When you’re dealing with foreign language associates, it’s usually fine to give them your regular business card. However, offering them one in their native language would do well to help them remember you more.
Personally, I never considered translated business cards as mandatory. However, they’re the type of thing that can only benefit you over the long haul.
Here are a few guidelines when translating your business cards:
- Since it’s a short document with very few words, you can either use your language software or hire a professional to translate it for you. Chances are, neither the final cost nor the quality of translation will vary all that much.
- Print only on one side of the business card. While two-sided designs are common in the US and other Western countries, many cultures use the back side for other purposes, such as writing notes to remember you by.
- Keep your business card simple. Put the necessities and nothing more. What’s cool or funny in your culture, after all, may be lame or offensive in another. If you want to get creative, research the nuances that make a business card attractive in that culture and use that instead.
- Don’t translate the address. All that will come from it is to allow the receiver to correctly pronounce it. When they try to send you something in the mail using the translated address, it will likely just confuse the postal company.
The business card continues to be an integral part of business networking. Make sure you do it right, whatever language you decide to print it with.