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.
