A professional business card says more about you and your business than any other tool in your marketing arsenal. You need a card that looks good, tells what you do and makes it easy to contact you.

Here’s how to use the necessary ingredients to create a great card

Your name should be the biggest part of the card. Right there where the eye can pick it out without searching.

Avoid the old trap of name and phone number in 6 point type in the lower right corner.

Your card’s purpose is to get people to remember YOU and contact YOU. So put YOU in the middle, big. A fancy company logo is not you. YOU are the most important element of your card.

The second most important element of your new business card should be your preferred method of communication. If you are a cell phone junkie, your cell phone number should be the biggest on the card. If eMail is your thing, your address should be prominent and near your name. No need to post every contact method. An option would be to add your company logo, albeit small, in the corner of your card.

Don’t use clip art to create your logo. No logo looks a lot better than one from page 23 of the clip art book. You can have logos professionally designed for less than $500 bucks.

Next, you need a one sentence version of your elevator speech. Condense your elevator speech to one sentence that will fit on your business card, under your name and contact info. Across the bottom is a good spot (An elevator speech is what you say to someone who asks “What do you do?” in an elevator going down from the 25th floor).

Your name, contact information and shortened elevator speech (let’s call it a selling sentence) are more important than any other elements of your business card. More important than paper stock (always use a high gloss card stock), colors (0nly in a photo or logo) or fonts (easy to read). Cards DO get passed around.

If someone who has never met you is given your card, they must be able to determine who you are and how you can help them. “Joe Jones, Plumber” might work, but it doesn’t convey what you can do for them. “Joe Jones, I show up on time, smell good and fix your leak, guaranteed”, says a whole lot more. Now your business card is selling YOU.