Nitin is the founder of QRCodeChimp. He’s a technology leader with over two decades of technology development and management experience.
Networking is crucial for business success. With strategic networking, you can meet new prospects, generate qualified leads, grow your business and expand your professional horizons. Physical business cards have long been a cornerstone of networking; however, as we move toward a digital world, relying solely on physical cards may no longer be the best strategy.
I believe digitizing our networking efforts is essential for faster and more seamless contact sharing, and here’s where digital business cards come into the picture. Let’s take a look at what digital business cards are and how they can improve your networking in today’s business world.
Defining Digital Business Cards
A digital business card is an online profile page containing your contact information and professional details. Each digital business card has a unique URL that can be shared for seamless and digital contact sharing. Think of it as a digital and more detailed version of a physical business card that can contain CTA buttons, website links, social media links and multimedia.
Advantages For Networking
Digital business cards are a digital extension of your personal brand that can help you share your contact details in a professional and impactful way. Here are several key advantages:
• Share your contact details instantly and digitally.
Here’s what a traditional networking process looks like: You give your business card to a prospect, and they keep it in their wallet. Later, they may look at the card again and contact you. There’s also a high probability of the prospect throwing away the card without taking action.
Digital business cards enable seamless contact sharing. Prospects can open your digital business card and save your contact information in a few clicks without manually entering the details. They also typically include shortcuts to allow prospects to call, email or message you with a single click.
• Edit your information anytime.
If your phone number, address or other information changes, you’ll have to reprint your business cards. Printing business cards can be expensive, especially if you do it at scale for multiple people in your company.
Digital business cards, being editable, eliminate that hurdle. You can edit your digital business card without changing its URL or QR code. Hence, you can continue using the same business card and QR code even after updating your digital cards multiple times, lowering your printing costs.
• Alleviate your environmental impact.
When you use digital business cards, you can reduce your paper waste and environmental impact. The majority of business waste is composed of paper, and most business cards (88%) get thrown away within a week. A digital business card doesn’t require printing, and even if you print it on a physical card, you can use a single card to share your contact information with multiple prospects; all they need to do is scan the QR code with their phone to save your information.
Elements Of An Effective Digital Business Card
A digital business card offers a lot of flexibility in terms of design and shareable information. You can self-design it and include as much information as you want. To get the most out of your digital business card, consider these best practices.
1. Choose the right digital business card platform.
When looking for a digital business card platform, do your research and find a solution with all the features you most desire to have when creating and managing your digital business cards. Here are some features to look for in a platform partner. (Full disclosure: My company offers this service, as do others.)
• Customizable digital business card templates.
• Multiple/specific information fields.
• The ability to add CTA buttons, clickable links, images, videos and other multimedia.
• The ability to view analytics, including total views and clicks.
• Real-time editing.
• Shortcuts for various actions, like saving contact details, making calls, sending SMS, etc.
2. Create a visually appealing digital business card.
In my experience, the design is one of the most important elements of your digital business card, as an eye-catching design is more likely to hook prospects and encourage them to take action. Use an engaging color palette and a professional-looking font, and be sure to include your brand’s logo. I also highly recommend incorporating images and videos.
3. Include all the information.
You can include in-depth information on a digital business card, including clickable links and multimedia. Leverage this functionality by including the information your prospects will most likely want to know about you, such as:
• Your complete name.
• Your occupational information, including your job title and company name.
• Phone number, email address and other contact details.
• Social media and website links.
• Images and videos (if applicable).
4. Continuously update your digital business card.
All digital business cards are editable, i.e., you can edit their contents without changing the page URL. Make sure to update your digital business card regularly so that your prospects get up-to-date information.
5. Share it across channels.
The two primary ways to share a digital business card are by sharing the card’s URL or creating a QR code for the URL. These can then be shared in a few different ways:
• Put your QR code on your physical business card. Prospects can then scan it with their phones to save your contact even if they lose the card.
• Include the QR code in your email signature.
• Share the QR code on your social media and website.
• Share the page URL in virtual meetings.
• Send the page URL directly to prospects via email or SMS.
Networking is more important than ever for business success. However, today’s digital age makes traditional business cards less effective as a solo solution. Consider how you can upgrade your networking efforts and connect with more prospects by sharing your details digitally.
Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
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