Most business owners and professionals will tell you that business cards are great ways to advertise on a personal level and establish contacts within an industry, but your cards must be eye-catching and legible. The best ideas for business cards focus on clarity: the text on the card should be easy to read, and there should not be a lot of text to begin with. Any images on the card should be clear and attractive, and directly relevant to your business. Other ideas for business cards include printing on high quality cardstock and choosing between a glossy finish and a matte finish.
Sometimes the best ideas for business cards are pertinent directly to the business you are in. Many photographers, for example, choose to print business cards that feature nothing more than the photographer's own images and contact information. This is essentially a mini-resumé for the photographer, as the card shows off his work and gives a potential client the relevant contact information for setting up an appointment. Other service-based business owners may choose to make their cards into coupons, offering a person a percentage off a product or service just for bringing in the card.
It is very easy for a person to simply forget about a card or throw it aside, so the best ideas for business cards focus on giving the person a reason to keep the card or use it. Restaurants sometimes feature business cards that are punch cards: a customer can bring it in when he or she eats at the restaurant, and the business will stamp the card or punch a hole in it every time. Once the customer eats at the restaurant a set number of times, the next meal is free. This is great way to ensure the customer keeps the card, and it increases the likelihood that the customer will refer others to your business.
Providing useful information on the card is another great way to make it memorable. Ideas for business cards that will keep the customer referring to it include reference materials such as a ruler or mathematics table; relevant information to a specific industry, such as the number for poison control; or snippets of information that will cause the cardholder to refer to your business website. The card should drive customers to your business; it should not simply be a card with a name and phone number on it.