When Kevin
Tolsma, a financial consultant at the Bellevue, Calif.-based asset
management firm, Linsco Private Ledger, wanted to explore new
ways of marketing his business, he didn't turn to the newspaper
or the yellow pages. Although his company already had a Web site,
it had received a total of only five hits.
So Tolsma
turned to an even newer technology than the Internet to try to
attract potential new customers: electronic business cards. These
mini CD-ROMs are the size of a standard business card with rounded
edges, have graphics on the card's exterior and can be played
in any standard CD-ROM drive. With memory capacities ranging from
40 to 100 megabytes and above, these cards serve as an "electronic
brochure," incorporating video, PowerPoint and other messages
that run as virtual advertisements. They can even provide an automatic
link to your company's Web site.
Convinced
the novelty would attract customers, Tolsma mailed 180 of the
cards to potential clients, providing two to each person and encouraging
them to pass them on. Tolsma's instincts were right. Not only
did referrals from the mailing pay for the cost of the cards,
he received about 30 hits on his Web site the week after he mailed
out the card - still not a huge number, but one that represents
a more than 16% direct response to the mailing.
Other users
of e-cards have seen even bigger results. Bellevue, Wash.-based
attorney Steve Lingenbrink says he began receiving nearly 10,000
hits a month-as compared with a previous monthly average of about
800 hits-after he was featured on one of e-card manufacturer biguppy.com's
demo cards.
"I think
this is the most economical way of advertising that my company
has come up with in 10 years," says Tim Harless, founding principal
of TD Northwest, a roofing and waterproofing business based in
Tigard, Ore. " It gives me the opportunity to do a [virtual] one-on-one
presentation with a prospective client. I fully intend to increase
my company's revenue 25% to 50% just by using these cards."
Harless recently
handed the cards out at a local Associated Building Contractors
banquet. Because of responses he has received, he anticipates
securing several thousands of hours of extra work - which he says
could add as much as 25% to his gross revenue. In fact, Harless
was so impressed with the cards that he has become a distributor
for bigguppy.com
The cards
have other uses as well:
- Quixtar,
the online component for Amway - the Ada, Mich.-based direct-to-consumer
distributor - actually earns money with the cards. It requires
its independent sales reps to purchase the CDs, which are loaded
with a sales training program, says Mike Shead, a project manager
at Torrance, Calif.-based e-card manufacture SysTECH.
- Some Customers
use their cards as annual reports or electronic catalogs - which
can save companies money on postage and printing costs, according
to Troy Lerner, an interactive media consultant at Denver-based
i-MediaCard.
- Catalog
CDs can be configured to link to a company's Web site to obtain
the most up-to-date prices.
- The mini-CDs
have also been used as tickets to special events such as concerts-offering
links to merchandise as well as two or three of the artist's
recorded songs.
Prices for
the cards start from $1-$2 per CD with varied minimum order requirements.
Customers also pay extra for design and set-up fees to cover audio
and video aspects.
Although cards
are available in different shapes-one SysTECH client, Century
21 real estate agent Shane Braudo, ordered his in the shape of
a house.
According
to Lerner, of i-MediaCards, users need to be wary of any CDs that
don't sit squarely in the CD drive. The first electronic business
cards, used mainly in Europe, had square edges and some of the
cards flew out of the CD drives and destroyed users' computers-making
them a not-so-effective marketing tool.
In addition,
while most e-card customers appear happy with their results, they
also warn that the very thing they believe makes the cards such
a powerful marketing tool - the interest sparked by their novelty
- will likely wear off within a few years. Right now, "it's
the business card of the future," says Harless.
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