{"id":6988,"date":"2008-10-29T18:07:17","date_gmt":"2008-10-29T23:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/29\/gift-card-programs-designing-your-gift-card\/"},"modified":"2008-10-29T18:07:17","modified_gmt":"2008-10-29T23:07:17","slug":"gift-card-programs-designing-your-gift-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/?p=6988","title":{"rendered":"Gift Card Programs: Designing Your Gift Card"},"content":{"rendered":"
by Al Duggan<\/div>\n

You’ve decided it’s time to take your marketing to the next level and add gift cards to your business — a wise choice. Now, you are ready for the next step, and choosing the right card design is an important part of the process. Here are some do’s and don’ts and common mistakes people make when designing their gift cards.<\/p>\n

Standard or Custom Designs?<\/p>\n

Once you’ve decided on a supplier, they will discuss card options with you. There are two ways you can go here – custom or standard. Custom cards are unique to every business. Custom cards incorporate the business’ identity in terms of using their logo and artwork that reflects the business’ look and feel. <\/p>\n

Standard designs, on the other hand, are ready-made designs that your gift card supplier has in stock. Many gift card providers have designs that cater to specific categories of business. Therefore, they do not have to be bland. These standard designs also can be personalized by adding your business name, website and telephone numbers and even a logo (but usually in a single color).<\/p>\n

The question is deciding which option is the best for your business? There are a few items you need to take into consideration before you can make that decision. Let’s take a look at some of the pro’s and con’s of each option. Custom cards are the choice of large retailers since they are specifically designed to maintain their branding. They are attractive cards, which can increase impulse buys if promoted well at the point of purchase. Custom cards also give opportunity for uniquely shaped designs, including special die-cuts (cards in unique shapes) and even some advanced features such as cards that will play music or have additional digital info. The downside to some of this is that these cards will cost a bit more and are not as quickly produced.<\/p>\n

For standard card designs, you can still get some special printing options such as unique die cuts, clear card stocks, and metallic inks. There will be, however, some constraints on how much the card design can be personalized. The overprint type will have some color limitations. The amount of text you can use may be more limited. And the range of standard designs is also limited. On the other hand, there are many advantages because of this. Your cost will often be lower since the supplier has pre-printed the basic designs. You also will get your cards much faster — days instead of the weeks it takes for custom cards.<\/p>\n

Artwork Considerations<\/p>\n

The design process for standard cards can be very straight forward — you select a design and then you decide how you’re going to personalize it. Custom cards, of course, give you a variety of ways to go. Chances are you will be working with a designer — either from your own agency or a designer from the gift card supplier. Either way, you will have to provide them with a little direction about what you want. This may mean giving them creative and artwork that you are using currently, something like the original menu design you have if you are a restaurant. Or, perhaps, an ad<\/a> or brochure you use to market your company. This will allow your current marketing initiatives to correspond with your new gift cards.<\/p>\n

Here are some good ideas of things to do and not do when going through this design process:<\/p>\n

1. DON’T use artwork from the Internet. Graphics that are used on the web are not of adequate resolution (graphic clarity for lack of a better term) for print use.<\/p>\n

2. DON’T provide graphic images than must be enlarged. This will, again, not give a high enough resolution to the images as they lose quality when enlarged.<\/p>\n

3. DON’T use images that have already been printed. Any artwork that has been printed commercially has likely been converted into a series of microscopic “dots” that make up the printed image. This works well the first time the image is printed but when the same process is repeated on a previously printed image, the result is an image that has what is termed a “moir” pattern and the artwork will not print satisfactorily. <\/p>\n

4. DO find your original computer files of these various materials and use these. These originals will likely be of high quality and will allow the designer to quickly convert the images into a good design.<\/p>\n

5. DON’T make your design too busy. This is probably the most common mistake made in the design process. Putting too much information into a small area minimizes the impact the card has visually. It looks cluttered and loses its message.<\/p>\n

6. DO utilize your logo. Carry your branding through to your design. Your logo is recognizable to your customers, and your gift card acts as a small billboard. Take advantage of your logo.<\/p>\n

7. DO consider customized merchandising tools to complement your card design. A custom gift card affixed to a custom-designed carrier or card hanger presents a coordinated, attractive package that has a higher perceived value that will increase card sales.<\/p>\n

There is nothing like opening that first box of gift cards and seeing your colorful designs ready for selling. Whether you go with a full-custom design or with a standardized card (so that you can start selling in a week), get started soon. Start pulling in those additional revenues and promoting your gift cards as soon as your customers arrive at your door.<\/p>\n

\n
About the Author:<\/div>\n
Al Duggan specializes in custom gift and loyalty cards<\/a> and is the VP of Business Development for Valutec Card Solutions, LLC, a Metavante (NYSE:MV) company, the nation’s largest provider of gift card<\/a> programs to small to mid-sized businesses.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ve decided it’s time to take your marketing to the next level and add gift cards to your business — a wise choice. Now, you are ready for the next step, and choosing the right card design is an important part of the process. Here are some do’s and don’ts and common mistakes people make when designing their gift cards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1077,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[87],"class_list":["post-6988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing","tag-marketing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1077"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6988\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magic1host.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}