Best Practices For Designing Paper Gift Cards to Sell For Your Business

Gift cards are a critical part of marketing your business to those who might never have heard of what you can do for them. People who already love your business are usually going to get gift cards to share with their friends and family, which offers you the benefit of word-of-mouth advertising as well as passive advertising. This means that you need to have the right gift cards to offer to people who want to share your business with potential loyal customers.

Print paper gift cards if you are looking for a sustainable type of gift card that can be given to friends, family, or even business partners. Paper gift cards are just as beautiful and can be just as customized as plastic cards without all the waste. You will be so glad that you chose paper gift cards for your company when you see how easy it is to make a truly unique, sustainable gift-giving option for your customers to buy.

Best Practices When Designing Paper Gift Cards

Paper gift cards used to be the only way to gift a gift card to a friend or someone that you cared about. This was the standard for many years until plastic cards came onto the market. While plastic cards are going to be glossy and be less likely to bend or flex, they are not ideal when it comes to sustainability, and they are also not any more beautiful than cards that are made from Earth-friendly materials.

You need to know the best ways to engage in creating customer paper gift cards before you embark on the ordering process. There are some considerations to have in mind that will make it far easier to get the perfect paper gift cards for your business the first time you order.

1.     Think About Branding

Perhaps the most important factor that you need to have in mind when you are designing paper gift cards is your branding and styling. You want it to be obvious what your company is all about from the moment that someone picks up their gift card. If your business already has a well-established branding presence and identity, then this should be fairly simple. If your business is new, you might need to take the time to create a branding message, style, and voice before you make your gift cards.

There is nothing more boring than a gift card that is a flat color with just a simple business name on it. Make sure that your company logo and the company colors are on your gift cards. Be sure as well that those who get a gift card from your company can immediately tell what your business stands for and what niche you operate in.

A good example would be a company that sells fishing gear. You would want to be sure that fish, camping, or the great outdoors are part of your gift card design. Anyone who picks up one of your gift cards will know immediately what to expect when they go shopping with their gift card funds.

2.     Make Sure to Include the Right Information

Many people just make their gift cards with the company logo and maybe a background image. You should be sure that your gift cards actually include other details, like your company’s website, for example. Having a card that is practically empty of information requires that someone who was given a gift card to your store has to go hunting online to figure out what your business is and what they would want to buy from it.

While it is possible that your gift card will be given to someone who is already familiar with your company, you should always assume that people who get your gift cards might not be aware of what your business is all about. Save them time and hassle by making it really clear what they can expect from the moment that they put their hands on their gift card.

3.     Customize Your Cards

If it hasn’t become clear by this point, you need to be sure that you are offering customized gift cards that show your brand, your business name, and more. You should never settle for cards that are almost blank and just say something generic like, “Gift Card” on them. There are a surprising number of businesses out there that do just this very thing, and it is no wonder that people never use their gifted money to buy anything.

While it does add time and energy to the process of designing your custom gift cards, you can be sure of creating something that will make a statement and that will grab the attention of those who were granted these cards as a present. You want to encourage people to become loyal customers who come back over and over again for years to come. The only way to do that is to have a customized card that your existing clients can give to people they care about.

4.     Work With an Experienced Design Team

There is no custom design process that is made better by working with a team of designers who are not prepared to do the level of work that you are looking for. Always be sure that you are looking into companies with years of experience working on the kinds of design projects that you need help with. If you are looking at custom gift cards, for example, you need to be sure that the design team that is working on the job has designed in this space before.

Always ask for references and make sure that you look at the portfolio of past work that other clients have shared with the company. You should have no trouble getting a detailed bid from the company in question, either. Settling for a business that doesn’t know anything about what you need them to do can be disastrous for so many reasons.

5.     Consider Size Carefully

There is a standard gift card size that everyone expects at this point. Deviating from this size will likely make your cards less popular with consumers. Remember that people carry them around with them in their wallet or purse, and don’t make them too big to fit into these kinds of items. It can be tempting to add more information and just make your card bigger than usual, but this would be an error.

Another consideration to have in mind as you look at size and other factors is the weight of the card stock that you want to print your paper cards on. You have lots of options when it comes to paper weight, and it is usually better to use slightly heavier paper to be sure that your gift cards don’t get folded up and dog-eared really easily. These kinds of design choices can impact the durability of your cards, so be sure that you have them in mind as you are designing.

6.     Understand Your Target Audience

Most established businesses know who their target customer is. You should always be marketing to this person, whether you are running ads, creating product listings, or even making gift cards. Be sure that you know the age and other demographics of the people who are the most likely to buy a gift card for your store. This information will help you to create cards that will speak to them.

Marketing is ultimately at the root of so many of the choices that a business makes. Creating gift cards that resonate with the right people for the right reasons is just as key as running ads that are suitable for your target audience. You need to make sure that the people who are the most likely to buy your other products are also likely to invest in gift cards if you offer them for sale. This is also a great way to determine what kinds of branding efforts will give you the most bang for your buck, which is why you should be sure not to skip this step.

Creating Paper Gift Cards Can be Easy if You Have These Rules and Suggestions in Mind

There are so many considerations that come into play when you are creating marketing materials and running marketing campaigns for your business. You need to be sure that you understand your branding and that you are talking to your target audience at all times. You need to be sure as well that you are working hard to make the world a better place, which is where sustainable items like paper gift cards come in.

Your paper gift cards are ideal for so many reasons, and they can be customized to look any way that you wish. Be sure that you choose to work with a skilled design team so that you can get the right detail and branding built into your card designs with ease. Gift cards are a central part of your marketing efforts, so you should make sure that you have these best practices in mind as you are designing yours.