Generic vs personalized business cards: which will be better?

Although today’s world has become more digital-based, a few business tools will remain timeless. And one of them is business cards!

No matter how many online meetings you conduct with clients, giving them a business card after meeting with them has a completely different effect.

In fact, for every 2000 business cards distributed, your sales can increase by 2.5%.

However, there are two major types of business cards, generic and personalized.

If you wish to know the pros and cons of each type of these cards and which one will be better for your business, then keep reading!

1. What are generic business cards?

Generic business cards are the ones that are relatively easier to make. Here, you simply have to go to the website or company that designs business cards and enter basic details.

These cards will have a template laid out for you to fill in details like your company name, office address, email address, phone number, and your name and job designation.

Generic business cards are readymade and require no extra effort for designing or planning.

2. What are personalized business cards?

As the name suggests, personalized business cards give you the freedom to design the cards any way you want. You can add a hint of your personality and your brand image to these cards.

Right from the background colors to the font styles, you can choose whichever style you want.

The best thing about custom business cards is that your chosen design will be completely yours. This means that nobody else will have used that design before.

However, it can be expensive and time-consuming to design these cards.

3. What is the price comparison?

When it comes to the price, generic business cards cost much less than personalized ones, and the reason is quite simple.

Since the generic ones already have pre-loaded templates, the card designers won’t have to spend extra effort or time curating the perfect business card.

In fact, you may not even need any help from designers to get your generic business card printed.

Customized ones, on the other hand, cost a little more, especially if you’re planning to get them designed by a professional.

4. What businesses use which cards?

There isn’t any specific rule of thumb that says which business has to use which card. But even then, there are clear trends that you can see.

Most of the generic business cards come in minimalist shapes. And their designs usually include the colors black, white, and grey or a mix of light colors. Professional businesses like law and marketing firms prefer using these designs.

But small businesses with the freedom to express creativity, such as bakeries or jewelry brands, prefer personalized business cards that contain bright colors, cute motifs, and pastel shades.

5. Which cards give a better impression?

Again, both generic and customized business cards can give a good impression to the receiver. But if you really wish to compare, then custom cards are the better choice.

Since generic business cards almost look the same. Even on different websites, you don’t really get the opportunity to make your cards stand out.

But personalized business cards can be catered according to your wishes. So if you have a creative idea, it’s better to order personalized business cards. They’ll also give a better impression on your clients.

6. What is the time taken to print?

Generic business cards take a much faster time to print and design as compared to personalized ones.

They’re easy to do, and all you have to do is insert the basic information on the provided spaces in the templates of the card designs.

If you wish to print out a stack of generic business cards, you can have them ready within a few hours or probably a day or two.

But personalized business cards can take some time, especially since editing and placing are required. Here, you might need to wait for about three to four days or even a week.

Over to you

Both generic and personalized business cards have their pros and cons. All of it depends on your budget, the design that you have in mind, and what kind of company you run. So first, research thoroughly, and only then choose a desirable type!