business cards that will suit the image that you want to portray as a business. Since you are catering to a specific clientele, you need to design the business card in such a way that it appeals to them.
If you are specializing in bridal dresses, for example, go for 32pt business cards with a white linen, soft touch suede, or silk laminated finish. The thicker then business card is, the more impressed your bridal customers would be. For really fancy business cards, go with 16-pt. metallic ink, or raised gold foil in gold, silver, or copper. Weddings are a grand occasion, so they deserve nothing but an equally grand business card as a representation.
On the other hand, if your boutique business has a more niche clientele, you can pick thick business cards that go with your logo’s design. If you have a bold logo, you can go with spot gloss business cards where a specific area of the car is glossy while the other areas have a matte finish. You can further customize thick business cards by going for the rounded corner option, painted edge, or a three-layer black core option.
How to Look for the Best Elegant Business Cards Printing Company
Investing in well-designed, thick business cards is a must if you are a boutique business. You might think about printing the cards yourself, but there is no matching the quality of professional printing companies. Here are a few tips on how you can look for the best printing company to order fancy business cards from:
When you are launching a print promotional campaign, ultra thick business cards are not the only things that you need to print. You should also think about including brochures, flyers, banners, notepads, letterheads, and postcards. When looking for a printing company, you can take your pick from digital printers and offset printers. What’s the difference between the two?
Digital printing companies use desktop printers to deliver the goods, be it 100 pieces business cards or 200 pieces flyers. Although they can do a pretty good job of printing business cards in small batches, offset printing is still the better choice if you want professional-looking results and speed.
Offset printing companies use state-of-the-art printing presses with colour correction technology. This means that the prints have more vivid colours and sharpness. Offset printers can also handle complex printing jobs. Let’s say that you want ultra thick business cards with a painted edge for your boutique business. This is not something that can be handled my most digital printers. Silk or luster laminated cards are other examples of complex printing jobs that offset printers are better at handling. Once the process has been set, you can also rely on offset printers to do a speedy job of it for you. You can print hundreds or even thousands of business cards and have it delivered straight to your doorstep within 24 hours.
There are different sizes of business cards available. The standard US size is 2” x 3.5”. European size is 2.125” x 3.375”; square business cards measure 2.5” on all sides; while slim skinny business cards measure 1.75” x 3.5”. With such small space available, customers will notice even the tiniest flaw on your card! If you spelled the street address wrong, it will painfully stand out because of the concise information that the card contains.
When printing ultra thick business cards, pay attention to even the smallest details. Your logo will most likely be included so make sure that it’s drawn properly on the surface. Use the right font and font size, and decide on the colors that will blend with the logo. How much information do you want to include in ultra thick business cards? If you only have an online store, there is no need for you to include your office address. If your business is mostly online, make sure to engage customers by including your website, email address, Facebook page, and official Twitter handle or Instagram name.
If you must include a photo or an illustration in your business card, make sure that it looks professionally shot or drawn. Match the overall design with the thickness of the paper and the finish. You can also go for special add-on finishes like raised gold foil, foil, raised spot gloss, spot gloss, metallic ink, rounded corners, painted edge, or three-layer black core.
- Check on the quality of service and experience.
A good printing company to order thick business cards from is one that can deliver good quality service. Do they quickly reply to inquiries? Do they have good client testimonials on the site? If they have social media accounts, do they get mostly good reviews? When it comes to length of experience, how long have they been in the printing industry? Aside from elegant business cards, do they also print brochures, notepads, letterheads, and novelty promotional items?
- How about the costs and turnaround time?
Of course, you also need to take costs into account. Make a comparison of the rates offered by different printing companies. How much will they charge you for 100 pieces of 32pt business cards with a silk laminate finish? Does company A charge a higher or lower fee for the same printing job compared to company B?
- Other things to look for.
If it’s your first time dealing with a specific printing company, look for a reprint guarantee in case they fail to deliver the goods within the promised time. Similar to when you are taking advantage of any type of service, there should be a guarantee that you will be delivered what is promised as a customer. Also check on how long they have been in the business, where their printing facilities are located, and if they offer tools that you can use to design your 32 pt business cards.
There are companies which provide online tools or downloadable templates that customers can use when designing ultra thick business cards. What’s good about this feature is that you will save on costs – there’s no need for you to hire a professional graphic designer to do it for you. When going for the DIY or do-it-yourself option, however, make sure that you already have a professional-looking logo because this is what will be incorporated in all of your printed promotional products.
Distributing Elegant Business Cards
Once you already have your hands on brown kraft 32 pt business cards for your organic food boutique business, how exactly should you distribute them? It will be great if you can distribute ultra thick business cards during trade shows, public assemblies, and similar events where there are a lot of people attending. Bring those fancy business cards with you when going out because you will never know when you might run into a potential customer, client, or even business partner.
If you have a brick-and-mortar store, display those fancy business cards near the counter and encourage customers to get one to give to their friends and family. You can also include a business card in every receipt, packaged product, gift to suppliers, mailers, etc. When sending out postcards, include a business card to let customers know exactly how to get in touch with you. If you are printing rack cards, there are sizes which come with the detachable business card option. This is a creative way of getting your contact information across to a wider audience.
Use Boutique Business Cards as Part of Your Overall Print Promotional Campaign
You may have the best-looking business card in the market but if you will not get it into the hands of those who need to know about your business, then all your printing efforts will be wasted. Before even thinking about designing a business, create a draft of an overall print marketing campaign. You may also want to consider printing brochures, flyers, notepads, letterheads, and similar promotional materials.
More importantly, your print marketing campaign should work alongside a strategic digital marketing campaign. You may have customers who are old school and traditional, but most people have their sights on digital content. If you don’t have a website – unless you’re a mom-and-pop establishment – your business might as well not exist.
In the end, it’s all about blending the traditional with the digital. With the help of well-designed business cards, you can have a physical representation of what you are all about as a brand. This will make people notice your boutique business, and contribute to your growth and increase in customer base, as well as profits.
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