Use your loyalty card as your business card

At the LaunchRuralOK Small Business Resource event in Alva, I overheard the owner of Millie Coffee from Fairview, Oklahoma, talking to a service provider she wanted to work with. She  apologized for not having business cards with her, then handed over her shop’s loyalty card instead.

I looked over my shoulder and said out loud, “That’s actually genius.”

Here’s why her loyalty card beats a regular business card.

It gives people a reason to visit

A business card sits in someone’s pocket or gets filed away. Maybe they’ll call you someday. Maybe.

A loyalty card? That’s an invitation with a built-in incentive. “Come see me at my shop. Get a punch. Come back again.”

Bonus: Cross off one punch right there because they met you personally. You’re not just handing them a card. You’re starting a relationship and giving them credit for it.

You’re already paying to print them

Loyalty cards cost about the same as business cards. Why print two separate things when one card can do both jobs?

Put your contact info on your loyalty card: phone number, address, email, hours, whatever you’d put on a business card. Now you’ve got one card that does double duty.

Do you already have cards? 

If you run a coffee shop, car wash, retail store, massage therapy business, hair salon, spa, ice cream shop, or any business where you want people to come back, you probably already have loyalty cards printed.

Those are your business cards now.

Start using them

Grab a stack of your loyalty cards and take them to your next chamber meeting, networking event, or business gathering. Anywhere you’d normally hand out a business card, hand out your loyalty card instead.

And when you order your next batch of loyalty cards, make sure your contact info is on there. You’ll have the most genius business cards in town.