As professionals, business cards are one of our finest marketing tools. They act as a reminder of who we are and what we do to current and prospective clients and they are fairly inexpensive way of increasing brand awareness in the general business and client community.
We exchange them at any opportunity that we can – before a meeting as an obligatory act or more naturally after a presentation. Most people can’t imagine their daily life without them, but how many of us actually keep every single business card we receive or do most of them just end up in the trash can? Be honest, the answer is quite surprising… which beckons the question: is there a better way to do business cards?
Electronic Business Card
Our digital age has brought with it great changes – one of them being the ability to digitalise a lot of things including business cards. In the past, several efforts have been made to replace business cards by handing out contact data in other forms.
Electronic business cards look similar to the conventional paper varieties in that they detail specific contact and ‘product or service’ information about you and your company that you want to share with others. The only difference is that they are electronic and will be shared differently.
One of the reasons why more and more companies are creating electronic business cards is because they can share them without having to wait for a meeting to have the opportunity to hand the more conventional paper cards out. You can give send them to the people that you meet though your Twitter marketing campaign or those who you talk to on industry forums… all with click of a button.
Plus, electronic cards don’t cost as much to create – sure, design is required but continual printing isn’t, which makes them eco-friendly as well. And you can easily maintain their currency by editing a file, rather than editing, printing and replacing your current stocks, which can be an extremely costly and timely exercise.
One of them most popular ways to create electronic business cards is through Vcard, which is compatible with Windows, Apple Macs and Linux computers. Simply apply for an account and have a play around – it’s really user-friendly.
Some companies are taking the premise of e-business cards even further by getting rid of business cards altogether and using SMS to send their contact details to people. Sounds rash… it probably is, but it beckons us to think about how we could share out contact details better.
These are just a few ways that you can refresh the approach of the conventional paper business card. What you choose at the end of the day needs to meet your business’ requirements… remember, this isn’t a decision you should be making lightly – business cards are central to your company’s ability to maintain and increase market share.
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