If you’re looking for a sleek and modern way to exchange contact information, a digital business card is becoming the norm in today’s digital world. There are many great reasons to toss your box of outdated business cards in the trash: not eco-friendly, not easily updateable, limited space, lack of tracking features- I could keep going.
So if you’re thinking of making the transition (because seriously, I’m willing to bet 90% of your cards end up in the trash anyway), then definitely check out the best digital business cards on the market.
Today, I’m going to do a deep dive review specifically with Linq Business Card (no, they’re not related to the hotel). But you can also check out my complete list of the best digital business cards, NFC cards, Popl Review, and how to create a digital business card.
So, let’s get into a full Linq Review.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means I’ll receive a commission if you purchase through my links, at no extra cost to you. Please read my full disclosure for more information. This product was also provided to me by the company for free, however, I never hold back and provide my honest opinions (good and bad) about all products I review.
Table of Contents
What Is A Digital Business Card?
A digital business card is an electronic version of a traditional paper business card. They can transmit this information in multiple ways: NFC technology products, individual links to business landing pages that you can email/text/share, or QR codes that you can send manually from your phone to your client.
What’s great about them is they can be exchanged in person or online, and they provide a more efficient and eco-friendly way to exchange contact information. Want to network during a video conference? Now that’s no problem with a digital business card.
What is a Linq Business Card?
Linq is a digital business card platform that offers a variety of features and products to help you create a sleek and modern digital business card. They utilize NFC technology, the same technology you use to tap your debit card at the Starbucks machine to pay for your latte.
Many people love NFC digital business cards because it merges the old way of having a physical object in your hand but is modernized by sending your company’s information digitally with many new capabilities.
First, let’s check out what type of products you can purchase with Linq.
What Products Does Linq Offer?
When many people think about a digital business card, they picture a plastic card (like a debit card) with an NFC chip. But really, anything can be embedded with NFC technology, and it may be more convenient for you.
Here are some of the popular products Linq offers:
Linq Card
Like many other companies, they offer standard and custom options for the NFC business cards.
For the Standard options, you have more options than many other competitors, with over ten colors to choose from. The Bamboo is my personal favorite.
For the Custom options, I was able to design my card. The process was pretty straightforward. You can upload your logo, choose different background colors, and preview it as you’re designing. Here’s what mine turned out like:
And the back has a QR code for older phones that do not have the NFC tech yet, or when your NFC fails you.
So far, no major issues scanning with these. Sometimes, I do need the other person to lock their phone. I find it works better that way.
Linq Taps and Linq QR Taps
These are tags that typically go on the back of your phone, but you can apply them anywhere. The QR tap is great because if you’re having difficulty sending your contact information to potential clients, the QR code will do the trick.
Linq Apple Watch Band
This is an incredible product if you can’t be caught without your apple watch on you. This way, you always have access to your business contact information at a moment’s notice, even if you have a chance encounter when grabbing a morning coffee.
Bracelets, Hubs, and Badges
Linq also offers more accessory items. Hubs are great if you want to set up your business information on your desk when you want to connect with clients easily or at a register station.
Who Is Linq Best For?
Linq has three versions: Free Version, Linq Pro, and Linq Teams.
I’ll get more into the three versions below, but this setup is pretty standard with other NFC companies on the market.
The free version gives you all the basic features, the pro version gives you the snazzy ones like video embeds & customizable links. The Teams version is for major companies with lots of employees to create their employee cards.
So Linq is a great option for pretty much anyone from the new grad looking to land their first job to major companies with thousands of employees.
How It Works
Are you new to using a digital business card? No worries. Here’s my step-by-step with pictures of how it works.
Step 1: Activate Your Card & Create an Account
Starting your profile is relatively easy. Just scan your card, and click the button. Download the Linq app. It will give you the four prompts you see below to get started, and then you’ll be able to customize your page fully.
It will also offer you to join the Pro version to access all of the app’s features.
Step 2: Build Your Linq Profile
Next, you build your profile by customizing your photos, logos, and content. Some features are standard, but others require the Pro Version to unlock. Here’s an example of what your profile could look like.
The top of the profile features a photo, company logo, and personal photo. You can also include an “about” section or description.
Scrolling down, you can add a ton of options. Mine has a link to my website and my most popular writing examples.
Lastly, I added my social links and a lead form. This allows people to reciprocate and send me their contact information as well.
This is just an example, but you definitely couldn’t fit all of this on traditional business cards.
Step 3: Share Your Business Contacts
With the NFC technology, you can easily share this profile and information with newer iPhones and Android phones. And NO, they do NOT need the Linq app to receive your details.
First, you scan your Linq products to the back of the phone. Your customers will see this alert pop up on their phones.
When they click the link, they can see your profile. From there, they can scroll to see the links you’ve embedded. They can also click “Save Contact.”
When they click this, it will populate your information in their Contacts on their phone.
The process of sharing your business information is pretty straightforward. I haven’t run into any issues sharing my contact information while I network.
You can also share your Linq profile through links, QR codes, text, and email signatures if you don’t have your NFC product.
Full Linq App Review (Pages, Contacts, Analytics, Products, Menu)
Now that you get the basics, it’s time to break down the tech company’s platform capabilities.
On the home page, you’ll see five tabs at the bottom: Pages, Contacts, Analytics, Products, and Menu.
I will break down all the good and the bad of the app.
Tab 1: Pages
This will be your main page where you edit your profile and share your page if you don’t have your NFC card on you.
