Hero cards - What are They and Why They are a Good Investment:

Hero cards are just promotional cards of you, your race car and team. Bigger and better than a baseball card, it should have the relative information of who you are and what you do.

While sizes vary – the standard remains 8 x 10 or 6 x 8 printed on both sides. Most you will find will have a picture of the car on one side and the driver with stats on the other. There is no set rule to this but I do stress a good quality, glossy color design will get noticed before a black and white card. Information to include:

A short bio of you.
Your race history/highlights
Information on your car
Sponsors names
Contact information
Good pictures of you and your car

Their uses are many but the number one reason is to promote you. Think of them as a large business card that can be used to get your name out there. They are the souvenir for the fan and a great addition to your media kit. As you move up in the ranks – series directors will arrange autograph sessions where your hero cards will be the perfect medium to write your message on to the fans that want to get to know you.

Hero cards can run into the thousands of dollars but keep in mind a good quality design can be found for less. Don’t be discouraged if your budget doesn’t allow for you to spend big bucks on a design firm to do the set up and printing of your cards. Look at these options: Shop around to local printing companies. Many have in-house designers that charge a fraction of the cost of big design houses. Work with them to be potential sponsors – they print your hero cards and you post their name on your car.

Have a good supply of digital (print quality – high resolution) pictures of you and your car handy. Professional done pictures add to the quality of your hero card – but you must be the judge if your budget allows for them. Many race tracks have photographers that will take pictures of your car and sell you the prints – always have some handy and buy them copyright and royalty free. Lower the quality of the paper or the color quality – but do not take away the importance of the info on the front and back of your card.

Some print shops offer package deals just like with business cards – only spend what your team can afford. Remember it may be cheaper to print 10,000 per card BUT they do get outdated after the season so unless you think you can go through that many – it may be better for you to keep the numbers reasonable. Also request to have the electronic files saved on a CD Rom for you so you can have a copy. Sometimes only slight updates are needed for the following year.

A good hero card is another way of showing the professionalism of you and your team. In fact – it’ll make you a hero around your fans.

If there are other areas you’d like to see us cover, or you’d like to provide your insight, ideas and share your experiences, we invite you to do so on our forum or by e-mailing us here at info@racerchicks.com