Even in this digital day and age, business cards are still widely used – they are still as effective as ever in telling people a little about you and your business, the teaser if you will, that will get people wanting more. There are other articles on this site to help you understand what makes a good business card, with this article we are exploring one possible medium in the wide range of business cards, the double sided business card.

Views on double sided or double printed business cards are divided, some think you should leave the reverse of the card blank so the person receiving the card has room to make notes, or has room to write down a phone number or email address that may not be on the card (for instance you may have several email accounts but only give one out publically to the general public, but having met a supplier you may wish to give them a different email address to ensure they reach you promptly). However, others see single sided business cards as a wasted opportunity as it is a place to give more information.

One very good use of double sided cards would be the “bi-lingual” card. The author lives and works in North Wales, and although the majority of my customers speak perfect English, there are a high percentage of people for who their native Welsh is their first language and they are pleasantly surprised when I make the effort to provide bi-lingual information and I am sure that the same would hold true for people working in other bi-lingual areas.

If you do work in an area where there is a high population of people that speak something other then English it may be an idea to have the reverse of your business card in that language, always make sure you go to a reputable source to translate it if you don’t speak the language yourself as you won’t be able to check for mistakes and programs like Google Translate can be a little “literal” and therefore not always correct for complex pieces – to test this take a couple of paragraphs of something, translate it in Google to another language, and then copy what it gave you as the translation and translate it back to English and compare it to the original, most of the time, there are at least half a dozen small but important differences.

Otherwise you could put the less important information on the reverse of the card, for instance twitter, facebook and other social media addresses, or menus, etc, information that may help potential customers but aren’t vital information such as who you are, what you do and how to contact you.

Another option would to be to print “snippets” of testimonals given to you by happy customers (with their permission of course) as this can intrigue people to look into your business further.

If you still want a double sided card but you really can’t think what to put on the back, and have no use for the above suggestions then maybe something generic, yet useful would work for you, like a calendar, a conversion chart for weight/measure, a list of public holidays, etc.

Whichever route you choose, one fact still remains, that you should get the best quality cards you can afford on your budget, there is no point having a wonderful, upto the minute company, and spending a fortune designing your branding if you print your cards on something that feels like the back of a cereal box, your business card is your first impression, make sure you make the right one – go to a specialist business card printer and discuss your options, talk to them about card weight and finishes to ensure your card lives up to your brand and you business.