Business cards are an affordable yet effective marketing tool. They’re a great way to cement a positive first impression. They can also be used to market the business, such as when you include the business card in flyers or gift baskets. Let’s look at a few of the factors that affect the cost of your business cards.
Graphic Design
You’ll always pay more if you’re including graphic design services into the price of your new business cards. This isn’t an issue if you design your own business card or use a pre-existing logo. Nor is there any problem with uploading your picture to the business card template.
You might pay a small fee to access logos and templates offered by a website or printing service. Don’t use logos or images copyrighted by someone else unless you want to risk a lawsuit.
The cost of a business card will be determined by the quality and complexity of the print job. If you want to have photo grade images on the front or back of your business card, it will cost much more than a text-based business card. Printing on both sides of the business card increases the cost.
Volume
Print jobs have a minimum cost due to overhead expenses and account management fees. The more business cards you order, the lower the per card price. You may be able to take advantage of volume discounts if you order 100 to 200 business cards for each of your team members.
Material
The heavier the cardstock, the more expensive the business card. This is simply due to the cost of the heavier paper. You may also choose more expensive inks. For example, colour prints tend to cost more than pure black and white print jobs.
Furthermore, gold flourishes on your new business cards may help it stand out from the pack but it adds to the cost. Folding business cards cost more because they are both more difficult to make and contain more material than conventional ones.
Standard sizes of card stock are cheaper than unusual sizes simply due to supply and demand. That’s why an unusually large or small business card costs more than standard 3.5 x 2 inch or 85 x 55 mm one.
Recycled material may or may not add to the price of the business cards. Depending on the amount of recycled paper involved, you may have to pay extra for it. For example, they may have to add bleach to make the recycled paper as bright a white as virgin paper cardstock.
Complexity
More complex printing operations increase the cost of the business card. Furthermore, more complex structural elements will increase the cost, too. For example, raised edges on a business card increase the cost of the card stock. If you ask them to cut the cards to match an unusual profile, you’ll pay extra for that service.
This is why rectangular business cards are the cheapest option available. On top of that, you’ll pay more for any extra material that has to be cut away. That’s why you want to design business cards that fit within a clean edge instead of printing them to the edge with extra material cut away.
Additional Services
If you’re asking the printer to mail you the business cards, that’s an additional cost on top of the materials and labour that go into them.