Business owners firmly believe that business cards are beneficial to their business. And still, almost 80% of business cards are thrown away within a week. Why does that happen to business cards? Business cards have been around for hundreds of years. Historians claim that the world’s first business cards were used by kings and Chinese nobility. Before the pandemic drove everything towards digitalization, business cards were an essential part of networking, recruitment, sales, and even brand recognition and perception.
Business cards are essential to a brand’s identity because they represent potential clients’ first physical impression. From the card design and the logo to the layout and image, it helps to establish an identity. Colored business cards generally last ten times longer than ordinary white cards due to their uniqueness. A creative business card with unique colors or bold fonts can help firms stand out. They also provide an effective, entertaining, and secure way to create a smooth omnichannel experience.
What Exactly is a Digital Business Card?
A digital business card provides a modern and secure way to exchange professional or personal information. Contact information is included, just as it is on standard business cards. However, digital business cards contain an internet element, such as social media handles or a website link.
Digital or electronic business cards securely save data in an online format known as a virtual contact file. People can share this contact information card in a variety of methods, including email, social media, NFC tags, and QR codes.
QR codes, in particular, have grown in popularity as a method of sharing digital business cards because of their small size, versatility, and ease of use. Companies can include them on paper business cards, emails, print receipts, and social media images. Digital business cards offer numerous advantages, including quick access to information and the opportunity to save it for future reference.
What are the Benefits of a Digital Business Card for Brands?
Digital business cards have numerous advantages, including the following:
- Convenient: Users can easily access information by scanning a QR code or an NFC tag. These cards allow users to preserve contact information for future networking, similar to a digital Rolodex, without the time-consuming trouble of manually entering contact information into a smartphone or storing the card (and praying it doesn’t get lost).
- Dependability: Physical business cards are lost, damaged, or forgotten within a week of being exchanged. This risk is eliminated when using digital business cards. Businesses are also able to overcome geographic constraints. This feature enables businesses to share information with others in other geographic locations. Users of digital business cards can share contact information with others using QR codes, increasing their reach and connectivity.
- Versatility: Users can simply personalize and update the information on a digital business card to reflect a new address or website. Because the information is kept in the cloud, it immediately updates to reflect new information, which is a useful feature for anyone who received a card before the modifications. Prospects and customers can continue to use the digital business card to view the most recent information in real-time.
- Data acquisition: As third-party cookies are phased out, digital business cards provide another significant benefit: they capture first-party data. This first-party data includes the number of scans, unique visitors, scanning devices, top-performing campaigns, and scans based on location and time of day. First-party data provides vital information that businesses may utilize to guide continuing marketing activities.
- Eco–friendly: With many customers also preferring to do business with firms that value people and the environment above profits, digital business cards are ecologically friendly and come with a reasonable cost. This technology offers an excellent opportunity to reduce print production costs, preserve paper, and position the organization as one that promotes environmental and social goals, etc.
What to Keep in Mind When Creating Digital Business Cards?
Companies that are using or considering using digital business cards should keep the following best practices in mind.
Customize and personalize digital business cards to reflect your brand identity. Include crucial branding elements like logos and colors, as well as unique, eye-catching designs like circular QR codes and 3-D images.
Increase the effect of digital business cards by linking them to customized landing pages in addition to traditional contact information. Creating mobile-friendly, visually appealing landing pages featuring product specials or social media handles is an excellent approach to making a brand experience unforgettable.
Make sure to share them everywhere and use them to their fullest potential! Email signatures, social network posts, and even physical material such as posters and kiosks provide opportunities to use digital business cards across many channels. Large and small businesses—and teams—can benefit from their simplicity of use and flexibility. Regardless of their precise application, they are poised to remain at the forefront of professional connection for the foreseeable future.
Wrapping Up
Physical business cards are still being used today, but there is only so much you can do with them. Most people do not want these cards to occupy space in their wallets or pockets thus causing them to throw them away. But if you want to maximize the benefits of your business card, it is time to go digital. With a digital business card, you get all the benefits of a business card plus many bonuses, such as the user not being able to throw it away and creating a strong impression on the minds of your customers.
Let me walk you through the benefits of having your digital business card. The main one is convenience and flexibility. Customers can view your information whenever they need it and can stay updated on whatever changes your business makes on the go. Most importantly, these digital cards also give the user protection from wear and tear which physical business cards have to go through. They are readily available on your phones whenever you need them and never get lost.
