Many people believe that digital media is rapidly replacing traditional forms of branding. They believe that advances in big data have made business cards, brochures and direct mail marketing obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth. We previously published an article on the state of direct mail marketing. We showed that marketers are actually using big data to improve the performance of their direct mail marketing campaigns. We can draw a similar conclusion about the relevance of business cards in 2019. Online marketing did not make business cards go out of style. Data Floq made this point clear in a post they made in 2016.
“Many years ago, I thought the business cards were condemned to disappear; then I decided to start making my private collection, not for the future economic value that could reach, but for the sentimental value that would provide me over the years. Of all the collections I have begun, it is the only one that I still continue maintaining and increasing. Without going further, during my last visit to Mobile World Congress, MWC 2016, The year of IoT and VR, I have distributed dozens of several of my current business cards while my collection has fattened by receiving near a hundred of new cards from old and new friends and colleagues, they write.”
In fact, we have found that big data is making business card marketing better than ever.
How does big data help with business card marketing?
A few years ago, I was at a networking event in Rohnert Park, California. While attending this event, I handed out a business card to a woman that worked as a patent attorney. She used a mobile app (I think it was called Business Card Cruncher) to take a screenshot of my business card and store it on her phone. This is when I realized that big data was changing the way that we use business cards in our professional lives. I have since realized that the implications of big data have been even bigger than I originally imagined. We recently spoke with Jukebox Print about this. Here are some ways they said that big data is changing the way that we use business cards or will likely do so in the near future.
Getting a clearer understanding of the preferences of our target customers
Customers are fickle and often very complicated. We often make assumptions about our primary customer base, which we later discover are completely inaccurate. One of the biggest mistakes that businesses make is assuming that they understand the aesthetics that will be most appealing to their target customers. They might assume that using certain colors or other visual elements on their business card will be more appealing. Big data makes it a lot easier for companies to learn more about their customers. They can track engagement patterns from websites, focus groups and other interactions. The data that they collect can be used to optimize business cards for better branding results. However, it is important not to try to be too efficient. Big Data Made Simple discussed this pitfall a couple of years ago. They showed that the obsession with using big data to be more efficient often leads to paralysis by analysis. This can be said if you are obsessively trying to update your business cards as well.
Using predictive analytics to continually update business cards
Predictive analytics is one of the most useful advances in big data. It allows organizations to monitor historic data to forecast future trends. Predictive analytics technology can be particularly useful in developing new business cards. Brands have often discovered that the business cards that they printed 10 years ago are no longer compatible with current customer expectations. They might not realize the preferences have started to change until it was too late. Updating your business cards to reflect current changes in customer perception is important. Predictive analytics goes a step further. This technology helps you identify patterns in the foreseeable future that will affect customer preferences. This allows you to plan changes for your business card, so you don’t miss the boat later.
Big data plays an important role in creating excellent business cards
Business cards are not obsolete. Big data has created a lot of changes that are making them better than ever. You should be aware of the benefits and leverage them to create better business cards.