Have you considered scanning business cards? If not, there are several reasons to do so, all of which, with a little bit of preparation, can augment your personal relationship marketing system.
If you make a habit of scanning business cards you pick up daily or at least weekly, here's what you can do with the scans:
1. If you use card reader hardware or software, you can scan the info directly into a contact management program - you might want to check quickly for accuracy for each card, but it's still a lot faster than keying in data.
2. Scan an image of the card and save it in JPG or PDF format and save the file using the person's name. Later on if you want to send a copy of the card to someone else, all you have to do is attach the file. That's much easier, less time-consuming, and more accurate than e-mailing a phone number and e-mail address. When you send a scanned business card image also makes you look like you've got it going on.
3. If you send customized greeting cards to new contacts including an image of their business card in the greeting card will certainly get their attention.
If you set up a system for scanning business cards and follow through regularly, it won't take long before you have a mighty contact database for future action or reference.
scan business cards and keep the scans on file, perhaps in a contact manager, send to others freely, post on blog or personal directory
