Marketing Yourself Digitally: Is it Time to Retire the Paper Business Card?

Impress your clients and colleagues with these new mobile marketing replacements for the business card.

Imagine yourself at an industry event. You’re having a wonderful and insightful conversation about technology and the exciting world of digital marketing. Then, when it’s time to exchange information, you hand over a paper business card. Does it do the job? Yes. Is it impressive? Probably not. Even the most beautifully designed and creative business card still says “old school”.

It’s time to get creative with a few business card alternatives:

The Bump. This is one of the more popular methods of electronic business card alternatives, and one of the easiest as long as you both have the application. A few pros include compatibility with both iPhone and Android, it’s easy to just “bump” the phones together to swap info and it’s free. The only aspect that may prove difficult is if you want to give your business card without asking for theirs (not all of us are PR masters with nerves of steel). In that case, you may want to have a few spare paper cards on hand.

CardMunch. CardMunch is Linkedin’s version of the mobile business card. With CardMunch, you can simply take a photo of the business card and the image is sent off to be transcribed (by humans) and sent back to you within 24 hours. The downfall is that at this point it’s only available for the iPhone 3GS with Blackberry and Android reportedly on the way. However, one big step that CardMunch has is that it will connect with their Linkedin profile and offer up info not given on the card including connections you have in common.

Cloudcard. Cloudcard allows you to create your card right in the app, making it a snap to send them out. Once you meet someone you want to exchange cards with, you can either send the “card” from your phone to their email or (if they have the app), from phone to phone. It is kind of handy to have the ability to send the card without them having the app. Another great feature is that it saves the location, so it is much easier to remember the person, and to send a follow-up email.

QR Codes. Sure, this is one of the more obvious places to take advantage of this technology, but there are so many ways you can leverage it. You could link it to the home page of your website, or better yet a “Special Offer” page that can only be accessed through the QR Code. Just make sure it is a mobile enabled page because the only way it will be viewed is on the miniature screen of a smart phone. You could simply set it up to download your contact info into your prospects Smartphone (where it belongs in the first place).

But don’t throw out those business cards quite yet. As much as the digital business card revolution is trying to take off, there are still moments a paper card will be handy. So, it’s best to have the “wow” factor waiting on your phone, but bring a few back-up paper cards just in case.

Would you try a new app or do you prefer traditional business cards?

Contact WSI Globalnet now and discover how you can add mobile aspects to your digital marketing plan.