{"id":14919,"date":"2011-08-12T10:21:07","date_gmt":"2011-08-12T17:21:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=14919"},"modified":"2011-08-12T10:54:17","modified_gmt":"2011-08-12T17:54:17","slug":"say-cheese-its-time-to-play-business-card-monte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/14919\/say-cheese-its-time-to-play-business-card-monte\/","title":{"rendered":"Say “Cheese!” It’s time to play Business Card Monte"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve all seen them. The usual suspects on a line-up across a counter in an empty kitchen. Gathering dust on a convenient window sill. Spread out like an abandoned poker game on a dining table. Ah yes, the real estate business cards left behind at showings. Black, white, red, blue, cheap, shiny, standard issue, each one with a Friendly Neighborhood Expert (FNE) smiling earnestly or stupidly grinning, depending (see tiny mug shot, above). My clients notice them too and they kind of scowl over the line up. When I toss mine onto the pile they say, “Hmm. Yours is different.” At which point I flash my own killerwatt smile and say, “Because I<\/em> am<\/em>.” They grin back, we move along.<\/p>\n

Business cards are pretty awesome when you think about it. Palm-sized advertisements that you can carry about. A potentially effective way to get your message across, but it seems mostly wasted in the world of real estate.<\/p>\n

Recently I saw a business card that was left behind with a printed thank you message: “Thank you for allowing us to show your property.” That’s nice. The message was printed next to the full length image of Mr and Mrs FNE. I wonder if it would be useful to have a showing-specific business card, with space to write a note on it? “Love the floor plan!” “Great job with the kitchen.” “Sorry we accidentally let the cat out.” “What the hell is that smell?” You get my point. Someone more experienced can fill me in on why that would be a disastrous idea for their client.<\/p>\n

I’ve had property-specific business cards printed up, that’s an easy item to hand across a threshold if you are door knocking, and I have all purpose business cards I use, (see blurry photo, below) they feature The Brick Ranch logo from my website, and it does stand out in a sea of tiny FNEs splashed across the Formica, but business cards are so cheap, why not have a few on hand for a multitude of purposes?<\/p>\n

I remember Russell Shaw commenting on one of the BHB business card posts that your Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’ve all seen them. The usual suspects on a line-up across a counter in an empty kitchen. Gathering dust on a convenient window sill. Spread out like an abandoned poker game on a dining table. Ah yes, the real estate business cards left behind at showings. Black, white, red, blue, cheap, shiny, standard issue, each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-the-cheez-whiz-prize","9":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1831,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1831\/seth-on-business-cards-of-particular-interest-to-realtors-and-lenders\/","url_meta":{"origin":14919,"position":0},"title":"Seth on business cards — of particular interest to Realtors and lenders","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Seth Godin on business card mistakes:Don't print your own cards. Just because Avery and others make those little perforated sheets of paper doesn't mean you should use them. Don't use big type for the address and contact info. The #1 way we can tell if a business card is cheesy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1842,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1842\/flash-cards-think-of-me-as-a-warm-and-fuzzy-blanket-for-your-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":14919,"position":1},"title":"Flashed cards: “Think of me as a warm and fuzzy blanket — for your money”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Thomas Johnson at ERA Houston has a unique take on making his business card memorable:This two sided card is printed on a Tyvek envelope like you used to get from the bank to protect the magnetic stripe on your debit card. My thinking is that it could have a shelf\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1845,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1845\/flashed-cards-transparency-begins-with-the-business-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":14919,"position":2},"title":"Flashed Cards: Transparency begins with the business card","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Rudy Mayer:It's translucent plastic. It's clean. No photo. It's different than any other card. People always comment on it and remember it. You'll just have to pretend you can see through Rudy's card. I think this is a fun idea. Might be cool to try on a very heavy vellum,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1853,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1853\/flashed-cards-if-you-want-any-more-salesmanship-than-this-youll-have-to-make-an-appointment\/","url_meta":{"origin":14919,"position":3},"title":"Flashed cards: If you want any more salesmanship than this, you’ll have to make an appointment","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Michael Wurzer brings us this:I just had my business cards changed a few weeks ago to highlight the FBS Blog on the back\/front. This is a tame rip-off of Hugh MacLeod's blog cards. Publicizing the weblog is sweet, but what Michael is showing us is the businessman's business card --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":350,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/350\/for-real-estate-promotion-the-business-card-form-factor-is-a-tiny-little-workhorse\/","url_meta":{"origin":14919,"position":4},"title":"For real estate promotion, the business card form factor is a tiny little workhorse . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 19, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Rory Siems at Laguna Niguel Real Estate Blog has a post on using business cards for collateral promotion. I think this is a fantastic idea. In cost-benefit terms, the business card form factor may be the perfect print ad medium. It's pretty lousy for conveying a lot of information, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Enduring Interest"","block_context":{"text":"Enduring Interest","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/enduring-interest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1833,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1833\/seth-and-teri-on-business-cards\/","url_meta":{"origin":14919,"position":5},"title":"Seth (and Teri) on business cards","author":"Teri Lussier","date":"August 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes when I write a post, it is\u00a0done\u00a0in little bits at a time- a few minutes here and a few minutes there.\u00a0Then news or shift happens and oh bloody hell, it changes my post, or horrors-I just trash the whole thing. Take this post for example: It sat in draft\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14919"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14927,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14919\/revisions\/14927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}