Members TIMKEYS Posted January 16, 2012 Members Share Posted January 16, 2012 The secret to cards is to keep them simple so you dont have to keep updating them. band name. contact number. Typically a business card is handed out following a personal conversation. It could be someone on a break saying you guys are great do you do pvt gigs. you have made contact , follow up with the card. I invited a stranger to one of our shows on the boat in an elevator..... I gave him one of my personal cards at a show he came to. Got an email from him yesterday. the guy is from washington state. Odds are I will see him again because I think I talked him into a vacation on south padre. loved the band and the original songs. I layed a couple tracks on him..... without the card ,, the contact would have just gone up in thin air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Howie22 Posted January 16, 2012 Members Share Posted January 16, 2012 I wouldn't spend money on "extras" (special paper, multi-color, etc.) - a business card is there to give somebody contact information quickly and efficiently. Anybody truly interested in contacting you isn't gonna give a {censored} about whether or not the card was in any way a "premium" business card. I'll be the voice of dissent here. I spent the money to have a graphic designer put together a logo, design my business cards, and then have them printed at a reputable printer that they personally used and trusted. Premium cardstock, offset press printing (instead of digital printing), spot gloss detail, etc. They look EXTREMELY professional. My business cards, flyers, website, and press kit all have a cohesive design and layout. Remember, you are building a brand. To me, when any private business gives me a homemade or cheapo business card, I immediately begin to question how serious they are about their profession. If they aren't willing to spend the time, effort, and money to appear professional, then why would I assume that they would be willing spend the time, money, and effort to do a quality job? Now, I will say that this is just my opinion, and YMMV. Do I get more gigs with these nice cards than I would with business cards that cost me five dollars? I have no idea. However, people do notice them and I get a LOT of positive comments on them. Now, if I was in a startup band, no way I'd drop that kind of coin. However, I'm promoting myself as a solo act, so there's no worry that my band is going to break up or anything. I'm investing in me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RupertB Posted January 16, 2012 Members Share Posted January 16, 2012 well sure. Business cards are pretty much a must, IMO. Agreed. I get asked for a card once or twice at nearly every gig we play. Mine are homemade on Print Shop. Simple & unslick but effective. People often ask as they're leaving, so "can you wait until the break & I'll scratch it out on a cocktail napkin" usually means a missed opportunity. Best is putting them in a conspicuous place (near your tip jar?) where people can pick them up as needed. Name, cell #, e-mail, website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted January 17, 2012 Members Share Posted January 17, 2012 Someone sent me a MS Word template to make cards with.. what I like about it is that unlike the Avery templates and others I found, this one has the markers on the outline telling you where to cut them (I have one of those gridline slicer thingies lol) so it's a snap. It doesn't hurt that I work right next to our marketing dept. and have access to good printers and card stock. I will gladly email you the template, just PM me with your email addy, or reply here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kramerguy Posted January 17, 2012 Members Share Posted January 17, 2012 Worth adding:I ALWAYS give out these three things and it's been hugely successful: *When going into club to book, I give them one of our 7-page and bound press kits with all our band info, reviews, history, schedule, and other info.*I also staple my business card to the top corner of it, so they can't possibly miss the booking info*When we play a venue, I made a template for "table tents", which are basically twice the size of the business cards folded into a tent- We put 2-3 of them on every table and a couple dozen on the bar spread out, they have our logo, FACEBOOK addy, where to go to "rate us" (gig salad), and when we are playing next. Usually by the end of the night the table tents are mostly gone, which means some got tossed, but most got taken with people... and over the next several days after gigs, we get lots of FB hits. FB has also been by far the best social media.. as myspace never really worked for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted January 17, 2012 Members Share Posted January 17, 2012 It's hard to do it yourself and compete with the folks like Insta-Print purely in terms of "cost per card" once you factor in the cost of card stock (i.e., using Avery "business card" paper stock) and ink supplies (especially if you're using any sort of color). Printing stuff at home can nickel and dime you to death when it gets right down to it. THIS. It's so cheap to get good-quality custom business cards these days. Our two-sided card-stock cards cost were something like $40 for 1,000 or something ridiculously cheap. I'd spend more than that just on ink for my printer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kmart Posted January 17, 2012 Members Share Posted January 17, 2012 In case somebody looking for a good deal has missed it so far, the banner ad appearing regularly on top of this page from Vistaprint has some sort of 250 cards free special advertised... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Vito Corleone Posted January 17, 2012 Members Share Posted January 17, 2012 OT: are the banner ads region-specific? The banner ad currently up on my computer is for Charter Communications which just happens to be the local cable TV provider. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Small Stone Posted January 17, 2012 Members Share Posted January 17, 2012 We don't use business cards, but we had custom picks made with our name and website. The picks are white, so we can also write a phone number on the blank side. When people ask me the name of the band and what's our website, I pull out a guitar pick from my pocket and always get a "WOW! That's pretty cool! You guys have your own guitar picks???" I think a pick is more appropriate for a rock band than a business card... YMMV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratotastic Posted January 17, 2012 Members Share Posted January 17, 2012 In case somebody looking for a good deal has missed it so far, the banner ad appearing regularly on top of this page from Vistaprint has some sort of 250 cards free special advertised... The thing about Vistaprint is they nickel-and-dime the {censored} out of you. I just ordered 250 cards yesterday, came out to nearly $40. There's an upcharge for everything. Uploading your own design? Upcharge. Glossy? Upcharge. Black background? Upcharge. Front AND back? Upcharge. Want them actually shipped to you? Bend over (cheapest possible [2-week] shipping option was something like $11.) Can't blame them, I chose to spend the money and could have declined to do so, but all those "free" offers they advertise amount to basically 250 blank white pieces of {censored}ty paper, unshipped. The other annoyance is you have to click through a dozen or so "special offers!!!!!" pages where they try to sell you coffee mugs, banners, rubber stamps, magazine subscriptions, a website, etc. before you actually get to the checkout page. Highly annoying, but it's the devil I know, so I just do it. Just wanted to warn anyone thinking of using them for the first time. I will say, though, that they always do good quality cards. Stay away from the custom T-shirts though--I tried one and the logo burned off after one time through the dryer, lol. $30 up in smoke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kmart Posted January 17, 2012 Members Share Posted January 17, 2012 The thing about Vistaprint is they nickel-and-dime the {censored} out of you. I just ordered 250 cards yesterday, came out to nearly $40. There's an upcharge for everything. Uploading your own design? Upcharge. Glossy? Upcharge. Black background? Upcharge. Front AND back? Upcharge. Not saying that's not accurate, but these items would result in an upcharge from any printer I've ever worked with as well. Yeah, free gets you black ink on a white matte card. Whadayawantfornothing? Rubber bicuit? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members stratotastic Posted January 18, 2012 Members Share Posted January 18, 2012 Not saying that's not accurate, but these items would result in an upcharge from any printer I've ever worked with as well.Yeah, free gets you black ink on a white matte card.Whadayawantfornothing? Rubber bicuit? Of course--I just find all Vistaprint's "free" offers misleading. Even if you did get the most basic 'free' cards, you'd still end up spending more on shipping than you probably would to just walk into Kinkos or any print shop and have the same cards made there in person. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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