I’m a big fan of business cards, but sometimes I’m amazed at how bad a good thing can be!

Business cards that end up in a stack of other business cards each with a different name and number yet little evidence as to why I actually kept that card or why I would want to get in touch with said name and number.

So we’re trying something new!

Business cards with a wonderfully simple design, clear call-to-action, no predefined layout and simple enough to be used without a design program.

Plenty of room for only what is needed and a clear marketing message.

So without further delay, here they are:

Free Marketing Optimized Business Card Templates

and the instructions on how to use them:

How to Use the Business Card Templates

Psst… we’re pushing out the soft-launch of the new marketing ideas website. The new site gives you 3x more information by a growing list of small business experts and owners alike. As great as it is some of the most anticipated changes are still in the works. What are these you might ask? How about a new way to dig deeper into each marketing idea and feed off of the experience of others? And to top that off some free design templates and a few other surprises!

We welcome your feedback on the design, layout and anything you would like to see (or not see).

The grand opening is set for March 22nd!

We just added a new marketing idea price comparison feature.

Postcards really are such an ideal means of marketing. It’s half the cost of a brochure and half as intimidating to read. Twice as effective, half the cost.

There is a large spread of prices that I found as I put together this comparison. Actually, compared to what I normally buy, I’ll now be able to get over twice as many postcards for a little bit less than I’ve been paying. You’ll see that some of the companies have a very steep discount rate as you increase the number of cards, some falling below $.02 / postcard.

Well check it out for yourself: Good Marketing Idea’s Postcard Comparison.

As we searched for a company to run the multiple newsletters on Good Marketing Ideas we came across so many different pricing structures and ways of charging for sending emails that it made our heads spin. Time for a comparison chart! We wanted something that would allow us to send emails only when something new and exciting was actually happening, we’re just not the once-a-month email newsletter types. We also wanted to be able to send small email blasts to just those who had signed up for a specific information category.

Well, here you can see the email marketing comparison chart that we came up with. It lets us see what the best deal is for us is depending on how many emails we send and how often we send them. It answered a lot of our questions and we came to the conclusion that we will save a whole lot of money by going with Vertical Response, for our emailing purposes.

So far, that’s been the case. Hope you find it useful as well, let us know if there is another company we can add to the list, or go to the page to submit a review if you are currently using an email marketing provider.

Business cards are the most cost effective way to market your business when it comes to printed material. Yes, a standard black and white paper flyer may be cheaper per page, but they are also more quickly thrown away. Business cards are kept, looked at, and instead of becoming a person’s trash can filler become a business resource.

To maximize the effectiveness of your business card try putting a coupon or discount on the back. Also, think of your card as a flyer and create different business cards with different artwork and different sales messages.

Finding the best place to get your business cards printed can be a little bit tricky, but with Good Marketing Ideas’ business card price comparison you can see what the cost will be. It a comparison chart of printing companies where, after selecting how many business cards you will be printing and if they will be printed on one side or two, you can see how much it will cost for the print job as well as the features (business card thickness and quality) of that printing company.