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

Benefits of Using Business Cards as Virtual Backgrounds

Enhancing Credibility with a Professional Impression

In online business meetings, the impression conveyed through the 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 not only create an ideal professional setting but also project a clean, professional image, thereby increasing corporate credibility.

Enabling 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 at all times, making it more memorable. Consistently using a fixed background helps solidify your impression and contributes to the branding of both the individual and the company.

Facilitating 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. By including information such as an employee's hometown or hobbies on a virtual business card, you create opportunities for conversation among participants. Knowing each other's profiles expands the range of topics and leads to effective icebreaking before diving into the main agenda.

How to Use Business Cards as Virtual Backgrounds

Scanning Business Cards into Image Data

A 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 reveals basic information like the company address, which may be insufficient for icebreaking or sparking conversation.

Creating Your Own Using Image Editing Software

Recently, easy-to-use image creation tools have become available on web browsers. You can also create them using PowerPoint by preparing logo data and referencing your existing business card. When creating your own business card image, you must consider whether the aspect ratio matches the actual screen display, 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 inconsistent designs, making it necessary to decide whether to use a standardized 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 setting virtual backgrounds, or free tools may not support the creation of virtual background business cards at all. Furthermore, if the app includes features that also improve sales efficiency while creating these backgrounds, it can lead to higher conversion rates in online meetings.

Leveraging Business Cards with mSonar

Use It for Virtual Backgrounds! QR Code Conversion for Business Cards

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

Enabling Online Business Card Exchange

mSonar can issue business card data as a 2D barcode. By placing this 2D barcode on your virtual background, you ensure that you never miss an opportunity to exchange cards, as participants—including those who join late—can scan your information at any time. It is also possible to efficiently exchange cards with a large number of participants, such as during product training sessions. Additionally, duplicate data is automatically merged, preventing double registration.

Supporting Pre-Meeting Preparation

mSonar manages information using one of Japan's largest corporate databases, allowing you to view various details related to prospective clients and conduct thorough preparation even before exchanging business cards. Because it is constantly linked to the corporate database, data is always cleansed and updated to the latest information even after the card is registered.

You can check information on companies even if you have not yet exchanged business cards, in addition to viewing your exchange history. Since you can consistently manage everything from pre-meeting preparation to post-exchange follow-up, this leads to more efficient sales activities. By utilizing comprehensive corporate information to prepare thoroughly before 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 meet in person to exchange cards, you can extract business card information from email signatures if you are corresponding via email. By having the ability to register business cards from email signatures, you can acquire the business card information of 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). Being able to reliably register business card information even from online touchpoints can lead to 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 exchanges from anywhere, not just face-to-face. By using a virtual background as a business card, you expand your business opportunities online. Aim for increased sales by utilizing business card management tools that also improve sales efficiency.