Increase the ROI of Your Professional Networking via Digital Business Cards

Professional networking is crucial regardless of what you do or at what stage you are in your professional journey. A LinkedIn study shows that nearly 80% of business professionals consider networking essential for career progression.

Today’s professional networking is progressively becoming technology-driven. Individuals and organizations now use various digital avenues with traditional offline mediums to build meaningful professional networks.

In this post, learn the significance of professional networking in your career or business. You will also learn how to improve your professional networking ROI using a widely-used digital communication tool.

Table of contents

1. What is professional networking, and why is it crucial?
2. 6 Ways digital business cards can enhance your professional networking
3. Boost your professional networking ROI with Uniqode
4. Frequently asked questions about professional networking

What is professional networking, and why is it crucial?

Professional networking refers to mindfully creating and maintaining meaningful relationships with other professionals or potential clients in your field.

It helps you build a strong network and find more opportunities to advance in your career or acquire more customers for your products or services. 

Traditionally, professional networking interactions involved the exchange of paper business cards.

However, paper business cards present various drawbacks that can hurt your professional networking ROI.

These drawbacks include a restrictive content space, lack of real-time interactivity, limited sharing capabilities, and high printing costs, among others.

To conduct networking that delivers substantial, measurable results, you must switch to a paper business card alternative that eliminates all of these drawbacks. This is where a digital business card (or virtual business card) can prove beneficial.

In the next section, you will learn how digital business cards can play a key role in building a strong professional network for better career opportunities and securing more clients.

6 Reasons why digital business cards are a must-have for professional networking

1. Appear modern and professional in your networking
2. Conduct 100% paperless and contactless professional networking
3. Use interactivity to increase your professional networking ROI
4. Track the results of your professional networking
5. Establish two-way contact sharing between you and your client
6. Save thousands of dollars in your professional networking initiatives

1. Appear modern and professional in your networking

Appearing professional is essential in every aspect of business, with networking being no different. 

The dress you wear, how you speak, what you say, and what communication tools you use—consciously or subconsciously cast your first impression. 

When it comes to communication channels in face-to-face networking, paper business cards are losing appeal in today’s tech-driven business environments. 

For this reason, using an outdated networking tool such as a paper business card could be counterintuitive if you wish to appear professional among your network. 

Upgrading to a digital business card is one of the best ways to appear modern and professional in your networking. Remember, appearing professional increases trust and credibility and leaves a better first impression. 

2. Conduct 100% paperless and contactless professional networking

If you are committed to building a professional network, you must carry a business card with you at all times. The reason being you would never know when and where professional networking opportunities can emerge. 

This need to be networking-ready at all times means you must carry multiple copies of your card wherever you go—a necessity that can prove cumbersome. You may limit the number of cards you hold, but you risk running out of copies during crucial networking scenarios. 

Digital business cards eliminate these issues in your professional networking. Being 100% paperless, digital business cards can be stored virtually on your mobile device. 

So long as you carry your mobile device, you can share your digital business card as often as required without worrying about running out of copies. 

Moreover, the only way to distribute a paper business card is through face-to-face, physical interactions. Since digital business cards are paperless, you can share them through various contactless means, whether online or in person.

3. Use interactivity to increase your professional networking ROI

Per a Salesforce report, 6 out of 10 consumers prefer digital interactions with businesses over physical ones due to convenience. This finding is unsurprising since digital customer experiences are significantly more interactive. 

Hence, providing a digital environment for potential clients and connections to interact with your business card can increase your chances of winning them over (as much as 2x, according to Demand Metric).

Paper business cards lack real-time interactivity in this regard. Your recipients have no choice but to view and manually save your information on the card by typing it on their mobile devices.

In contrast, digital business cards are highly interactive. Your recipients can interact with your contact information in a click-to-access manner. 

For instance, if a client wishes to contact you, they simply click one of the phone numbers shown on your virtual business card. If they want to view your business location, they simply click the Google Maps icon on your card.

4. Track the results of your professional networking

Paper business cards don’t provide card scan tracking and analytics; hence you cannot ascertain if your professional networking efforts are getting your ideal results. 

The only way to capture card-scan data and gauge the performance of your networking initiatives is via a virtual business card. 

With a virtual business card, you can obtain the following metrics in real-time:

1. The total number of views your card has received
2. The number of times your contact was saved
3. The total number of unique recipients your card has reached
4. Your best and worst-performing digital business cards
5. Card engagement by time, date, location, and device

With this data in hand, you can now determine if your digital business cards are getting the desired results and make data-driven decisions to optimize your networking efforts. 

