Business cards for small business owners in the trades
What an electrician, plumber or builder should put on a card, what to leave off, and the one thing that turns a card into a phone call.
Read it →Real estate business cards are kept longer than almost any other kind: somebody takes yours at a viewing and rings five months later. So the card has to survive a handbag, be findable in a pile, and still be correct when it is finally used.
The front is a face and a number
Your photograph. Property is sold on trust in a person. A face on the card is the whole reason a card is kept rather than filed.
Your name, large. People ring a person, not an office.
One mobile number. Agents are reached on a mobile. An office switchboard on an agent card is a call that does not happen on a Sunday.
Your agency, and your licence or registration number where your market requires one.
Choose one of the Photo designs for this. A design decides the cover, where your picture sits, how the words line up and how large the name is, and a photo design gives a face the room it needs.
The back is the code, and almost nothing else
The single most valuable thing on an agent card is a QR code pointing at a card you can change. It is what keeps the card correct in month five.
Here is why. The listings you are showing today are sold in three months. A card printed with a listing is out of date before the box is empty. A card with a code stays current, because the page behind the code is the page you edited this morning.
Point it at a tracked link rather than at a bare address, so the printed code never has to change. Then give each thing you do its own link: the printed batch, the board outside a property, the open house sheet, your email signature. Afterwards the counts say which one brought people. The links and codes tab covers making them.
What goes behind the code
The digital card is where an agent earns the call. Use these sections:
- A gallery. Current listings, the ones you want calls about.
- Book a time. An agent card with a booking button converts interest while the person is holding it. With bookings, an add-on to Pro, a Book a session button takes viewings on your own weekly hours, and the address is shown only once the booking is confirmed.
- WhatsApp as the big button. Most first contact in property now happens in a chat window rather than a phone call.
- Testimonials, if you have real ones from people who agreed to be quoted.
- A map and hours for the office.
- Save my contact, which writes your name, mobile, agency, email and picture into their phone in one press.
That last one matters more than it looks. An agent who is in somebody's contacts is rung by name. An agent who is a card in a drawer is rung only if the card is found. Our card for real estate agents is set up this way, listings gallery and viewing form included, if you want to start from it.
The open house sheet
Print a small stand with a code on it and leave it by the door at every viewing. People who do not want to take a card will scan a code, because scanning is anonymous and taking a card is a commitment.
Give that code its own tracked link with the purpose "an event", and you will see which properties generate interest as well as which buyers do.
For an open house at a set time, an event, an add-on to Pro, gives each visitor a ticket with a QR code, and your phone's camera counts who came.
Staying in front of a buyer for five months
The gap between the viewing and the call is where agents lose buyers to whoever spoke to them last. A buyer who saves your card from the code can get card notifications from you: a new listing in the area they asked about, or a price change. Added to Apple Wallet, your pass can show a location notification when they walk past the office or an open house you have marked. The WhatsApp add-on sends the follow-up for you: a thank-you when a buyer saves your card and a reminder before the next viewing, without you typing either. Pro is $0.99 a month; the wallet pass, location alerts and WhatsApp are add-ons to it.
What makes an agent card get thrown away
A listing printed on it. Out of date almost immediately, and it makes the card disposable by design.
A photograph taken ten years ago. People notice at the viewing, and it costs you the trust the photo was there to buy.
Three numbers and two emails. Pick one of each.
No reason to keep it. A name and an agency is what everybody else hands out. A code that says "scan for current listings" is a reason.
Paper and quantity
A solid matte card, about 350 gsm, single sided or double, and two hundred and fifty at a time. Agents change agency more often than most trades, and a box of a thousand is a bet on staying put. The printable cards guide covers the files and the margins, and the cost article works through why smaller runs usually cost less over a year.
The custom business cards page lists the designs and sections available for a card like this. Start before the next viewing: make your free card and print its code on the back.
Questions people ask
Should a property card show a listing?
No. Listings go behind the code, where changing them costs nothing. A printed listing dates the whole batch.
Photograph or logo?
Photograph, in almost every case. Property is a trust business and a face is what is remembered.
What should the big button be?
WhatsApp in most markets, a call where your buyers still ring. Book a time works well as the second button.
How do I know whether the code is used?
Each link carries its own count, and the analytics table lists every link with its clicks and the share of your views that clicked it. Give each place its own link and the comparison is the useful part.