What is a digital business card?

Business cards are a good way to share and gather contacts from your customers, partners, and suppliers. It looks professional and classy and had been this way for quite a long time. However, nowadays the world makes a turn to paperless solutions and prefer to store information, documents, and contacts digitally.

• Digital Business Card and its advantages
• Downsides of Digital Business Cards
• Ways to use your DBC
• How to create a Digital Business Card
• Ways to get DBC for free
• Do you still need a paper business card?

What is a digital business card?

Digital Business Cards are pretty much the same business cards - they are created and exchanged via the Internet instead of usual paper print. There are many apps and websites that can help to create one online.

Get your digital business card with a QR code in Linlet app. Download for free.

A great advantage of digital business cards over traditional ones is that they allow making your contacts interactive and embed different functions and features into a card. Good examples can be instant contact saving (to a phone book or CRM system), quick access to web pages or QR codes that enable tracking of who checked your business card or take them to a map location. Also, digital business cards are flexible to work with: in case of contacts, details, address and other changes you can update such a card and notify everyone who has it, potentially keeping in touch with established partners.

To top it off, digital contacts exchange helps avoiding such problems as poor business card management or losing important contacts. And, for sure, it cuts down expenses on printing all those pieces of paper.

What is the biggest problem of digital business cards?

Currently, it seems that many companies still don’t join the movement and hesitate to check out this new feature. This results using both digital and physical cards, and it makes difficult for one to manage contact exchange. As a way out, paper business card scanner can be used to analyze and import data from usual cards quickly.

Some digital business cards also require special apps to own and store them, which limits the ability to share such cards with your clients. Software differences can also become a problem in case your card is created via a specific app that doesn’t support some operating systems.

How to use my digital business card?

Like your ordinary business card, a digital one is used to share your contact information with partners, customers, etc. Depending on the platform used to create it, you can share your digital card via messengers and chats, post on your social media, attach to your email or resume. Therefore, it’s easy to share it with people abroad.

If extra features added to a card, on top of your contacts you can use it as an invitation to check your site, product, catalog and more directly from a single card. Some apps also allow creating cards with animation. If such an option is really needed for your type of business, it worths evaluating.

With advanced settings, a DBC can also help to gain contact in return, which is really useful in case you advertise to an anonymous audience on the Internet. For example, some services allow users to send their email or phone number to the owner of the DBC right on the same page. It is even possible to set a mandatory email request on your card so that your information would be available in a fair email exchange only.

Don’t forget to check tracking options for your digital business card too. Some services allow counting the number of people who checked a card, saved your contact, etc. With advanced settings, it’s also possible to share a card in several different ways and receive statistics on each one of them separately to see what marketing channel works best.

Where can I get a Digital Business Card?

If you have resources, you can create and code your digital business card to put it out on your domain. The clear advantage is user freedom: it looks and performs the way you like. Page visits tracking and activity statistics you get as a site owner would be a strong advantage too.

You can use special apps or platforms online to create a digital business card. The advantage would be to have the card created and stored without any special skills required from you. Many of the apps, though, limit abilities for creating a card or require buying a subscription. In case you decide to go with an app, make sure you check comparability with different mobile devices and operating systems.

Social networks now offer digital contact info sharing as well. LinkedIn or Instagram have already created functions similar to digital business cards, though they tend to link your "card" to the profile page rather than a phone number or email. This solution works best for small businesses that advertise and operate online via certain social network only.

How can I create a digital business card for free?

Cards created in social networks or phone directories are usually free, though with no ability to create multiple DBC for the same profile. And usually, they provide access to the card via QR codes only. Don't get it twisted, QR codes are a great way to share links or information. However, if colleagues and clients of your business struggle to use newer technologies, they may find themselves challenged to use such DBCs.

Free digital business cards can be created in Linlet Expo. It is easy to work with and fulfills most of your general contact sharing needs with some extra abilities to control over access to your card. They are shareable via most of the familiar ways including QR codes, links, messengers or Facebook. There is also an option to create multiple cards for yourself or your team members, tracking, editing and managing all DBCs from one account. Cards can be viewed in a browser from all types of devices without the need for special app or software.

Create free Business Card

Top 5 digital business card applications in 2020

1. Linlet

   • This app puts emphasis on business card functionality rather than design. It allows adding all the key contact channels and information and immediately creates a unique QR card for the card for quick access. Setup takes a few minutes and the card can later be exported to mobile wallets for convenience. Aside from business cards, the app contains handy features for networking like contact scanning and company contact inventory, which synchronizes leads from managers into one storage.

2. CamCard

   • CamCard combines digital business card functions with card scanning technology. It allows leaving notes for new contacts and exchanging your details from a profile directly from the phone. Having the app on hand can be helpful during sales meetings or events with prospect leads.

3. Business Card Maker & Creator by LIGHT CREATIVE LAB

   • This app is tailored to help your inspiration and provide functions to create vivid and visually pressing cards. It has more than a hundred templates as well as a library for different card elements. Contact cards can then be printed out as a normal business card or used in a digital format.

4. Business Card Maker by Unified Apps

   • Business Card Maker allows creating contact cards in one of 3 common formats: standard, vertical, square as well as a custom one. It supports making several profiles, which then can be used for cards. Some customization features are present as well: logo and icons are changeable. The end result can be saved to the gallery or shared on social media.

5. Business Card Maker free apps by Digital Smart Apps

   • This app allows you to create a printable business card with contact details as well as a custom logo and fonts. It is pretty simple and straightforward, combining all the key features with easy to understand interface.

Does it mean paper business cards are dead?

Absolutely not! Paper business cards are still very popular and maintain their "classy" status. They perform better for certain type of clients or areas. Paper cards also keep their role as an advertisement tool for local marketing and events.

More importantly, there is no need to choose between one or another. Digital Business Card can be embedded in a paper one as easy as placing a small QR code picture to a corner. This will allow tech-friendly people to scan the code and jump into more familiar (to them) digital version. At the same time, paper contacts you receive can be scanned and stored digitally all in one place for easier management and quick access.