Two things are immediately noticeable about business cards. Both affect how well the business card is received, as well as how you, the business card owner, are perceived.

• How it feels in the hand.
• How it looks.

Marketers have been dabbling in psychology and neuroscience for decades to find the perfect combination of colours, words and sensations to increase sales and brand recognition. You can approach selling yourself by handing out business cards in the same way. Why? The aims are the same. When we give someone a business card, we want to be remembered and contacted.

1. Touch (GSM – Paper Stock Choice)

40% of the highly sensitive skin receptors of the hand are on the fingertips, which makes them incredibly important to business card design(*1). Touch combined with sight (or sound) form a stronger memory together than when offered individually.

A flimsy, easily creased business card versus a thicker, stronger, more resilient card is the first point of call when planning your business card design. The brain registers that the business card feels strong and then associates that quality with the person giving the business card(*2).

Key Takeaways:

• Choose a high-quality paper stock with a good GSM. 450gsm is ideal for business cards.
• Choose cello lamination that reflects your business best. This may be matt, gloss laminate or a combination of matt cello glaze and raised gloss.

Consider how you react when you feel an extraordinarily soft fabric. The emotions stirred by touch range from relaxed and safe to uncomfortable and on alert. When you hand someone a business card, you want to stir a positive emotional response. They may not ooh and aah at the lovely smoothness or novel roughness of the surface out loud but their brain would have received the message and logged it for later recall(*3).

2. Sight (Colour)

Colour is powerful. We make 90% of our initial assumptions about businesses, the work they do and their quality of work immediately upon seeing their branding(*4). For example, red is said to stimulate the appetite so is often used by food retailers. Blue is often perceived as more trustworthy, while black is often seen as luxurious.

ORDER YOUR BUSINESS CARDS TODAY.

Handing over a business card that feels good in the hand, looks clean and slick, and which you know won’t fade into the Mary Poppins bag of forgotten business cards, is a great feeling.

Now that you have your design ideas flowing, get in touch with our team to turn your ideas and colour choices into your new business card.

Our goal is to make your business cards OUTSTANDING. Call 1300 88 99 59 today for fast design and print services you can count on.

References

*1. Purves D, Augustine GJ & Fitzpatrick D, et al. Mechanoreceptors Specialized to Receive Tactile Information. National Library of Medicine. 2001.
*2. Sappi. A Communications Guide to the Neuroscience of Touch. 2020.
*3. Sappi. The Neuroscience of Touch. N.d.
*4. Gerogiev, D. 63+ Color Psychology Facts for Your Branding and Marketing Projects in 2024. Review 42.