What are Digital Business Cards and Why You Should Have One – Infographic

Having to carry around traditional business cards is a hassle since you’ll need to carry multiple copies of the same card. Not only are they likely to gather dust due to lack of use or be misplaced, but they’re also pricey as is and costly to update. A digital business card, however, is a cost-effective alternative.

What are Digital Business Cards?

Digital business cards are also known as electronic business cards. Unlike traditional cards, a digital card has no physical space constraints and can even contain as much information as the cardholder wants. These cards can contain basic info, which includes the following:

• Name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Photo
• Video
• Social media profiles
• Company/Freelance business logo

Why Should You Have a Digital Business Card?

It’s somewhat debatable whether you need a digital business card or not. Whether you need it or not will likely depend on your use case. You’ll need one for you and your employees if you’re a prominent business owner. But what if you’re a small entrepreneur or a budding freelancer? Do you need to build a website or a social media profile to serve as a business card and either use QR or NFC to share it?

Do You Even Need a Business Card?

Do you want to expand your business? Then, yes, you’ll need a digital business card. You can use either a webpage on a dedicated website or a personal blog as your digital business card with links to other pages to showcase your past work, guides, or informative articles related to your niche. Choosing the homepage or an “about us” page as a business card and then linking to certain contents will be helpful.

Digital business cards are useful for many people; even hobbyists can make their own digital cards, especially when using NFC cards. Digital cards also have a lot of advantages for the cardholder.

Advantages of Digital Business Cards

Digital Cards are Convenient 

Digital business cards are convenient for cardholders since they don’t necessarily need to carry a physical around in their wallets, especially large numbers for distribution. Because the cards are digital, there’s no need to worry about lacking enough cards to distribute since your card will either be a dedicated webpage or a digital card made through an app.

Cardholders can either show a QR code to their potential partners or clients or have them tap an NFC tag to see the business card. There’s no need to take out a physical card to show to people, so using either technology is more convenient than the traditional cards.

Digital Cards are Cost-Effective

The problem with using traditional cards is that they’re too costly to produce in large quantities, and they’ll need to be well-designed to appeal to whoever is receiving them. With digital business cards, anyone can make their own cards, especially with many free business card templates available on the internet.

Even if you want to pay for premium business card designs, the cost for production is still low since you won’t need to print out multiple copies of the card. Even when using a QR code, the cost is low even when printing them in large quantities, and it’s even possible to save the QR code image, so there’s no reproduction cost. An NFC business card must only be printed once and stored in a card holder phone attachment.

While the cost of NFC is a disadvantage, it’s still arguably worth it as future clients might get impressed with how you use NFC. Plus, the ease of use can make meetings and transactions seamless, which will appeal to many people. An NFC digital business card is well worth the investment.

Digital Cards Allow for Contactless Sharing

Regardless of where people hold their meetings these days, people can easily share their business cards when having them in digital format. When in online meetings, you can send a link through chat or display an image of a QR code through screen sharing. Either method is effective in sharing the business card online. An NFC card in face-to-face meetings will be more convenient since the other person only needs to tap the tag embedded in the card to see the business card.

A digital business card can make for an excellent contactless business card in the UK.

Should You Use URL, QR, or NFC for Your Business Card?

Once you’re convinced that you need a digital business card, you can choose from several mediums to share the card with people. You can share digital business cards using three different ways, namely the following:

• URL
• QR code
• NFC tag

Should You Rely on URL Sharing?

Using URLs to show your digital business card is one inadvisable option unless the web address is integrated properly into a webpage. Writing blogs and integrating the business card’s URL to the Call to Action is better than manually sharing it through messaging apps.

Sharing a URL manually to direct people to their digital business cards might turn off some people out of fear that the link might be a phishing link, but it should be fine when integrated inside blog articles. QR codes and NFC tags may be better since they can be more presented professionally.

 Is QR Code Scanning Great?

Showing a business card by having other people scan a particular QR code is a better alternative to URL sharing.

The problem with using QR codes is that it will redirect people to a particular webpage, so the other party will need internet access to see the card. What if they don’t have mobile data? Public Wi-Fi is bad since hackers usually use rogue Wi-Fi hotspots to intercept data and infect the device with malware, and it’s better not to expose future clients to that danger.

If you really want to use QR codes, you’ll have to ensure secure internet access, so bringing pocket Wi-Fi is ideal. This means more costs for a suitable data plan. NFC tags may be better to serve as digital business cards when out travelling.

Read More: NFC Tags Vs QR Codes

Why Use NFC Digital Business Cards?

NFC business cards utilise near-field communication technology to share information. Unlike QR codes and URL-based digital business cards, you can only encode a limited amount of information, depending on the size limitations of the NFC tag used.

The largest capacity tag is the NTAG216, with a whopping 888 bytes of capacity, making it ideal for business cards. There are also other NFC chip types with varying features and storage capacities.

You might be faced with size limitations, but you can still encode a few vital information for basic introductions and then provide a URL to your website or online portfolio. Sharing this information is also seamless since the other party only needs to tap your NFC tag or card to see your business card without needing the internet. All they need is an NFC-enabled device then they can save your business card for future review.

Conclusion

Digital business cards have multiple advantages compared to traditional cards, and people have excellent options between URL, QR codes, and NFC cards. If you’re a business owner or a freelancer, you’ll be able to take advantage of the card at a relatively low cost, depending on the platform you use. NFC cards are arguably the best since they don’t rely on the internet.

If you want to learn more about digital business cards, especially NFC cards, visit NFC Tagify today. You can learn the different cool uses of NFC tags and how industries use NFC technology today.