If you’ve gone to the effort of creating bespoke, personalised and professional business cards, then you want to make sure lots of people read them, right?!
Giving out business cards is a fantastic marketing tool for a small business, as it allows you to reach a wide range of potential customers and create a personal connection. Giving out business cards can even go hand-in-hand with your digital marketing strategies.
We’ll go through some of the best places you can give out your business cards – ensuring you reach a vast audience and a wide range of demographics, so your lovely stack of cards isn’t left unused!
The Importance Of Getting Your Business Cards Out There
What’s the point in having bespoke business cards if you’re never going to give them out?! We’ve seen far too many business owners create business cards because they feel they need to (and they’re right about that), but then leave them unused in a pile on their desk.
A good business card is an extremely handy tool when used efficiently. It contains all your contact information in one place for people to refer back to whenever they need it. What’s more, good business cards get shown to others and shared between colleagues.
It’s really important you get your cards out into the world and into the hands of potential clients: they can take on a life of their own and spread organically far and wide.
What is the best way to distribute my business card?
The best way to distribute your business card will depend on the services you’re marketing as well as your target audience. Some companies mail business cards; others hand them out directly. We’ll go through the top 10 tips on where to give out your business cards below!
You’ll also find out if there are any methods that you seriously won’t enjoy doing, and discover methods that you really enjoy. Once you understand which avenues work best for your business and bring you more leads, you can target your efforts on these specific channels!
9 Top Tips On Where To Give Out Your Business Cards
Public noticeboards
Although everything appears to be done online these days, you’d be surprised at how many people still pay attention to public bulletin boards. They can be a great way to find a local audience for your business and target a demographic that might be slightly less tech-savvy.
You can usually find notice boards at local supermarkets, town halls, churches, public gyms, university or college campuses, community centres and even local town squares.
Distribute in busy shopping centres
Shopping centres are great at drawing in large, diverse crowds of people who are enjoying leisure time. This is important as often in shopping centres consumers aren’t in a rush, which leaves them with more time to discover your business card.
You could try to leave business cards in areas where people are likely to gather or loiter, such as food halls or seating areas. You could also contact shopping centres to see if you can leave some cards on the counter of small shops or food stalls: often local, non-competing businesses will be happy to help.
Give to previous clients
There’s no one better to advertise your business than happy customers! Why not reach out to previous clients and current customers and ask if they could take a business card or two to hand out to friends, family and colleagues who they think could be interested in your services.
If they were impressed with your business, they are usually happy to spread the word. You could even use referral incentives to reward clients who continuously send business your way.
Waiting rooms
I think we can all agree that waiting rooms are incredibly boring places, which make them ideal locations to target a captive audience who have plenty of time to pick up and read a strategically placed business card.
Why not try leaving a business card or stack in the waiting room at these places:
- Doctors surgery
- Dentist surgery
- Veterinary surgery
- Hospitals
- Train stations
Places that are specific to your industry
It’s worth having a long, hard think about who the key target market is for your business, and which spaces they are likely to occupy frequently.
For example, if your target market is relatively young and female, you may want to leave your cards in hairdressers, nail salons or college campus bulletin boards.
Alternatively, if you’re targeting an older demographic (say 60), you may want to leave your cards in churches, GP surgeries or on other public bulletin boards.
Public buildings
Public buildings such as visitor centres, tourism offices, tax offices, courthouses, city halls and churches can be great free places to promote your businesses services. If they’re publicly owned, it’s usually fine to place business cards here for free.
It’s important to try and target the public buildings that you think your target audience is likely to use, and tweak the locations you leave a business card in accordingly.
Leave inside relevant publications
Once you’ve got a good idea of the types of publication your target audience are most likely to pick up, you have the option to do something slightly cheeky: you can slip a business card into publications your audience is likely to read!
You can do this at libraries, bookstores, newsagents and even waiting rooms (free magazines, we see you). This gives your business card a strong chance at falling into the hands of people who could be interested in your products.
Target other small businesses
Building relationships with other small, local businesses is really important when you’re trying to build up a network as a business owner. Why not find local businesses related to your company (although not direct competitors), and offer to swap cards and promote each other’s businesses.
Alternatively, you could even pay local restaurants to hand out your cards to their customers, to spread the word even further.
Ask to leave your cards in a bank
Another place where people are likely to spend a lot of time as a captive audience is at their local bank. You could ask the bank manager if you can leave business cards in waiting places such as at cash cheque desks or on coffee tables. They may not oblige, but it’s definitely worth asking, just in case!
FAQs
Where are the best places that I can leave my personalised business cards?
Knowing where the best places are to leave a business card will require having a really good understanding of your target demographic.
Once you know this, you can choose the places that they are most likely to visit, as well as places that are likely to have captive audiences. Make sure however that you don’t break any city and state laws by leaving a business card in an illegal place.
Should I exchange business cards with other local business owners?
As a small business, it’s a great idea to exchange business cards with other local business owners! Small businesses can support each other’s businesses by sharing customer bases, as well as provide a great support network during tough times.
Is it a good idea to pay college students to help distribute my business cards?
Paying college students to distribute business cards can be a great way to reach different local campuses. They usually understand the best places on campus to hand out cards and best target fellow students.
However, if your services or products aren’t really targeted at students, this could be a waste of money for your business, as you’re unlikely to find other customers in this way.
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