Business Card Holder - A Simple, Effective and Inexpensive Marketing Strategy | Small Biz Marketing Specialist
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Business Card Holder – A Simple, Effective and Inexpensive Marketing Strategy

Wow! Sometimes you just need someone to pinch you to wake you up that marketing does not all need to be done online, even these days. In this episode, “Small Business Stacey” and “Digital Dave” share a simple, effective, inexpensive way to get your business cards into tons of people’s hands. You won’t believe the results of implementing this simple strategy.

Episode Transcript:

Stacey: Small business owners are always looking for an inexpensive way to generate leads. When they think quote/unquote, “Inexpensive,” they tend to think going online and paying pennies per click for online advertising. But the reality is, it’s very difficult today to get pennies per click in the online world. Well, Digital Dave and I in our coffee and smoothie business, we have found a way to literally get pennies for a lead, and we’re going to share that strategy with you today. Ready Digital Dave?

Dave: I am ready Stacey.

Stacey: The strategy is taking something as simple as a business card, and not necessarily handing those out one by one, but by placing a card holder on a vehicle so people can help themselves to a business card. Now, I want to give credit where credits due. Dave was the mastermind who came up with this brilliant idea, so I’m going to let him tell you a little bit more about how that came to be.

Dave: Thank you Stacey. I want to start off by asking Stacey a question. We just reordered business cards a few days ago for our coffee and smoothie business. Stacey, how many cards did you order, and how much did it cost you?

Stacey: I ordered a box of 1,000 cards, and it cost me $32.

Dave: Okay, so 1,000 cards for $32, that’s roughly 3.2 cents per card. Now, I want to talk about this long lost non online form of marketing. The business card holder, and adding these to your vehicles. Particularly if you have vehicles that stand out. That are wrapped, or have your name on the side of it. It’s a very non obtrusive way to market. You put these business card holders on the side, and we usually put them on both sides depending on which vehicle it is. And we just fill them with cards. What ultimately happens as you saw in the previous video, is that people come up, and they take all the cards. When you think about it, think about this as a form of marketing, just like you think about pay per click. We’re literally giving out a card to somebody. I consider that to be a click, for 3.2 cents.  Now, the card holders cost about $10 a piece for each card holder. We’ll just take our two trucks, our two big trucks that we drive, do our food trucks in. That’s $20. Our total cost for 1,000 business cards, or 1,000 clicks, is $52. That’s 5.2 cents a click. Now, here’s the thing that a lot of people don’t consider. It works. People call, they actually use these cards. They go online, they tell us all the time when we ask where they heard of us, they’re like, “Oh, we grabbed one of your cards off your car.” This is a very simple strategy that again, I think just got lost over time. Non digital strategy for marketing that a lot of people who have mobile, who are mobile with their business, should be adding to their business to bring in new customers.  Stacey, do you have any stories of anybody who’s contacted us, and specifically said where they found us, and how much that job was for, how much money came in from that?

Stacey: Yeah, absolutely. People will usually tell me where they heard of me from, and very often they will say, “Oh, I saw your vehicle in a parking lot, and I grabbed one of your cards.” Or if they don’t tell me I always ask. I would say maybe one out of eight tell me that they’ve gotten the business card. That business card brings in an average catering job for us is over $500.

Dave: Wow, wow.

Stacey: Yeah.

Dave: Right.

Stacey: For me to pay, what did you say? 3.2 cents for that business card to get over a $500 catering job, that I never would have gotten otherwise because they just pulled out that card. I never probably would have met that person, that person in person to hand them a business card. I certainly wouldn’t have paid 3.2 cents per click to be bidding on it in online advertising. We do some online advertising, and it is very expensive for coffee and smoothie catering. It’s very competitive.

Dave: I was just going to say. I think the last time I looked for coffee catering, we were paying $2.50 per click. $2.50 per click, when I could put 1,000 business cards on my car and pay 3.2 cents. It’s a very, very cost effective way to market your business.

Stacey: Yeah, I always encourage my clients to integrate online and offline marketing. If you’re finding that it’s expensive to compete online, this is such an inexpensive strategy to incorporate offline marketing, and you will see results. Don’t be surprised if you’re filling your business card holder every single week, ’cause we are.

Dave: Just like you saw in the videos. Again, you can get these business card holders. A lot of people … They’re not easy to find anymore. I found the last batch on Ebay, so you may want to look on Ebay. I think they were about $10, maybe $11, maybe a little more a piece. It really doesn’t matter. They generally last for years. I mean, I think the ones we’ve had on our trucks have been on there for at least a couple two or three years. If you think about it, it’s again, just a wonderful way to pass your cards out in a non threatening manner. People a lot of times won’t come up, approach you and ask you for your business card. But if your truck is just sitting there, you can watch them, and they’ll walk over and pull one out. It’s actually kind of funny.  Thanks for joining us today.

Stacey: Yep.

Dave: Again, this is the business card holder, the actual real business card holder. Not to be confused with the digital business card, which was in one of our previous episodes.

Speaker 3: This podcast was brought to you by “Small Business Stacey”, the Small Biz Marketing Specialist. Want to grow your business more in the next 30 days than you have in the past three months? Get your free marketing plan at SmallBizMarketingSpecialist.com. That’s Small, B-I-Z, Marketing Specialist dot com.

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About Stacey Riska

Stacey Riska, aka “Small Business Stacey” is a serial entrepreneur who is passionate about saving small business and rebuilding Main Street. She helps small and local business owners become a #SmallBizMarketingWiz by teaching them marketing strategies that get MORE: MORE leads, MORE customers/clients, MORE sales, and MORE money. Stacey is the founder of Small Biz Marketing Specialist, THE go-to place for marketing tips, techniques and strategies that get results. Stacey is also the creator of the Daily Deals for Massive Profits Training Program, an online video training program that teaches small and local business owners how to use daily deal sites like Groupon to skyrocket their business growth and get massive profits. In this program she teaches from experience, as it was the key strategy that transformed her coffee and smoothie business from being $500K in debt to a 7-figure profitable business. When not saving the small business world, she enjoys sipping red wine, eating chocolate (who doesn’t!) and spending time with her amazing husband.

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Additional Resources:

10 Ways For Small Businesses To Dominate Local Markets

How To Woo Millennials To Your Small Business

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About the Author smallbizmarketing

Stacey Riska, aka "Small Business Stacey" is a serial entrepreneur who is passionate about saving small - and not so small - businesses one marketing plan at a time. She helps business owners become a #SmallBizMarketingWiz by teaching them marketing strategies that get MORE: MORE leads, MORE customers/clients/patients, MORE sales, and MORE profit. Stacey's in-demand "Small Biz Marketing Success Coaching and Mastermind Program" is transforming the businesses - and lives - of those who want wealth, freedom, and market domination. Her highly acclaimed book "Small Business Marketing Made EZ" lays out the 6-simple-step plan to get your marketing into ACTION - literally and figuratively. Stacey is also the creator of Cups To Gallons, the place where independent coffee, smoothie, juice bar, ice cream, dessert and snack shop owners go to learn how get into lucrative catering so they stop selling by the cup and start selling by the gallon. In this program she teaches from experience, as it was the key strategy that transformed her coffee and smoothie business from being $500K in debt to a 7-figure profitable business. When not saving the small business world, she enjoys sipping red wine, eating chocolate (who doesn't!) and spending time with her amazing husband.

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