Business Cards Can Be an Effective Means of Targeting Promotions

Too often organizations don't take time to best identify their audience. Sending promotional pieces just for the sake of doing so will lead to wasted resources, no matter how visually appealing or well-worded, as Emily Bennington points out.

There are numerous methods of pinpointing a targeted mailing list, but one of the simplest I've found is to look no farther than accumulated business cards. This assumes that you've been devoting time to network within professional settings that are relevant to your services.

Whenever we make face-to-face contact with prospects, this provides them with an introduction to who we are and what we do. Although some introductions go better than others, all have the potential to yield better results than a "cold" mailing, due to the value of the human element.

Realize that each networking opportunity is the start of a business dialogue process, and plan your collateral materials accordingly. Along this line of thinking, you might realize that the opportunities lost from pitching business cards may cost much more than printing and stamps.