Depends on who you want to connect with
With face-to-face meetings winding back up since COVID, our once-full boxes of business cards have slowly started disappearing again. The question then arose: Are business cards still valuable in today’s digital age?
While attending meetings, we’ve encountered professionals without cards even before the COVID-19 pandemic shut everything down. This is primarily because of LinkedIn’s QR code function in the search bar. Simply go to your app’s search bar, click it, then click the QR code icon to the right. You’ll notice that your profile’s QR code appears. Anyone can now scan it and be sent directly to your LinkedIn profile and connect instantly.
Our marketing experiences internationally have also taught us that not all countries use business cards, or at least not in the format Canadians are used to. Some countries such as China and Japan have long ditched the business card in favour of digital tools. That said, you’ll still find people hanging on to a few cards here and there, but mostly for trade shows where you never know who you’re going to meet and how they prefer to connect.
We’re never satisfied with just one or two data touch points though and you shouldn’t be either. So, we got to searching online and asking our networks. From our networks, it ultimately depended on who we asked and what industry they worked in. Government officials always had cards while many younger connections chose the LinkedIn route.
One of the many articles we read featured insights from 16 experts on the relevance of business cards. The results were also mixed. Nine experts deemed business cards necessary, four saw them as complementary to digital applications, and only three suggested discarding them entirely. The consensus leans towards retaining business cards for the foreseeable future.
Should you keep using business cards? It depends on who you’re trying to connect with and where. However, they not only help build your brand but also serve as effective marketing tools. They can leave a lasting impression to those you give them to and provide a constant point of contact.
Embrace the power of business card creation as part of your marketing strategy but remember to compliment the physical with digital. Give people the option of how they would like to connect with you. Do you still have a physical business card that may need a design refresh? Reach out to us to discuss how we can design an impactful card for you that leaves a lasting impression, reinforces your brand, and facilitates valuable connections.