Tips for Designing Sticker and Capture Business Cards

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What's the purpose of a business card design? In essence a business card is supposed to do these three things:

1. 1. Make a positive and lasting impression on a contact.
2. 2. Serve as a placeholder to remind that person of your who you are and what you do.
3. 3. Convey your basic contact information so contacts can get in touch with you to do business.

There many successful traditional business cards out there that do a great job of meeting all three criteria above. However , there are two unique sticky business card formats out there that go above and beyond regular cards and do a much better job of meeting each of these three criteria.

I am talking about printing a sticker business card or a capture business card. With either of these two formats, you can be sure that your card will make a big impression and stick around (literally) as a placeholder until the person contacts you.

Below I will give a quick description of the sticker and capture business card formats. I'll also provide some design and marketing tips for getting the most out of each of these formats.

Sticker Business Cards

A sticker business card prints flat just like a normal business card, but it has a peel-off back that sticks to almost any surface. Here are some tips for getting the most out of a sticker business card format:

• Since the format of the card is engaging, interactive and fun, make the design exceptional too! I don't normally recommend using full-bleed photographs and illustrations, but I do think that full-bleed images can work in the background of a sticker business card format. Don't be afraid to break some of the rules of traditional business card design to make this unique format stand out even more!
• For a normal business card, you design the card thinking someone will be holding it in their hand to look at it. When designing a sticker business card, think about what the card will look like when it's stuck to a wall, filing cabinet, fridge or bulletin board. You may want to punch up the fonts to a larger size or emphasize VIP information, like your URL, so that it's legible from further away.
• One of the only drawbacks to printing a sticker business card is that you lose the potential to design the back of the card. One way around this hurdle, is to print two sticker versions that relate to each other in an interesting way. For example, you could have an illustration that continues from one card to the other, or make one card more contact information-intensive and one card more design-intensive.

Capture Business Cards

Capture business cards look regular from the front, but on the back they have three permanent peel-able labels. Some printing vendors will offer capture plus cards, which have two reposition-able labels on the back. Here are some tips for getting the most out of a capture business card format:

• Be sure to repeat any VIP information both on the front and on the back labels. For example, if you only put your telephone number on one of the back labels, and someone peels it off, they won't be able to then find your number on the card itself. So put the logo, company name, your name and contact information on the front of the card at the very least. Then you can repeat any of this information on a back label too.
• Capture cards are great vehicles for driving traffic to a website. If you've got a landing page set up for a promotion or a new product, then print a QR barcode or landing page url on the back label. Also include an identifier on the back label, like your company name or logo, so folks can remember what the QR code or URL is for. When you give someone the capture business card, they can stick the label by their computer or phone so that the next time they go online, they can check out the QR code or URL.
• Use labels for easy access to important information. Maybe you can print an 800 number for customer support on the label? Or you can print a sales or order telephone number to encourage purchasing. Another great tactic is to print event schedules or event reminders that people can stick on their calendars. You can even print blank reminder labels that with spaces where people can fill in appointment information and stick to a calendar.

The possibilities for designing and marketing with sticker and capture business cards are endless! Have you used these card formats or do you plan on using them soon? What design tips or questions do you have to share?

Featured photo credit: misocrazy