How long has it been since you checked the pulse of marketing in your industry? Self-promotion exists in a state of constant evolution. It is a chameleon affected by trends, influences, and criticism. Trying to hold on to the most current information possible can feel like  a futile attempt to catch lightning in a bottle.

Critics certainly don't help. They've been predicting the death of paper promotions since marketing started gaining digital traction. Despite their grim predictions, business cards are holding on and adapting to the digital age. In this article, Plastic Printers will reveal six secrets that will keep your business cards relevant no matter what marketing whim is currently trending.

5 Market-Steady Business Card Tips

Don't put too much stock in the premature predictions of others. Business card printing is still going strong. The secret is developing a promotional plan that centers around 5 pieces of good advice.

Tip #1: Believe in contradictions. Self-promotion is all about maintaining a balance between being different from other businesses around you and appealing to a broad spectrum of the consumer market. The fact that this balance is contradictory can make it difficult to pull off.

Unless you have a very specialized target market, it's a good idea to stays close to the middle-of-the-road as possible. When designing a card to promote yourself, add noticeable details that make the card stand out, but not stick out like a sore thumb.

Sometimes all it takes is a feature like: frosted business cards, die-cut designs, or a pop out piece to catch and hold the attention of a captive audience.

Tip #2: Create a pocket-sized billboard. It's not enough to simply say (your name here), blogger extraordinaire. A business card is a chance for you to really bring it home. A little while back, we advised you to develop a 30 second "commercial" to use law networking.

Think of the pocket-sized billboard as your opportunity to convert your commercial into a slogan or tagline on your card. It may take you some time to boil everything that you do down into a single sentence, but your efforts will pay off in the long run.

As recipients begin going through their contacts a few months down the line, having an effective reminder of what you do right on your card will help your business get "found" by more people.

Tip #3: Practice making a 1 second promotional first impression. The average person looks at a business card for between 3 and 5 seconds. Your job: make sure they see all of the relevant information about your business the first time they look at your card. Also, learn more about when and how to employ double-sided printing.

It doesn't need to be an informational element on every business card. Sometimes, it's a simple matter of continuing a design concepton the back. Other times, you can add additional promotional elements to the back of the card. It helps if you do this on cards that hold the recipient attention a little longer than normal.

For example, try double-sided printing on a mustache card design or a credit card design. People are more likely to get curious and turn the card over if it's interactive or it catches them off-guard.

Tip #4: Distribution matters. This is essential to your success as a self-promoter. Too often, business owners think in terms of product quantity and not the quality of the contacts they want to make through plastic business card printing.

Keep in mind; you're investing in a product that will out-live and out-perform the paper version. Our ordering advice: whether you choose to print 500 cards or 5000+; have a plan for how you will use them. One very simple strategy is to set a quota at public events and hold yourself accountable until you fill it.

Tip #5: Coordinate for a digital archive. While we won't say that the current marketing forecasts about the death of paper business cards is true; we will say that you have to plan for a digital eventuality.

A lot of people scan business cards into their computer and keep digital copies instead of physical ones. Think about that when you're designing your card. Stay away from colors like purple or green. Their vibrancy doesn't translate well on a computer screen.

Tip #6: Give your business cards eternal life. Our suggestion for avoiding the demise of paper: use plastic business card printing instead. Plastic Printers makes it easy to design, print, ship, and reorder all the plastic cards you'll ever need. That way, you can stop worrying about the state of paper. Not only that, our cards hold up through just about everything and we offer design help from start to finish.

The moral of the story is: don't put too much stock in predictions. Contact us through our website http://www.plasticprinters.com and we’ll help you produce a card that defies conventional wisdom and disproves the lifespan of promotional predictions.

Get your card started today and enjoy a long and healthy promotional life!