Drawing a Blank

Business cards are one-size-fits-all affairs, revealing the same information for total strangers and your best customers. Pre-packaged, pre-designed and pre-determined. What a waste of an opportunity to connect.

I’m talking about blank business cards.

Marketers often talk about the greater impact of hand-written materials when compared to printed materials, yet every marketer I’ve ever met uses highly polished materials to project some kind of professionalism. But is that how you measure professionalism? I measure professionalism by what you’ve done up to now, not what you’ve spent on designers and printers. 

Do yourself a favor and buy some great blank business card paper stock and keep a pen handy. When you meet someone, make them feel a little special by taking the time to write out exactly what they need to know. It’s unique. It stands out. It’s powerful.

Of course, offering a solution that isn’t about throwing money at a problem may not ever be popular, but doesn’t that make the solution all the more unique?

Print This Email

From the Wall Street Journal (via Jack Baty): 

“Notice: It’s OK to print this email. Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of Americans. Working forests are good for the environment and provide clean air and water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. Thanks to improved forest management, we have more trees in America today than we had 100 years ago.”

It actually goes back a lot further than 100 years, depending on your source. The logic is pretty simple and proven with every passing year. Less use of paper = less financial incentive to properly manage forests = lots of bad things (less trees planted, more forest fires, increasing severity of forest fires). I’m a big fan of carpentry, paper and employment, so I’ve never had a problem with you printing my email.