Switch to Digital Business Cards for a High ROI Networking

Digitally share your contact information that can be saved instantly on a smartphone. Stay at the top of your audiences’ minds at all times.

With a host of supported integrations, we easily fit into any existing tools & processes you follow.

Automate the creation of QR Codes from spreadsheets or generate them in bulk using brand templates. In one click.

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Digital Business Cards: The Complete Guide to Help You Network
Better

A business card is an integral part of a brand’s identity as it is one of the first tangible aspects that stays
with customers. The logo, typography, illustrations, and color schemes you use can help you establish a unique
place in your customers’ minds.

There is no dearth of choices when it comes to choosing traditional business cards. You have probably seen one in
all shapes, sizes, colors, and designs over the years.

However, in today’s digital-first and post-pandemic world, where contactless solutions are being widely adopted,
isn’t it the time to upgrade traditional business cards to something more safe, engaging, and effective?

Enter: Digital business cards, a.k.a. electronic or e-business cards..

A digital business card can be created instantly and offers numerous other benefits over a physical business card. In this
guide, we will learn how electronic business cards can help you network better, how to create them, and the best practices
to keep in mind while using them.

But first, what exactly is a digital business card?

What is a digital business card?

A digital business card is a modern and safe way to share vital information about an individual or a business.
These details can include a name, address, phone number, website, photo, location, user bio, social media links,
and much more.

Digital or electronic business cards—powered by dynamic QR Codes—safely store your contact information in an online format known as .vcf (virtual
contact file). This contact information card can be conveniently shared in numerous ways—via your Apple or Google Wallet, email signature, social media, etc. Alternatively, you can embed the business card QR Code on a physical paper-based card.
Your clients simply need to scan the QR Code on your card, view your contact information, and save it on their smartphones with a single click.

Now that you have understood what digital business cards are, let’s learn about their key benefits.

Digital business cards can help you network better: 3 key benefits

A convenient and paperless way to network with your clients

Making it extremely convenient for your prospects to interact with you can go a long way.
And, digital business cards can help you effectively achieve that.

All that is required of users is to scan the QR Code on your digital business card, view your contact details,
and save that information on their mobile phones.

The benefit? This eliminates the time-consuming hassle of manually typing every contact detail and saving it on a smartphone.

Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed customer preferences—the demand for contactless experiences is constantly rising.
With digital business cards, you can safely share your contact details with anyone, anywhere.

By sharing your digital business cards as an Apple or Google Wallet pass,
you can get done with physical business cards to ensure a safe transfer of your contact information.

The flexibility to modify details, without reprinting or resharing your card

Suppose you have moved to a new website, email address, or office location.
Would you need to recreate or reshare your digital business card to reflect the updated information?

Absolutely not.

Since a digital business card is powered by an editable QR Code (a.k.a. dynamic QR Code),
you can update your contact information at the backend without the need for regenerating or resharing your e-business card.

Your prospects or customers can continue to scan the same card and view the latest details in real-time.
This helps you eliminate reprinting, additional spending, and the time and effort required to redistribute the updated digital business card.

Get access to first-party card scan data and retarget users online

Another major advantage of using a digital business card is gaining access to first-party user data.
Whenever someone scans the QR Code on your e-business card, you can leverage card analytics and metrics to better optimize your networking efforts.

This first-party analytics data includes the number of card scans and unique visitors,
devices used to scan, top-performing e-business cards, and card scans by location and time of the day.

Here is one use-case of how you can use this data to fine-tune your networking efforts:

Suppose you have shared two digital business cards to A/B test and identify the one driving more scans and engagement.
You can view the top-performing cards by the number of scans and unique visitors.

Based on this data, you can double down on the e-business card leading to higher scans, and optimize or discontinue the underperforming one.

Additionally, when you create digital business cards with Beaconstac, you can retarget users—on Facebook and
Google—who have scanned the dynamic QR Code on your e-business card. This can help you nudge and follow up
on prospects who have shown interest in your business but haven’t converted yet.

In addition to these benefits, e-business cards offer various other advantages over paper business cards.
These include the ability to share an unlimited amount of information, shorter business card procurement timelines, significant cost savings, and much more.
Learn more about the benefits of digital business cards.

