Local Advertising Tips

Now that you’ve made the wise decision to incorporate gift and/or loyalty marketing into your business, you’ve got a number of decisions to make. One of the first – and most critical – is the decision regarding the card you will offer to your customers. In this article, we’ll examine your options and explore some common design and artwork mistakes and what you can do to avoid them.

Standard or Custom Designs?

After you have teamed up with a gift card provider to help launch your program, you will discuss various design options. One of the questions will be whether you want a custom card design or whether you can utilize a standard design. Custom cards help marry your existing marketing initiatives and branding as completely as possible.

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.

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.

Artwork Considerations

With standard cards, the task is pretty simple — pick a design and choose how you will personalize it for your business. With a custom design, however, you have some additional decisions. Likely, you’ll work with either your existing agency — if you have one – to create your card design, or you’ll work with your supplier. Many gift card companies have their own in-house design departments. Regardless of whom you work with to create your design, you’ll need to give them some direction. In many cases, this means supplying artwork so they can base your card design on something that you already use in your business – for example – your original menu art if you’re a restaurant. You can also submit the files used to create a brochure or advertisement for your business. This will enable a designer to create your card design so it fits into the rest of your marketing initiatives.

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 provide graphic images that need to be enlarged from their existing size. This lowers the quality. As you make the image bigger, the resolution gradually decreases.

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 send original files that you have on your computer — the kinds of files you send out to get printed. These files will usually be clear and of high quality, and they are perfect for a designer to create a quality integration into your card’s design.

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.

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.

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.