The protocol of swapping business cards is one of the oldest and most widely practiced business etiquette.
I’ve been applying this growth trick for years.
Let’s face it: most business cards will be tossed or filed away in a drawer at home or at the workplace, a drawer whose role is not different to the cable drawer that we all seem to have in our home or office.
Novelty and creative business cards, such as origami patterns, may be a hook to maximize the use of business cards, but let’s just appreciate the real use of business cards:
Real Uses For Business Cards
- To elicit communication from the recipient of the card (and of course);
- To get the recipient to become a client
This hack explains how to maximize the possibility of getting step 2 the fastest that we possibly can.
So, what’s the growth hack?
It’s simple: make sure that your business cards and those of your colleagues all have a QR code on them that all direct the recipients to a standard high-converting landing page that you can edit at any time for a seasonal or monthly offer (for example).

To create a QR code with your logo takes less than a minute and all you need to do is visit a service like QR Code Monkey. Create the QR code, take it the printers for your next batch of business cards and away you go – you’ve just been able to maximize your offline outreach and you’ll probably get more success moving your offline prospects to an online environment; and that’s precisely where you want them to be.
Now, the landing page is of vital importance here.
I have a resource of free landing page options if you’re interested (i.e. when applying this hack).
The landing page that you direct the recipient of your company’s business cards must have a clear CTA (Call To Action) otherwise, what’s the point?
Remembering that the person you sent your card to has already met you, and if they’ve arrived at the website you directed them to, you can infer that they’re either close to contacting you or are still unsure. As a result, the landing page should clarify a special offer that is only available to recipients of your card.
A final benefit of this business card offline growth hack is that, as ever with most things online, you’ll be able to track its effectiveness.
Remember that what you can track you can measure – and this is a classic case of this.
In summary, if you’re giving out business cards you may as well maximize their use!
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