|
Even if your business cards are printed on the finest paper with the most sophisticated design, there are still some inherent limitations: About all you can fit on the 3.5-by-2-inch face is your name, title, company name and logo, phone number, e-mail address and the URL of your Web site. And that's a squeeze.
However, with a "CD business card," you take a piece of plastic about the same size, put the basic information on its face and fill it with 40 to 100 megabytes of graphics, audio and video. Suddenly, you're passing out an infomercial that fits into your customers' wallets and can be played in their CD-ROM drives.
|
Endless Possibilities
Here are some of the types of content you can put on an electronic business card: |
|
Product catalogues |
Brochures |
|
New product launches |
Handbooks |
|
Annual reports |
Training programs |
|
Personal medical records |
Web site links/ e-mail address |
|
Dissertations |
Music and audio demos |
|
Resumes |
Electronic publications |
Digital business cards have been around for a couple of years now, and while they're making inroads, they obviously haven't replaced paper. For one thing, they're expensive - costing anywhere from $1.50 to more than $5 apiece (compared with just pennies for standard cards). And many people really do want just your name and phone number, not a 40-minute multimedia presentation.
But with some careful planning, CD business cards can become an important part of your marketing arsenal, taking their place alongside calendars, magnetic business cards and company brochures.
If you're considering adding this new technology to your promotional material, start thinking like a movie director. Here are the six major elements to include:
Target your audience. Who is going to get the cards and how do you want them to respond? Are the CD cards meant as an introduction to your company, a way to build communication with current customers, or a call to action?
Carefully choose content. Determine what you want your customers to see. Animation can bring life to a static introduction or a typical PowerPoint presentation. Links to send e-mails or draw the customer to your Web site can facilitate relationship building. And adding e-commerce capabilities can increase your revenue stream.
Take the viewer along. Tell customers why they should follow links to your site and what is waiting for them. This helps drive customers closer to you.
Make your cards last. Don't include material that changes often or you'll find your customers – and your company – holding out-of-date and useless cards.
|
Beware of Hidden Costs When you get a quote for CD business cards, ask about these costs, which aren't always included:
- Rush orders
- Setup fees
- Graphics assistance
- Storyboard creation
- Programming help
|
Keep them compatible. Be sure any computer that was made during the past five years can read the cards. You don't want any special software to be required to look at them. (Be sure the cards are built to fit snugly into the CD drive. Otherwise they can fly out and even damage the user's computer.)
Don't overload customers. If you've never seen a CD business card, they're smaller than a traditional CD, yet still work in a computer's disk drive. One drawback is the thickness of some cards on the market. Customers can't carry a lot of them around any more than they can carry too many credit cards and ID cards. Thinner is better.
CD business cards are probably most appropriate for high-tech companies and businesses that need to present a great deal of information to customers in a multimedia fashion. For other companies, a Web site might be just as effective.
Digital cards aren't likely to replace the art and ceremony of exchanging traditional paper cards. But for the right business, this new technology can be an effective marketing tool and it's still enough of a novelty to grab attention.
|
Full Newsletter
