Honor Society Professional Tip: The Importance of Physical Branding

Despite the digital nature of our world and all of the online interactivity, there is still something to be said for physical assets. I’m talking about those business cards, certificates, graduation regalia, and other items that can back up the brand you’ve built for yourself. In this chapter, we’re going to look at the importance of physical branding. As Entrepreneur.com famously published: “Business Cards Still Matter.”

Why do business cards still matter? Let’s look at a few reasons:

1. Digital Information is Impersonal: Certainly, brands everywhere are struggling to make a personal connection with customers in the age of digital. At the end of the day, looking into someone else’s eyes is incomparable. Networking is all about making genuine connections, which can’t happen with an email or a text. It can happen with a physical asset that you give to someone, almost like a present.

• Direct Marketing Still Works: Email marketing, texts, and SEO require the receiver to click on something, open it, and digest the information. They aren’t as effective, still, as in-person greetings with a handshake and a business card. A business card doesn’t depend on the other person downloading and reading something. It’s a direct marketing information card that’s already in their hand, sealed, and ready to go.

• Extension of Personal Brand: A business card is a physical extension of your personal brand. In fact, it’s the first impression of your personal brand. When you meet someone and hope they will call you, accept you into a program, or offer you a job, you want them to walk away with a good first impression, right? Your business card will do that for you. Merely having a business card to give away will impress many college recruiters as well.

• Sharing Afterwards: When stellar business cards are placed into the hands of recruiters, hirers, and managers, they often times will share that card with other people at their company. Your phone number and email will make its rounds through the office as people share the information from person to person. It’s much more likely to circulate your information than an email you send to a recruiter.

• Imply Preparedness: At the end of the day, if you’re a student, graduate student, or newly grad, your goal is to get a job, right? You want to show the recruiter that you are responsible and prepared. They want to know that you are going to do your work every day, responsibly, no questions asked. A business card shows them you not only went out of your way to create a personal brand for yourself, but that you also invested your money into making business cards.

No matter how digital the world may become, some things will never replace the impressiveness of a business card.

The Presence of a Certificate

When you walk into an office and a see a big, impressive certificate framed and mounted on the wall, you immediately assume that person is legitimate, professional, and accomplished, right? A certificate communicates that person went above and beyond to complete something or attain an accreditation for themselves. They weren’t content with being mediocre and mundane – they wanted to enhance their lives and really reach for the stars.

That’s what a certificate can do in any office. We will issue a certificate to all Honor Society members that you can cherish and frame long after you are out of school. It’s a great way to start off your career on the right foot with an impressive piece of paper that tells people you mean business.

What about a COVID-19 future when we aren’t in an office?

As you know, Skyping and Zoom have become commonplace in the age of “new normal.” We are all Zooming from our office spaces to look as professional as possible. Framing that certificate in the field of view for your video calls will give off the same kind of impressive professionalism as it would in person. People have two eyes – they can see what you are presenting to them. It’s all about showing employers that aren’t satisfied with less – you want more.

Honor Society Graduation Regalia

When it’s time to walk across that stage and grab the diploma you worked so hard to achieve, you want to be decked out in all of your academic accomplishments. By becoming part of our honor society community, we will provide you with Honor Society Regalia you can wear in your graduation photos. We will also issue a member certificate that can be framed in any office setting. It’s a great way to jumpstart your accreditations as a professional before you’ve even left the graduation stage.