Digital Business Cards.
What Digital Business Cards are and How to Create Them?

What are Digital Business Cards?

In summary, a Digital Business Card is a webpage to download a contact file to your phone.

Digital Business Cards (DBC) is a broad term that refers to an online or app-based interactive card that contains contact information and additional features, such as: social media links, multimedia, and live updates.
As Digital Business Cards are essentially a webpage, they can be updated in real time and often include customisation options like branding, videos, and clickable links. Essentially, they are a hosted webpage formatted to contain your specific details.

CONSIDERATIONS:
The thing to consider with this is that the content that displays is a webpage:

• This means someone needs to host it.
• Every person needs a unique URL. The URL can either be made in to a QR code, or encoded onto an NFC chip
• What happens if the server goes down? You will not see any content.
• Some suppliers charge a monthly or yearly fee to host this webpage. If you don’t pay, the service stops working.
• Will only work if there is internet when the card is tapped or scanned.

How Are They Shared To A Phone?

A link to a Digital Business Cards (webpage) is shared via:

1. QR codes: Printed on your physical card.
   
2. NFC (Near Field Communication): Chip in your physical card.

A Digital Business Card should have a 'save contact' button that allows the contact to be saved to the recipient's phone.
... And when it is saved to the recipient's phone, it is referred to a 'vCard' or 'phone contact'.

See more info on how contacts save to your phone.

Digital Business Cards Service Providers

Here is a list of some options for Digital Business Card providers:

Service Provider	Info
Print Promotion (us!)	* LIFETIME from $36 per person * HOSTED solution See example.   See Service. WE Add & Customise: Logo & Profile picture Background Colour Contact Detials and Buttons See Service. PROS: One time payment LIFETIME free hosting Australian designers and phone support team Trusted by 1,000s over 20 years. CONS: Payment required to edit (once approved)
vCard Link	* FREE * HOSTED solution PROS: Free. Downloadable vCard. CONS: Not 'designed' - barely customisable. Logos are the only 'media' that can be added to the 'design / template'. Less secure, in theory, 'free' service providers could be selling your data. What happens if the website closes? The encoded links will be useless, possibly worse if operator secures the domain name for malicious intentions.
Design.com	* $5 per month per person * HOSTED solution PROS: 608 different themes Add multiple pages (basically a mini website) CONS: No downloadable vCard (contact to phone)! Expensive (in the long run when you consider total yearly cost per employee)
Tapt.io	* FREE / from USD4.16 per month per person * HOSTED solution * See website for details. * Geared toward their single printed cards (very basic) PROS: Theme for employees Platfrom Access for editing multiple employees CONS: Expensive (in the long run when you consider total yearly cost per employee)
Blinq	* FREE / from USD5.89 per month per person * HOSTED solution See website for details. CONS: Only Paid version allows saving contact to phone Expensive (in the long run when you consider total yearly cost per employee)
Businesscards.io	From USD3 per month per person HOSTED solution See website for details.

Creating Your Own Free Digital Business Cards using Smart Vcard

From what we have seen, we think Smart Vcard offer the best service.
The downsides are:

• You need to host it yourselves.
• Once created, it's quicker to create from scratch if changes are required

Although this may be some initial work for your developer, once complete, there is nothing better from a marketing perspective as it is YOUR domain and hosting that is directed to.

If you do not have the time to design and input data for the cards, we are happy to do this for you along with the hosting for a competitive one time cost .
Call Now or Contact Us  for a formal quote. See example. See Service.