How to make a digital business card: In 5 Quick steps

After learning about the above-mentioned benefits of e-business cards, you might be looking to create one. To do so, we recommend choosing a specialized and capable digital business card solution.

This ensures you get access to the entire suite of features and capabilities you need to generate the best possible digital business card for your use case.

Below, we will show you how to create a digital business card with Beaconstac’s digital business card solution. Read on.

Click on ‘+Create’ on the right-hand side of the dashboard and choose the ‘Digital Business Card’ campaign.

NOTE: You can sign-up for a zero-cost and no-commitment 14-day trial to create digital business cards.

On Beaconstac’s dashboard, you can add details and customizations across the following fields:

1. Profile information
2. Branding details
3. Contact details
4. Social media links

Make sure to add all relevant information that can help you better connect with your clients. You can check out our guide on what information to put on a business card to learn more.

Pro Tip: If you want your digital business card to be instantly loaded on your client’s mobile device, toggle on the ‘Directly download’ option under the ‘Additional settings’ tab. This will let your recipient save your card with one click—upon scanning.

Custom design your QR Code to have a better chance of standing out and attracting more prospects with your digital business card.

NOTE: Ensure ‘Excellent’ scannability, so your clients do not encounter any errors while scanning.

Name and save your e-business card.

Next, you can share your digital business card using the following ways:

1. Share it as an Apple or Google Wallet pass—completely paperless and contactless.
2. Download the business card QR Code in any of the 5 formats—PNG, JPG, SVG, PDF, EPS—and share it via social media, email signature, etc.

Learn: How to send a digital business card—6 ways to share your business card in a paperless and convenient manner.

Finally, press the ‘Finish’ button once done.

How to generate a batch of up to 2,000 digital business cards in bulk

Let’s say you need to create digital business cards for hundreds or thousands of employees with a standardized card template. Do you need to manually create each business card?

Not if you use Beaconstac’s digital business card solution.

Here’s how you can generate a batch of up to 2,000 digital business cards in less than 5 minutes:

Navigate to ‘QR Codes’ from the left panel.

You can download our CSV or XLSX template to populate it with your business card data.

Note: We recommend doing so because the template offers a set order for each row and column, making it easier and faster for us to generate a batch of e-business cards for you.

Populate this spreadsheet template with contact information for all your employees. If you want to add or delete a column, ensure a consistent data arrangement to avoid errors during the bulk-generation process.

After filling the spreadsheet, save it and come back to the dashboard so you can upload the file. Make sure the uploaded file is in CSV or XLSX format.

If no errors are reported in the uploaded spreadsheet, you will be taken to the next step.

Under the ‘Branding’ tab, you can customize the look and feel of your digital business cards.

From the ‘Layout’ tab, you can choose your preferred card layout.

Under the ‘Settings’ tab, you can toggle on the following features:

1. Directly download vCard on scan: Upon scanning, this will instantly load your digital business card on your client’s mobile device—letting them save your contact details in one click.
2. Auto-send Wallet Passes to owners: Upon creation, every digital business card will be sent to its owner, i.e., to the email address used in each card. Through that email, the recipient can add the card to their Apple or Google Wallet.

Note: These customizations and settings will apply to every single digital business card in the batch.

You can customize the QR Code for your e-business card batch by trying out different data patterns, logos, CTA frames, and more.

Pro tip: We recommend adding your company logo to the QR Code, so it’s easy for your clients to recognize your brand.

Hit the ‘Finish’ button once you are done

Adding a label and a color code to your batch will help you easily manage multiple digital business card batches in the future.

Press the ‘Apply’ button once done.

Once your batch is ready, you will be notified via email. Following that, you can visit the Beaconstac dashboard to view the generated batch.

Depending on the size of your digital business card batch, the bulk creation process can take between 1-5 minutes.

RELATED: Learn more about our bulk QR Code creation capabilities. If you wish to connect with our experts to get in-depth knowledge of this feature, schedule a free demo today.

Note: The option to bulk-generate digital business cards is available on our Lite plan and above.

Who can use digital business cards?

Individuals and businesses across industries can use digital business cards to share their contact information
and network better with their clients or audiences. Check out some use-cases below:

Sales professionals

Quite often, sales professionals—representatives, managers, directors—meet with prospective customers to showcase
their products or services. To stay connected and/or follow up with clients, these professionals can share
electronic business cards.

