Effective estate agent business cards

In a business like estate agency, where only a minority of companies have a true USP or a locked-in local market, mostly you will find yourself competing on just two things: branding and price.

There's nothing wrong with offering a fair deal, but competing on price risks turning into a dangerous game of 'who has the deepest pockets'. Competing on brand is much more fund. Having such a clearly defined company message that people recognise you as the obvious choice for them.

I recently blogged about how email signatures can be a valuable part of this, but older communication methods still count too. For instance, business cards still help to cement a face-to-face meeting and can almost feel like a little gift when done well!

Here are 10 things that every estate agent's business card should have:

1. All the basics obviously: company name, logo and address, your name, job title, phone number(s) and email address.
2. Website and blog links.
3. Twitter/Facebook account names (or at least the icons).
4. A succinct branding statement of what you do and why people choose you to do it.
5. One strong colour (apparently coloured business cards are kept for longer!).
6. An extra reason to keep the card printed on the reverse (a promotion or links to useful guides hosted on your website perhaps).
7. Your face.
8. Your areas of operation (if you need more space, you can always use a folding card).
9. Opening times.
10. And, of course, a call to action!

The real secret to good branding is showing lots of attention to detail at every customer touch point.