1. Creating your card:
   Go to https://www.smartvcard.com/ to create your Digital Business Card.
   
2. Decide if you want to 'white label':
   AGENCY: Decide if you want the Digital Business Card to have the footer credit by Smart vCard – or if you want to customise it by purchasing white label licence.
   Follow The link at the top of the page if you want to purchase the 'white label'
3. Enter details:
   Add details into the required fields. You can choose from:
   • IMAGE: Brand logo - 350 x 100px | or | IMAGE: Cover photo - 960 x 640
   • IMAGE: Headshot - 300 x 300px
   • TEXT DETAILS: - including: Name, Job title, Business name, Address, City, State, Post Code, Country
   Business Description
4. Enter 'Primary Actions'
   Add from a list of preformatted buttons (e.g. call, email, website)
5. Enter 'Secondary Actions'
   Add from a list preformatted third party buttons (e.g. Facebook, Instagram , YouTube, Google Play)’
6. Add 'Featured Content'
   Choose From:
   a. Attach Media
   b. Add text
   c. Add product
   d. Custom button
   e. I frame code (content from a website)
   f. Embed code (content from YouTube or a website)
   // Can add multiple of these
7. Customise the footer credit
   see step 2 - If you select yes, you will be asked to purchase a white label licence for USD97 (lifetime).
   Note, if you do this now, you will loose all works in progress and have to restart
8. Simplify Your Visible vCard?
   Encourage downloads and hide icons (don't know why you would add this if you spent the time adding in all the links...)
9. Customise Your Favicon?
   Add the url of your Favicon (eg https://printpromotion.com.au/img/favicon.ico)
10. Customise Your Share Image?
    This si the image that will display wwhen shared to socials (e.g Facebook)
11. Customise Your Bookmark Image?
    This is the small image that will display when a bookmarkis saved
12. Customise your Meta Data
    This is for SEO (a. Name b. Content c. URL)
13. Search Engine Visibility
    This is for SEO (a. SEO title b. Meta Description)
14. Colour Customisation
    a. Header background
    b. Body Background
    c. Button background
    d. Feature content Background
15. Analytics Tracking
    Add you tracking code
16. Analytics Tracking
    Add you tracking code
17. Finalise
    Double check and tick the boxes to download the zip file
18. Host
    Upload the extracted folder to your hosting and make note of the URL
    For example ours is https://pp1.com.au/dbc/pp/stevekuebler/.
    Note we have 'pp' for 'print promotion' & 'stevekuebler' (person's name) for the individual employee.
19. Paste this into this spreadsheet template next to the relevant person’s name.
20. Send the spreadsheet to us - so we can encode on a NFC chip - or print variable QR codes!

Digital Business Cards & Printing

Many Digital Business Card companies like to claim that carrying a stack of business cards is outdated. Their marketing pitches often suggest that all you really need is a single, high-tech card that you simply tap on a recipient's phone to instantly share your contact details, website, and social media profiles. It sounds modern and efficient — a sleek replacement for the "old-fashioned" paper card.

However, the reality is that traditional business cards remain one of the most powerful and tangible forms of marketing collateral for face-to-face introductions. Despite the convenience of digital alternatives, the physical exchange of a business card leaves a much stronger and lasting impression. When you hand someone a well-designed, high-quality card, you are leaving them with a tangible reminder of your meeting — and by extension, of your brand, your professionalism, and the value you bring.

Digital = Contemporary | Print = Experienced & Trustworthy.
We recommend combining the two for the best possible message.
Digital Business Cards & traditional printed cards go hand in hand.

If you want the BEST possible solution, look at our Digital Business Card service.
What message are you portraying?

Regardless of whether you want a vCard or a Digital business card;
– if coded by a QR code or NFC chip, we need the data.
Paste your requirements into this spreadsheet template.
Please feel free to call us if you are stuck 😀

1. Choose a Third Party Service provider:
   This will generate a unique URL for each person's DBC.
   

   When considering free service providers, consider how do they generate revenue? It is possible some free DBC services could be selling your details. This being said, we have used vCard for some time and have not experienced any issues.

   When comparing to providers such as Tapt, consider:
   a. you are only purchaing one physical card per employee .
   b. you are paying from $55 per year per employee to keep editing functions active.

2. Provide us the links / URLs:
   Copy the links for your individual team members and paste into our spreadsheet template
3. We Create / Encode
   We will use the links in the spreadsheet to encode the NFC chips / generate QR codes to your individual cards.

Why Choose Us for Business Cards Printing

At Print Promotion, we offer the best in business cards according to your unique brand. From premium material to cutting-edge printing techniques, we ensure the cards leave the right impression on the recipients' minds. Services are offered across Newstead, QLD, and all surrounding regions to provide our customers with quality and personalisation.

Building your brand identity requires a strategy, including selecting the best business cards. From selecting materials to perfecting the design, emphasis is placed on every detail. Choose a reliable printing service for your business cards and enjoy a professional look that reflects the very heart of your brand.

Get started today!

Call us on 1300 669 211,or shop online at www.printpromotion.com.au. Although online shopping is available, we recommend a complimentary consultation (via phone or video call) based on your artwork to ensure the best results. Let us help you print business cards that will leave a lasting impression!