Digital visiting card: how it works and who it suits
What a digital visiting card is, how it is handed over in South Asia and the Gulf, and the trades where it earns its place fastest.
Read it →The answer to what is a digital business card: a web page at your own address that opens on any phone without an app. It carries your name, call and WhatsApp buttons, a save-to-contacts button and a form, and you hand it over as a link, code or tap.
What is actually on the page
Top to bottom, a card page runs like this. The cover and your picture. Who you are: name, title, company, one headline. Your big button and three more beside it. The block that saves the card to somebody's phone, and the short form for staying in touch. Your row of social marks. Then whichever sections you switched on, in the order you dragged them. Then Share this card, and a small line about your printed card.
The save block and the form sit high deliberately. Getting the card onto somebody's phone is the thing that matters most, and a block below three screens of services is a block nobody sees.
The buttons are the point
One big button and three beside it, with everything else under More ways to reach me. The kinds cover call, WhatsApp, text, email, directions, save my contact, book a time, a video call, a menu, an order page, a review link, a portfolio, a brochure, a chat app, pay, and your own link.
Each one opens the detail behind it as you add it, so a button is never left on the card with nothing to press.
Save my contact deserves its own sentence. It gives a proper contact file with your name in parts, company, department, title, every phone typed as mobile, work, home or fax, WhatsApp, emails, websites, labelled links, addresses, socials, your birthday when it is a whole date, your headline as a note, your skills, your time zone and your picture. It imports cleanly on a phone, which is the difference between being in somebody's contacts and being in their downloads folder. Which buttons lead depends on the work: Book a time for a personal trainer, a menu for a bakery, a gallery for a tattoo artist.
How you hand it over
Four ways, and people use all four.
- A QR code. On the back of your paper card, on a stand at an event, on a screen.
- A link. In a message, an email signature, a profile.
- A screen. Hold up the code on your phone and let the other person point their camera at it.
- A home screen icon. Somebody who opens your card often can install it, at which point it behaves like an app they never downloaded.
The help centre's links and codes tab walks through making a code for each place you hand the card out, which is what makes the numbers afterwards worth reading.
What it does that paper cannot
It changes. A new number, a new title, a new company. The printed code in somebody's drawer keeps pointing at the card, and the card says the new thing.
It counts. Every open and every scan is recorded against the code that carried it, so you can tell the conference from the printed batch from the email signature.
It collects. The Stay in touch form asks for a name and a phone by default, and you can add email, company and a message. Those people land on your People screen as a list you own.
It sells and takes bookings. With add-ons to Pro, your card can carry a store, events with tickets and a Book a session button. People buy, register or pick a time right from your card, and they pay on your own payment page: we take no commission.
It fits in a wallet app. A pass can sit in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet with your details on it, and you can put a short message on the pass later.
It reaches people after the meeting. There are two kinds of notification, and they are easy to mix up. Card notifications go to people who opened your card from the code or the link and saved it to their phone: a follow-up after you met, or news when something changes. Wallet notifications go to people who added the pass, and a change you publish to the pass reaches their copy too. Pro is $0.99 a month and includes a monthly allowance of card notifications; the wallet pass is an add-on to it.
What paper still does better
Paper is handed over without a word of explanation. Nobody has ever been asked to scan a piece of card. In a market, a clinic waiting room, a building site, a paper card works when a phone is in a pocket and a hand is dirty.
The sensible arrangement is both: a printed card that looks like you meant it, with a code on the back that opens the card that changes. Both halves start free here, the print files and the card on the web alike. There is more in our guide to digital business cards, and when you are ready, make your free card.
Questions people ask
Does the person receiving it need an app?
No. It is a web page. It opens in whatever browser is already on the phone. They can install it to the home screen if they want to, and most people never do.
Can I stop it appearing in search results?
Yes. Search Engine Indexing is a switch on the Cards screen and under Settings. Turn it off and we ask search engines to stay away. It does not hide the page, since anybody with the link still opens it.
What happens if I stop paying?
The card stays live. A small made with line comes back, your leads and your numbers stay where they are, and anybody who writes to you while the plan is off is kept and shown to you when it is back. Nothing is deleted because a plan ended.
Can I take my card offline for a while?
Yes. Cards, then Settings, then Pause Card. Your address shows nothing until you press Resume, and your leads, counters, links and codes are untouched.