Put Your Business Card to Work

I attended the State Bar of Michigan Annual Meeting this year, not as a lawyer seeking knowledge or as a lawyer/reporter covering events for a legal newspaper, but as a vendor/lawyer marketing my ghostwriting and editing services. I rented a space in the Vendor Hall, put out lots of candy and information about my services and talked to people all day. It was fun, interesting and enlightening. 

Many stopped by, some lured by my comment that it was safe since I was a ghost and really not there. Also I had dark chocolate, which, as we all know, is a health food. 

I had a basket to collect business cards as an entry into a drawing to win a free blog post. I collected a lot of cards. 

I was amazed at the differences in the cards. Many of the attendees, I suspect, had not looked at their card since it was created many years ago. Those cards had frayed edges, were simple, printed on cream card stock, with black print, no graphics or maybe a simple line dividing the lawyer’s name from the phrase Attorney at Law, possibly a firm name, with address, phone and fax numbers and that’s it. While that card worked quite well in times gone by, more information is needed in our modern world. 

Many cards included all-of-the above plus an e-mail and website address. Clients, we are told, find their lawyers on-line so we know we have to have a web presence and that presence is usually in the form of a website. Some of us have blogs so a blog link would be good. The problem is space. Business cards are small so all this additional information means using both sides of the card. 

More complicated cards included everything previously mentioned plus a logo. There were many designs including the initials of the firm, scales of justice or a sketch of the office building. Others included the whole name in a bordered box against a colorful background. Some added a symbol of the type of practice such as tree for an elder law attorney or two hands shaking for a mediation/arbitration practice. If you want to get some ideas, click on The Lawyer Business Card Fishbowl: Behind the Design for a view of the ordinary and the unusual. 

Then there are tag lines--since lawyers are now a “business” with a web presence, a blog and marketing departments--we are told to have a tag line. What is a tag line? It is a line that describes your business, tells your clients and your employees who you are and what you do. That’s difficult to do in a few words, however, here are some examples from my stash of cards:

• Your Appellate Advocates---Speaker Law Firm
• By Your Side---Nacht Law
• Legal Solutions for Life---Svoboda Legal, PLLC
• Resolving family matters for over 30 years---Paul H. Jacokes, PLLC
• A Reasonable Doubt at a Reasonable Rate--Derrick Etheridge, PLLC

For a quick look at what others are doing, check out JD Supra's article for top twenty tag lines.

The right card does make a difference. You might want to look at yours to see if it has all the information you want a client or prospective client to have at their fingertips. Maybe it’s time for an upgrade.