Last week, HiHello released a new template experience, which helps large teams easily create many different card designs, grant users granular field-level permissions, send out bulk updates instantly, and more. Needless to say, our new templates are extremely powerful. To get the most out of designing your templates, here are some best practices to set yourself and your business up for success.
In this article, we’ll walk through everything you and your team need to consider before you start creating your new card templates. From internal meetings to questions to ask your team, this comprehensive guide will help your team transition to digital business cards seamlessly. After all, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” (Seneca)
1. Who is in charge?
While you may have only had one person in Human Resources or on the marketing team managing paper business cards, managing digital business cards may look different. With HiHello, your team can have multiple system administrators, so your team can decentralize digital business card creation and management and customize cards in whatever way works for them.
So, who should be in charge? This looks different for every company, but some common choices can look like this:
- One administrator who manages all card creation and distribution. This usually works best for small teams.
- Multiple administrators within the human resources or marketing departments who work together to manage cards for the entire company. The number of administrators can vary depending on the company size, but should total between 3 and 5.
- One administrator for each team and/or geographic region who manages card creation and distribution for each team. This choice can work best for teams with varying requirements for their cards and who need a team “owner” with direct hands-on capabilities.
With HiHello, you have the flexibility to grant administrator access in whatever way works best for your team and change them at any time. While you always have the flexibility to adjust administrator controls, starting with a general idea of how this should look for your team will make the card creation process much smoother.
2. How will the cards be used?
With paper business cards, each team member typically carried a single business card that had basic information that quickly became stale, but with digital business cards, your team can have an unlimited number of cards that can be customized for the exact use case you want. Needless to say, this opens up a whole new world of possibilities!
When thinking about what cards your team wants or needs, consider all of the interactions everyone on your team has and what information they might like to share as they interact with customers throughout the customer journey. The beauty of digital cards is that you can create cards that only include the exact information needed for each interaction.
Not sure what cards your team might need? Here are some of the types of cards companies often create for their teams:
3. What information should be on the cards?
One of the exciting things about digital business cards is their ability to hold as much information as you want. That information can be email addresses, phone numbers, links, text, PDFs, videos, and more. You have unlimited possibilities. All these options can lead to questions about what information you really need, what is most important, and what information belongs on which card. It can get overwhelming thinking of all the possibilities and narrowing it down, so to help, we came up with a few questions to help simplify the process.
What information should be used on every card?
Think about the most critical information that everyone would want to know, no matter who on your team is sharing a card with them. This should include general information about your company that you want to share with everyone who interacts with your team. Consider options like your company website, general company contact information, including email and phone number, store locations, and more.
What details should be team-specific?
This is where you need to be more discerning. Every team has different needs, and the information on their cards should reflect that. Step into the shoes of each team and consider what information makes the most sense for them.
For example, sales teams often want a calendar link on their cards so prospects can book meetings directly with them, while marketing may prefer to showcase PDFs and videos to have their marketing materials front and center, and the recruiting team probably wants a link to all of their job postings.
If you have one team making cards for every part of your company, knowing the individual needs of each team may be easier said than done. This is a great time to set up internal meetings with each team to determine what is most important to them to help the planning process.
What branding guidelines do we need to consider?
HiHello digital business cards offer highly customizable branding opportunities, so you can ensure your cards perfectly fit your brand. Before jumping into designing cards, gather all the brand information you’ll need to create beautiful cards that match your company perfectly.
Your digital business cards can showcase brand details like:
- Logo
- Brand colors
- Badges for brand awards or certifications
- … and whatever else is relevant to your business or industry!
4. How do we announce the switch to digital business cards internally?
Switching to digital business cards is an exciting opportunity for everyone in your company. They will get access to highly interactive business cards that can be shared instantly with their customers. Plus, with HiHello they also gain access to analytics, virtual backgrounds and email signatures.
It’s important to let them know these changes are coming before they receive an invitation to their digital business card. You don’t want to catch them off guard without having any clue what to do with these features. When you notify your team of this exciting change, it’s important to make sure you also share why you are making the change and educate your team on what a digital business card is and how it can benefit them.
And don’t forget, when you use HiHello as your digital business card solution, your team also gets access to email signatures, virtual backgrounds, and more.
Here are a few helpful resources that might help as you share this exciting change with your team:
- What is a Digital Visiting Card? It’s 2023’s Greatest Networking Tool
- Sustainability Report: Why Digital Business Cards are Better for the Environment
- The HiHello blog is also a great resource for helpful information about digital business cards, virtual backgrounds, email signatures, and more!
5. How do we educate our team on claiming their digital cards and using them?
Now that you’re ready to start inviting your team to use HiHello, we recommend sending an email internally to every team member who will be invited to claim a card. This email will help your team learn how to claim their card, get started with customizing it, and show them how to make the most of HiHello.
Below are resources that can help your team get started with HiHello and learn how to use their cards:
- How to Claim Your Card on a Computer
- How to Share a Digital Business Card
- Virtual Backgrounds for Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet
- How to Make a Professional Email Signature
You can learn more about how to roll out HiHello to your team in our guide to internal communication about HiHello.
6. What happens after we distribute cards to our team?
Your team has their digital business cards, virtual backgrounds, and email signatures set up. So what’s next?
- Track the usage of your team’s cards with built-in card analytics, and in-depth tracking with Google Analytics.
- Ensure card content is always up to date, and optimized with bulk template updates.
- Create new templates in an instant for every situation, be prepared for events, team restructuring, and everything in between.
Going digital isn’t only about improving your team’s networking tools. The more your team uses their digital cards, the bigger your company’s positive environmental impact becomes.
Want to learn more about how big of an impact your company can make? Check out our sustainability report, learn about the ROI of digital business cards, and keep an eye out for our end-of-year announcement to see the impact of every card shared with HiHello.
