How to Digitize Business Cards and Set Them as Virtual Backgrounds: Benefits and Methods Explained

Benefits of Using Business Cards as Virtual Backgrounds

Enhancing Credibility with a Professional Impression

During online business meetings, the visual impression conveyed on screen shapes your corporate image. While using a meeting room wall as a background to avoid showing a cluttered office is one approach, it makes it difficult to differentiate yourself from other participants. Even when uploading a simple, business-appropriate image, selecting the optimal one can be challenging. By setting your business card as your background, you ensure a professional and clean appearance, which enhances corporate credibility.

Facilitating Personal Branding

Corporate business cards often include logos and slogans in addition to basic information like addresses. In reality, when exchanging paper business cards, there are few opportunities for the recipient to carefully review the content beyond the moment of exchange. By setting your business card as a virtual background during online meetings, it remains visible to participants throughout the session, making a lasting impression. Consistent use of a branded background helps solidify your professional image and contributes to both personal and corporate branding.

Promoting Icebreaking and Communication

Since online meetings rely solely on on-screen information, it can sometimes be harder to initiate icebreaking compared to face-to-face meetings. Including personal information such as hometowns or hobbies on your virtual business card can serve as a conversation starter among participants. Knowing each other's profiles broadens the scope of conversation and facilitates effective icebreaking before diving into the main agenda.

How to Use Business Cards as Virtual Backgrounds

Scanning Business Cards into Image Data

The prerequisite for using a business card as a virtual background is having it in digital format. A quick method that requires no special tools is to scan your physical business card and set the resulting image as your virtual background. While this incurs almost no cost, it presents challenges such as reduced image quality, which can make the card content difficult to read. Furthermore, simply converting a card to an image only discloses basic information like the company address, which may be insufficient for icebreaking or sparking conversation.

Creating Your Own Using Image Editing Software

Recently, there are many easy-to-use image creation tools available on web browsers. You can also create them using PowerPoint by preparing data such as logos and referencing your existing business card. When creating your own business card image, you must consider whether the aspect ratio matches the actual display screen, which can be time-consuming if you are not accustomed to image production. Additionally, if employees create their own, it may lead to discrepancies in quality or design inconsistency. It is advisable to decide whether to use a unified image across the company.

Representative Free Tools Include the Following:
• Virtual Business Card Background Generator
• zoome
• Regional Support Online Business Card Virtual Background Maker

We recommend selecting the optimal tool based on your specific objectives.

Using Business Card Management Tools

To effectively use business cards as virtual backgrounds for enhancing corporate image, personal branding, and conducting effective online meetings, using a "Business Card Management Tool" is essential. Business card management apps offer convenient features for virtual backgrounds, such as the ability to select designs and styles to add originality. However, depending on the tool, there may be additional fees for virtual background features, or free tools may not support virtual business card creation at all. Furthermore, if the app includes features that also improve sales efficiency, it can lead to higher conversion rates in online meetings.

Leveraging Business Cards with mSonar

QR Code Conversion for Virtual Backgrounds

mSonar allows you to convert your business card information into a URL or a 2D barcode, which can then be used for your virtual background.

Enabling Online Business Card Exchange

mSonar can issue business card data as a 2D barcode. By displaying this 2D barcode on your virtual background, you ensure that participants—whether they joined at the start or arrived late—can scan your information at any time, ensuring you never miss an opportunity to exchange cards. This is also efficient for exchanging cards with a large number of participants, such as during product training sessions. Additionally, duplicate data is automatically merged to prevent double registration.

Supporting Preparation Before Online Meetings

mSonar manages information using one of Japan's largest corporate databases, allowing you to view various details related to prospective clients for thorough preparation even before exchanging cards. Because it is constantly linked to the corporate database, data is automatically cleansed to ensure it remains up-to-date even if a company moves or changes information after you have registered their card.

You can check information on target companies even if you have not yet exchanged business cards, not just your exchange history. Since the process from pre-meeting preparation to post-exchange management is consistently smooth, it leads to more efficient sales activities. By leveraging comprehensive corporate information to prepare thoroughly for online meetings, you can conduct more effective interviews.

Exchanging Business Cards via Email Signatures

mSonar also enables business card exchange via email signatures. With a feature that automatically splits and reflects necessary information by copying and pasting the email signature, registration is simple.

Even in situations where you have only met via online meetings or web conferences and cannot exchange cards in person, you can extract business card information from email signatures if you have been corresponding via email. Having a business card registration feature from email signatures allows you to acquire contact information for all participants, even in remote environments where physical exchange is not possible.

It also supports sending in vCard format (the standard file format for electronic business cards). By reliably registering business card information even from online touchpoints, you can create new business opportunities.

• Download Now

Using Virtual Backgrounds as Business Cards to Improve Sales Efficiency

Online business cards eliminate restrictions caused by physical distance, offering the significant benefit of allowing card exchanges from anywhere, not just in person. By using virtual backgrounds as business cards, you can expand your business opportunities online. Aim for increased sales by using business card management tools that also improve sales efficiency.