I recently created something for a client that I think is a good example of the way I approach website projects.
It wasn’t another page for people to find through Google.
It wasn’t something we needed to add to the website navigation.
In fact, most visitors to the website will probably never see it.
It’s a digital business card.
And sometimes the smallest additions to a website can be surprisingly useful.
From a QR code to the person you just met
The idea is very simple.
You’re at a meeting, conference, networking event or perhaps just talking to somebody who might be interested in what you do.
Instead of handing them a printed business card, you show them a QR code.
They scan it with their phone and immediately arrive at a page designed specifically for that moment.
Not the website homepage.
Not a complicated contact page.
A simple, mobile-friendly introduction containing the information they’re most likely to need after meeting you.
Who you are.
What you do.
How to contact you.
And the appropriate next steps if they’d like to continue the conversation.
The person has already met you.
The job of the page is simply to make what happens next as easy as possible.
Why not just send them to the homepage?
Because context matters.
Someone who has just met you doesn’t necessarily need the same experience as someone discovering your business through a Google search.
They already know who you are.
They’ve probably already heard something about what you do.
What they need now is an easy way to remember you and get back in touch.
That’s why I like creating a page specifically for that purpose.
It’s designed primarily for the small screen they’re holding in their hand, with the useful information immediately available.
No hunting through menus.
No trying to remember your name later.
No typing a website address from a printed card.
Scan.
Arrive.
Connect.
And it’s part of your own website
There are third-party services available for creating digital business cards.
But if I’ve already built and manage a client’s website, I often don’t see the point in sending their potential customer somewhere else.
We already have the client’s branding.
We already have their website.
We already have the technology.
So I can create the experience on their own domain.
That means we’re not sending somebody who has just met the client to a generic profile on somebody else’s platform.
We’re keeping that experience within the client’s own online presence.
The design can match their business.
The content can say exactly what we want it to say.
And if their business changes, we can change the page too.
There’s no need for the QR code itself to change just because we decide to improve what’s waiting at the other end of it.
A recent example
I recently created one of these for Sarah Liebenberg at The Travel Lab.
Sarah can now use a QR code when she’s meeting people and give them a quick route to a mobile page containing the information they’ll need to reconnect with her.
For this article, I’ve included the QR code so you can scan it yourself on your phone and see the idea in action.
If you’re reading this on a computer or another device with your phone nearby, scan the code in the business card above and have a look.
This isn’t really about digital business cards
This is the bit I think matters.
I’m not particularly interested in selling somebody a clever little piece of technology simply because it’s clever.
I’m interested in asking:
What is this business trying to achieve, and is there something useful I can do to help?
Sometimes that’s a completely new website.
Sometimes it’s better content.
It might be search engine optimisation, hosting, graphics, analytics, training or ongoing support.
And occasionally it’s something relatively small, like creating a better way for somebody you met five minutes ago to reconnect with you.
The technology comes afterwards.
The business objective comes first.
That’s increasingly how I think about my role with clients.
I’m not there simply to build the pages they ask me to build.
Part of my job is to understand their business well enough to spot opportunities they might not have considered.
Small improvements can remove little bits of friction
A digital business card isn’t going to transform a business overnight.
That’s not the claim.
But imagine somebody has just had a really good conversation with you.
They’re interested.
Perhaps they intend to contact you when they get back to the office.
Every additional step you put between that moment and making contact introduces a little bit of friction.
Find the business card.
Type the website address.
Find the right person.
Navigate the website.
Find the contact details.
Maybe they’ll do all of that.
Maybe they’ll get distracted.
Or they can scan a code while they’re standing in front of you.
That’s a tiny improvement.
But good websites are often made up of lots of tiny improvements.
It’s another reason I like owning the solution
Building this within the client’s existing website also means I’m not creating another piece of technology for them to worry about.
There’s no completely separate online presence that somebody in the business has to remember exists.
It’s something I can manage alongside the rest of their website.
If Sarah wants to change the information later, we can change it.
If we discover people are responding particularly well to something, we can develop it.
If there’s another useful action we want visitors to take, we can add it.
The solution can evolve with the business.
And because I provide ongoing support to my clients, they don’t have to work all of that out themselves.
Websites should do useful things
I spend a lot of time designing and building websites.
But ultimately, I’m not particularly interested in websites for the sake of websites.
I want them to do useful things for businesses.
I want them to make it easier for customers to take the next step.
I want them to solve problems.
I want them to remove unnecessary friction.
And I want clients to feel that the person looking after their website is thinking about their business rather than simply waiting for the next list of requested changes.
A digital business card is a very small example of that.
But I think it’s a good one.
Sometimes the most useful question isn’t:
“What else can we put on the website?”
It’s:
“What else can we make the website do for the business?”
That’s the kind of question I like asking in the Lab.
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Take a look at The Travel Lab Australia main website here…