By scanning a digital business card, prospects can easily save a sales professional’s contact details on their
smartphones and instantly connect with them.

For example, sales professionals at Snap Finance use Beaconstac’s digital
business cards to network better with their target customers.

Real estate agents

When purchasing a home or any property, a strong connection with a realtor goes a long way in closing the deal.
In fact, nearly 90%
of US buyers purchase homes via a real estate agent or broker.

As there are multiple meetings involved during the purchase of a property, real estate agents can share their
digital business cards to stay in touch with buyers. In addition to sharing contact details, realtors can
provide prospects with more information by linking these e-cards to their websites or available properties’
locations.

Healthcare professionals

Medical professionals—staff members, doctors—can use digital business cards not only for sharing contact
information but also for verifying their credentials whenever required.

Wondering which healthcare companies already use electronic business cards? Novartis,
Mubadala Healthcare, Medical Card System, and Qualitas Health are some of the leading healthcare-based firms
that use Beaconstac’s digital business cards to accomplish their business goals.

Moreover, healthcare marketing companies can use electronic business cards instead of traditional ones to instantly
connect with sponsors and establish partnerships—just as the US-based healthcare marketing firm, PatientPoint utilizes Beaconstac to achieve so.

Job applicants

Individuals who are looking for a new job can use digital business cards on their resumes to stand out. Adding an
e-business card on a resume helps job seekers in two ways:

• Lets hiring managers quickly connect with them, and

• Provides recruiters with instant access to their digital portfolio.

All hiring managers need to do is open their smartphones, scan the QR Code, and connect with applicants through a
single click.

Artists and creators

Lastly, artists—photographers, actors, musicians—can also utilize digital business cards to find and capture new
opportunities. Whenever an artist meets with a potential client, they can share an e-business card that has
their complete contact details and links to their popular work.

Whenever someone scans the QR on the card, they can view that artist’s work, and if interested, they can contact
the creator for further conversations.

Best practices to leverage digital business cards

Customize and personalize as per your brand identity

Make sure to design your digital business cards in a way that helps customers easily recognize your brand. Add
your company logo, use brand colors, include a relevant CTA, and experiment with circular QR Codes for your e-business
cards.

The goal is to create a digital business card that stands out and prompts the user to scan it to get in touch with
you.

Here is a list of standout digital business card designs to inspire you.

Use them to include more than just contact information

Go beyond sharing just your contact details via digital business cards. You can increase their effectiveness by
linking them to a customized landing page that can consist of your ongoing campaign details or social media
handles.

The best part? You can create these mobile-friendly and beautiful landing pages right within the Beaconstac
platform and link them to your digital business cards.

Related: Create a digital business card with 20+ social media links

Additionally, you can add your office location to the card, making it extremely convenient for people to navigate
to your address.

Leverage dynamic QR Codes on digital business cards for flexibility

As mentioned in the ‘Top 5 benefits’ section, we highly recommend using dynamic QR Codes for your digital
business cards. With this category of QR Codes, you get the flexibility to edit contact details as and when
required, without the need for recreating and resharing your cards.

This can result in significant cost savings and eliminate the hassle your business would have to go through to
reshare your electronic business cards.

Share your digital business cards in a contactless manner

We recommend going completely paperless and contactless with your business card sharing. When you use Beaconstac’s digital business card solution, you get the option to add your digital business card to your Apple Wallet (or Google Wallet).

This allows you to share your e-business card with your clients directly from your mobile device. Whenever you meet a prospective customer, you need to simply open your Apple or Google Wallet and present the card. The recipient can quickly scan it and save your contact information on their smartphone.

Not only does this let you eliminate card printing costs, but it also helps you network in a completely safe and contactless manner.

RELATED: Contactless Business Card for a Completely Paperless Networking

How to choose the best digital business card solution

Now that you understand the benefits of using a digital business card and how to make one, you need to pick an e-business card generator suitable for your specific requirements.

While evaluating a digital business card generator, consider the following parameters:

Check out our guide on the best digital business card makers available today to learn which solution performs the best on all of the above-mentioned parameters.