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.

Custom or Standard?

After you’ve chosen a card supplier, one of the first things they will want to discuss with you is your card design and whether you want to go with a custom design or a standard design. Custom cards are just that — they are unique to your company. They pull together your identity (your logo and artwork) to maintain your branding.

Standard cards are designs offered by your supplier that are already produced. Standard cards do not have to be bland in their design - many vendors offer a wide range of standard card designs that accommodate a number of specific vertical markets or categories of business. Standard cards can often be personalized with the merchant’s business name, their phone number or website address - even their logo (usually in one color).

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.

There are many unique printing features you can do with standard cards, such as adding clear card stocks, using metallic ink, or even some die cuts. Personalization is limited with a standard card. The amount of text you can use, the color choices on overprinted text, and the number of standardized designs available are all some of the typical limitations. However, there are many advantages. Standard cards don’t usually cost as much since the card supplier has large quantities in stock. Standard cards also have the advantage of speed to market since the turnaround time is days instead of weeks.

Some Things To Consider About Your Artwork

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 or brochure you use to market your company. This will allow your current marketing initiatives to correspond with your new gift cards.

Some additional Do’s and Don’ts for providing you artwork:

1. DON’T take the art from your website. These graphics often aren’t of high enough resolution to use for printing.

2. DON’T supply images that will need to be enlarged. That, in effect, also reduces the resolution and your images will appear fuzzy or out of focus.

3. DON’T utilize previously printed images. Art that has been printed commercially has been converted into small “dots” that create the image. When you reprint these previously printed images, you often get a moire pattern that makes for poor quality images.

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.

5. DON’T make the design too complicated. Placing too much info into this small space often reduces the overall visual impact that the card will have. This is a fairly common error people make. Don’t make it cluttered and lose your impact in the process.

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.

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.

Whether you choose to go with a standard card with some personalization and want to begin in a week, or whether you want to go for a full-custom package and coordinate all your marketing efforts, there is nothing like receiving that first box of cards and seeing your attractive, glossy gift cards. Once you start making your customers aware that you offer gift cards, you will also love the increased revenues to your business.