Short Run Business Cards For Conferences and Events

							Short Run Business Cards For Conferences and Events

Having new business cards printed especially for a conference or trade
show is a growing trend these days. We no longer need to design a card
that will do for any and every situation and use them for years before
designing new ones. With the very good value short print runs available
from digital printers today, it is quite possible to tailor your business
cards to a particular event, or even to have several different ones
printed, to give out according to the particular interests of a new
contact.

So how should you go about customising your business cards for your next
trade show or networking event?

First of all remember that your cards represent your brand. Your design
must be recognisable and cohesive. So you should keep some design
continuity between your day to day cards and your individual event cards.

If you use double sided business cards it is very easy to keep the front
design the same and change what you print on the back of the cards
according to the event. Single sided cards are more challenging to design
in a way that varies the content while retaining the design integrity -
in this case you might think about varying a single element, so that the
customisation is subtle but effective.

So what would you want to change for a particular event?

Your URL
On your general business cards, your url probably is linked to your home
page. For a specific event you can link to the most relevant page for
that event. Say for example you are a general travel business and are
attending a specialist show on luxury, tailor-made holidays, you could
link directly to the high end section of your website.

Special offers
Businesses often design special offers for the duration of an event. You
will already have brochures and posters advertising this, but it makes
sense to present the offer on your business card too. Use your limited
space to best effect by linking to a web page that gives more details of
the offer either in a URL or as a QR code. Of course you would hope that
your card would be kept long after the event, so make sure that it stays
current by updating your special offer page regularly, so that the URL in
question leads to the latest of your promotions even long after that
particular event.

Taglines
Writing a tagline that is tailored to a specific clientele is much easier
when you design your cards just for that event. A witty, light-hearted
tagline would be appropriate at, for example, a bloggers conference,
while for a traditional corporate event you would present yourself more
formally.

There are many elements that you can change depending on the event in
question, adding pictures, special product info etc but do make sure that
your cards maintain your brand at all times with consistent design. Talk
to your specialist business card printers about designing short runs of
cards that fit in with your business branding.