5. Establish two-way contact sharing between you and your client

As mentioned earlier, exchanging paper business cards can be full of friction. 

Suppose you are a sales professional, and after giving your initial presentation, you have piqued your prospect’s interest. 

This interaction will likely end with both parties exchanging paper business cards—a process that requires various manual efforts, such as typing and saving contact details on mobile devices. 

In addition, you, as the sales agent, must also manually populate your lead management system with your prospect’s contact information. 

Repeating this process several times a day can be extremely inconvenient.

To eliminate unnecessary friction in your networking, switching to a digital business card that offers two-way contact-sharing can help.

With two-way contact-sharing, your card recipients can instantly share their contact information directly from your digital business card. As a result, you can capture your prospect’s details as soon as they become warm. 

Even if a warm lead does not share their contact details immediately, they can do so anytime since they now have your digital business card.

6. Save thousands of dollars in your professional networking initiatives

Currently, the average annual cost to print paper business cards is $194 in the US. For a team of 250 employees, you would have to spend an average of $48,500 in annual printing expenses. 

This average cost can further rise if you opt for complex designs and use expensive materials for your paper business cards. 

Professional networking can yield positive outcomes for your business. But it does not have to incur costly overheads. 

With digital business cards, your costs come at only $48 – $72 annually per team member (depending on the digital business card pricing plan you choose). 

So for the same 250 employees, you can spend as low as $12,000 – $18,000 per year, saving you as much as 75% on your business card expenses.

Another drawback of paper business cards is that they can become outdated with even the slightest change in your contact information. Updating your cards would require another round of reprinting, redistribution, and the accompanying hefty costs.

On the other hand, you can instantly update your digital business card at the back end, which immediately reflects on your live card. This flexibility eliminates reprinting and redistribution.

Boost your professional networking ROI with Uniqode’s digital business cards

Results-driven professional networking can help you achieve your business or career goals. But to conduct it efficiently and grow a meaningful professional network, you must possess the right networking tools.

With Uniqode, you can access all the features you need to create digital business cards at scale. Once created, you can immediately share them through various contactless methods, such as via Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, URL, and QR Code.

Each digital business card you share enables two-way contact-sharing—a capability to capture your recipients’ contact information right from your card. You can view and manage all your captured details as leads in your digital address book.

In contrast to other platforms, Uniqode’s digital business card solution lets you access all these features without downloading an app. Moreover, all your networking activities through the solution are protected by robust, enterprise-grade security measures.

Further reading: The 6 Best Digital Business Card Solutions Available Today

Frequently asked questions about professional networking

How do I network professionally?

One of the best ways to exude professionalism during networking interactions is by relying on digital networking tools, such as digital business cards.

Paper business cards can negatively impact your networking efforts due to their many drawbacks: restrictive content space and a lack of interactivity, to name a few. 

Switching to a digital business card addresses all of these drawbacks and helps you network professionally. These digital networking tools provide:

1. Limitless content space 
2. Real-time interactivity
3. Two-way contact-sharing
4. Paperless and contactless card-sharing via Apple or Google Wallet pass

Learn more: The Top 9 Digital Business Card Benefits 

Do I need a digital business card for a professional networking event?

Using digital business cards during networking events can generate more ROI than physical business cards. Here are a few reasons:

1. You can significantly reduce card-printing costs since you don’t need to carry stacks of paper business cards.
2. You never forget or misplace your business card since it is stored on your mobile device.
3. There is no limit to how many times you can share your card. You do not run out of copies.
4. Share your card in a professional and contactless manner by adding it to your Apple Wallet (or Google Wallet).
5. Capture your client’s contact details from your digital business card via two-way contact-sharing.

Do digital business cards allow interactive professional networking?

Yes. Digital business cards are highly interactive. Your card recipients can access all the information on your card instantly and in real-time. 

For instance, if a client wishes to contact you, they can simply click on a phone number or an email address. If they want to save your contact information on their device, they can do so with a similar click of a button. 

Your clients can even share their contact information right from your digital business card via two-way contact-sharing.

All of these capabilities make digital business cards the perfect tool for interactive and professional networking.

• Author Details

Author Details

Reuben Isidoro

Reuben is a Content Marketer who helps businesses drive audience engagement and conversions through compelling content narratives. Currently, he explores the impact of simple yet innovative business tools, such as digital business cards, on organizational ROI.

https://www.uniqode.com/blog/

reuben.j@uniqode.com