When you open it up, you have a few options. You can click “Add Content,” where you will access all the possible links. You also have the “Reorder” function, where you can decide which links are closer to the top or bottom of the page.
This is also where you will find your “Share” button to send via email, links, texts, etc.
If I click on “Add Content,” here’s what you can see on the left frame in the picture below you can add a ton of things like Links, About Me, Social Icons, Photo Gallery, Videos, etc.
Each one of these has even more options. As you can see in the middle frame, when I chose Social Icons, for example, there were even more options to add, like Etsy, WhatsApp, Paypal, Twitter, etc.
Furthermore, you can click the gear icon to customize these, such as changing the color or the layout options (right frame). I was not a fan of the Grid for social media, but I was much happier with the List version.
Not all of these options are included with the free version of the app, and you will likely need to upgrade to the Pro version for the best features.
Overall, Linq creates a comprehensive profile with all of the embedded links, gadgets, and widgets you could possibly want. This allows you to make it extremely personable to your brand.
Some things I wish they would improve are:
- There are no background color choices for the background. It’s just white. I wish they offered other colors like their competitors to give it a more polished, professional look.
- It’s a bit of a learning curve. It takes some time to really understand and unlock all of the potentials it has to offer, but once you figure it out it’s easy. Like when you change your photo, it would be nice to change it on that page, instead of having to go to a different page and then previewing it. You shouldn’t have to bounce back and forth.
Tab 2: Contacts
The Contacts page is pretty straightforward. You have your list of contacts, and you can search or filter through them. On the bottom right, you can create a New Contact, or you can Scan from your Business Card.
This is a great feature to make sure you have your successful network all in one place. You can even download these contacts to your phone.
By far, one of my favorite parts of this page is the fact you can add notes that your client won’t see.
This may seem mean and one of the sad business practices, but when we would recruit at a very large networking event, and someone made a horrible impression, I would fold the card in half so that I would remember the bad vibe I had. On the flip side, when I loved someone, I would run to the corner and draw a star or write a note to remind myself to follow up.
Now you don’t have to do that. There’s a note section on the app. There’s also a Reminder function, so you don’t forget. These reminders are then put on a Task list which is nice. I wish they would let you set the time and date you wanted to set the reminder, instead of just choosing one day or seven days, etc.
Tab 3: Analytics
What sets a digital business card apart from a physical one is the access to analytics. The basic analytics let you see how many views, clicks, and the click rate at what your clients are doing.
You can use these metrics to learn how to optimize your networking efforts and build real relationships with your customers and partners.
You can also see the advanced features that give you that data to show which links are being looked at the most. This is very helpful as you can optimize your brand and stay connected with your clientele.
Overall, this gives you some basic information, but it will be interesting to learn how this becomes more useful in the future as I don’t have a lot of experience in benchmarking these metrics.
Tab 4: Products
I won’t go into this one much. It simply lists all of the products you have purchased to link to your business cards, such as your card and your apple watch band.
Tab 5: Menu
There are two main features to note in this section: Linq Pay and CRM integration.
Linq Pay is where they have connected with Stripe so that you can coordinate payments. I haven’t been able to play with this one very much, but it’s a nice feature to have if you haven’t set this up yet with a third party.
The Advanced Integrations is one of the best parts. They can link with Salesforce, Hubspot, Microsoft or Google Contacts which most small businesses have. If you’re looking for the ultimate integration setup and you have more than five employees, then Teams offers a LOT more options.
Linq Teams
Lastly, but definitely, a huge bonus to this company is their Team division. If you are a large business or company that has dozens or hundreds of employees, then this is a great way to manage them all in one place.
The Teams function allows you to create a standardized, custom template for your business cards for the entire company. You can edit every single function to where your employees cannot edit it (like company logo for example), but then allow the employee to add their own information like LinkedIn profiles.
You can assign admins that can manage when an employee is hired, leaves, or has a title transfer. It’s nice not having to buy an entire new set of business cards and you’ll save a ton of money with this.
Linq Pros and Cons
Like all platforms, there are things that I love and don’t love. And always keep in mind that these are just my personal opinions. Something I may not like, you may love, and vice versa.
The Pros:
- The customizable profile. There are so many links. I love that you can even choose your EXACT company colors, which is a huge bonus for major corporations looking to swap how they do business cards.
- I LOVE the notes in the contact sections.
- The analytics tool is easy to understand, and I like that you can change the timeframe to different date ranges.
- CRM integration is a huge bonus. You’re able to bring all of your leads company-wide into one spot to increase your networking conversion rates and improve your lead conversions.
- Very reasonably priced. Although you likely need to download and pay for the subscription at $5 a month, I don’t think it will break the bank.
Things I’m not as thrilled about:
- Not intuitive as others. It took me a little bit to understand how to adjust and edit everything, probably because I’m used to the iOS system. However, once I learned all the features, it seemed really easy.
- The background is white. This is probably my biggest vice. I wish I could change the background color to make it look more professional and modern. With the white background, it tends to make the landing page look to builder basic.
- I’m not a fan of the font. I wish I could change it.
- I can’t customize the reminder times or see where my reminders are if there are a few for the next day.
Overall Thoughts
Overall, the Linq digital business card is clearly one of the top companies in the market. It’s a simple, straightforward way to exchange contact information, and I see this becoming a household name in the business world in a few years when paper cards become a thing of the past.
While there are definitely some improvements I would like to see made, as I pointed out above, I think it’s a great product for solopreneurs and businesses looking to reduce their carbon footprint and modernize.
