Where Manufacturing Deals Begin: The Do's and Don'ts of Line Cards

Let’s debunk the myth that graphic design is only about logos and branding. In reality, design plays a role in almost every aspect of your business. And that includes line cards!

What exactly is a line card? Think of it like a menu for your business offerings. It's a short document that showcases your products and/or services.

I love line cards because they’re like a giant puzzle that’s always evolving. On my end, I find them quite interesting. And on my clients end, they’re always shocked by how big a difference a well-designed line-card makes as they’re prospecting and communicating with customers.

Are you looking to create a line card for your business but don't know where to start? Look no further! In this blog post, I'm going to share with you five do's and dont’s for designing a great line card.

Do: Think about how you want to organize your line card.

Similar to a restaurant menu, how you group your products or services on the page is crucial. Categorize them in a way that makes sense for your business, whether it's by region, vertical market, product type, or alphabetically.

To show you guys what I mean, I’m going to use this recent line card I made for Jasper. Jasper is an engineering and equipment company that represents and distributes for manufacturers across the midwest.?

For Jasper, I essentially divided up the manufacturers by service or product— though it’s a little more complicated than that. See, Jasper’s offerings actually varied by region. I ended up making a separate line card for each one of those regions. This is why it’s important to really think through your line cards and how each unique prospect of yours is going to use them. It might just make sense to make different line cards for different types of prospects!

How you organize items on the page is going to make the difference between an overwhelming experience for your prospect and a smooth one. Consider the shopping process from your client's perspective and what organization will be most helpful for them.

Don't: Go over one page.

I know. This one might sound difficult. At any given time, a company might have dozens— even hundreds— of offerings.

Your line card should be a concise introduction to your business offerings. Remember, your sales team are the experts who will guide prospects through the rest of the sales funnel. With a strategic use of space, you can get everything onto one page.

Do: Use visual cues to guide the eye around the page.

The goal is to make your line card easy to read and navigate. Use columns, white space, color, and text hierarchy to differentiate sections and highlight important information.

Jasper’s original line card displayed their items in a single, vertical list. And as you can see, there’s a ton of space on the right side of the page that’s going unused. By using two columns we were able to get the line card from two pages down to just one.?

You can also see that, originally, the sections were differentiated with a thin red line. The titles were only differentiated by being bolded and underlined. What I did was make those red, separating lines super bold, and embedding the section titles right inside them. That way we saved space and made the sections clearly distinguished.?

There were also these images included in the old line card that were helpful for visualization, but looked a little unpolished in the way they were just scattered throughout the line card. I took the images and made one solid banner along the bottom of the page, creating a more solid, cohesive feel.?

It all has to do with readability, folks! We want your prospect to be able to scan the page and immediately know where things are. The best way to do that is use all the design tools you have.

Don't: Let your logo be confused with your vendors' logos.

This is a quick tip, but I see it surprisingly often! Line cards have a lot of logos on them, and you don’t want your prospects to get confused. Make sure your logo is distinguishable from the others on the page.

Say your line card gets brought back from a tradeshow. It makes its way around the office. It might end up in the hands of someone who doesn’t know where the page came from, and doesn’t have the context to figure out that it’s yours. What a disappointing way to lose business!

Place your logo in a contrasting color banner at the top of the page to clearly show that the line card belongs to your business.

Do: Invest in ongoing work with a graphic designer.

Even if you have an in-house marketing team, a graphic designer can bring a professional touch to your line card and ensure it stands out from the competition. We have the expertise to optimize space, layout, and visual elements for maximum impact.

Marketing collaterals like line cards are living documents. They need to be agile. Often new client’s come to me and say— are we going to be able to make changes on the fly?

That’s why I like to work with businesses on an ongoing basis. It keeps their marketing collateral up-to-date as they grow and evolve.?

Reach out!

Now that you have these five tips, you're ready to create a great line card for your business. Or, if you’re ready to take this off your own plate, reach out to me! If you’re a rep or distributor I would love the opportunity to take a look at your current line card and see what changes can be made to convert more sales!