How to promote your business with business cards

Lesson Details:

Video Transcription: Any discussion of offline marketing starts with business cards and networking this video is brought to you by Appy Pie’s Academy. Because networking  is not something you do at networking  events or conferences it's something  that happens 24/7 all the time and it's  something that can give you real  relationships possibly far beyond the  lifetime of your business real  relationships last and you just have to  look at every where you are as a  potential situation where networking  elements might come into play even in  social situations no matter what they  might be they might carry some business  networking elements so you always want  to be professional friendly warm and  start conversations even if you go  through your day starting few or non  conversations with random people you  might want to get into the habit of that  because you never know where that will  end up and you always want to ask  whether it's networking events or social  events or you just meet people randomly  ask them about them and and show real  interest and find something specific to  compliment and things start thinking of  ways to help them maybe directly it may  be indirectly maybe by introducing them  to somebody else or some other thing not  to aggressively because maybe they have  an Astra for help but just show active  interest and goodwill if you do that  eventually they'll ask about you and  your business of course some people will  never ask about new some people will  always just talk about themselves  themselves themselves nothing you can do  about them but most people understand  that at some point they need to ask  about the other person and reciprocate  that interest so you always want to  carry your business cards with you or  today there's many business card mobile  apps but the idea is that you want to be  able to exchange information quickly.

If  it's necessary and of course when you  give your card you want to ask for the  other person's card and right after the  conversation and again this can be on  your mobile app on your phone but you  can just jot  if you note especially if you are at a  networking event you're going to talk to  1015 people that evening you might  forget some people even though after the  conversation you think I won't forget  the next day you forget so you want to  make a few notes oh this person has this  business they're interested in  such-and-such thing and they're having  these challenges ok boom just the quick  notes and then the next day those notes  will remind you about a lot of the  conversation and you can follow up the  very next day usually if you get a  business card follow up the very next  day within 24 hours is really great and  during the conversation have an  interesting conversation like what I  mean by that is don't ask too many  generic questions like everybody asks  like what do you do where are you from  blah blah blah ask interesting questions  that they haven't that they don't get  asked often and it will become more  interesting for them to answer those  questions and what you can do is try to  ask questions designed to get positive  answers like what's the favor the part  about your job what inspired you to get  into it questions like that lead to  positive answers that are often things  people are passionate about not always  but often and that will add positivity  to the conversation and it will improve  the energy of the conversation and the  report that you build and of course if  you want to print business cards on  vistaprint.com your first batch you can  print for free I don't know if they  always have that offer but at the mall  at this moment they have that offer I  don't have any kind of business  relationship with them I just promote  them because they're sort of like an  industry standard they're not so great  but they're not bad and if your first  batch is free is good enough and they  have a lot of templates and designs now  let's talk a little bit about that body  language during networking up to 80% of  communication according to communication  experts is nonverbal so it has to do  with your posture your eye contact your  body positioning your hands gestures you  even your tone of voice even who laughs  at whose jokes even though obviously  that's verbal but still like things like  that that's that's a power positioning  and of course this is all culturally  sensitive in different cultures have  different set of social rules but in the  Western society the suggestions  our good rules of thumb so everything  starts with eye contact and a smile if  you start talking to first to a person  without eye contact that's a little  creepy so eye contact smile and that  would be the beginning of things so  let's keep going over more body language  suggestions about your eye contact so  looking down or away shows either low  confidence or a sign that you're  actually not telling the truth keep that  in mind but too much eye contact is  actually creepy if you know oh I can't  look away I can't it is important so you  start like making extra eye contact then  you start being like kind of weird and  unnatural and creepy so don't do that  either just be careful and what you want  to do is start with a good positive  energy level that you bring to the  conversation and actually build it up  and up and up do it as you go you don't  want to start too high because if  they're just a regular energy level and  you're too high.

It will seem a little  weird and it will not make for a good  conversation but if you me make them but  as your conversation grows and you build  rapport you can go up in energy as you  both having an interesting conversation  and that's that's actually a natural way  to do that and it's a good thing to  strive for and of course it's good  interactions whether you are at a  networking event or just socially will  give you more confidence for your next  interactions and conversely bad  interactions if you're awkward they'll  give you lower confidence and you'll  have a harder time entering your next  conversation so it actually builds so  you wanna build up work up a good  confidence level enter have a good  conversation and actually your evening  will positively hopefully snowball from  there now let's talk a little bit about  your appearance just the very basics you  want to over a dress for any events  approximately 10% personally I'm not a  big fashion person but the idea is that  you over dress just a tiny bit  appearance matters and you'll always  kind of appear calm more confident and  appear as an individual that people want  to network with and of course you want  to take care of the basics haircut  grooming shaving nails trimmed all those  basic guys I shouldn't have to say that  but those those are the basics and when  you enter conversations  like I mentioned try to mimic the energy  level and the body positioning of the  other person because people like people  who are like them and then work up  because you know that the idea is to  build rapport get to a good energy level  so you kind of start where they are and  just be a little more tiny bit more  energy tiny bit more open and as you  exchange points in the conversations in  the conversation keep on raising the  energy level because realize that you  can direct conversation topics too like  I mentioned earlier the more positive  ones ask questions that elicit positive  answers like if you complain about  something that's not very good because  the conversations naked the conversation  becomes negative so you can manage the  conversation topics because now you know  what the goal is so you can naturally  point the conversation in the way in the  direction you want it to go so that's  business card marketing it's everywhere  all the time when you meet anyone ask  about them show real interest and make  it natural and of course when they ask  you have your pitch ready and if the  pitch resonates with them if they need  with what you do for your business  they'll they'll be more likely to engage.