If you are planning a fundraiser for your organization, using plastic fundraising cards can help you raise money faster and more easily than traditional methods. Selling wrapping paper, magazines and chocolates worked well in the past, but today’s consumer is looking for convenience and immediate gratification, which cannot be accomplished by waiting for product to arrive in the mail. Using plastic cards gives your organization a chance to give buyers a practical item they can use immediately, which will significantly increase the rate at which they buy your cards. Here are a few ideas you should consider when using a plastic card printing service to help set up your next fundraiser.

• Create fundraising cards that have an ongoing benefit. A good example of this is the “buy one get one free card.” Businesses love these offers because it brings them a steady stream of repeat customers without any upfront expenses. Your buyers love them because they are getting a deal. If a business expresses interested in making it a limited offer, you can order plastic cards with scratch off squares on the back to indicate how many times it has been used.
• Create a “double your money” fundraising card, where a buyer pays a certain amount for the card, which is worth double the purchase price when brought to the business. Businesses know that getting customers in the door is a costly process. If a local shop spends $25 in upfront advertising to get a customer in the door, you could offer a double-your-money $10 fundraising card. You raise $10 for your organization, the buyer takes home a card with a $20 value, and the business saves $5 in customer acquisition costs. It becomes a win-win situation for everyone.
• Create a fundraising card that offers an increasingly attractive deal with multiple visits. For example, the card can give 10% off of the first visit, 20% off of the second visit, 30% off of the third visit, all the way up to a free offer. This is an attractive way for businesses to encourage customers to return again and again in a short period of time for essentially the same overall cost of a “buy one get one free” offer. Again, you can use scratch-off squares to show which discounts have been used by the buyer.

Fundraising is a highly effective way to keep money flowing into your organization all throughout the year, and to do it right requires that you come up with creative ways of attracting customers for the businesses who offer the discounts. People are more likely to buy when offers are unique and original rather than the “same old things” that they are presented with every year. Because plastic fundraising cards can be printed in a variety of attractive ways, they give you the opportunity to make customized offers that you can change as often as you like, helping you make your next fundraising effort the best one ever.

In the plastic card industry there is a different form of terminology used for different things. Sometimes during the process of ordering you might know exactly what you want but do not exactly know what the product is called or the representative who is helping you is using these terms and you have no idea what they are referring to. Below you will find a list of terminology used in the plastic card printing industry.

Coercivity –

This is a measure of the strength of a magnetic field. Fields that are generally used are low or high by the terms of LoCo and HiCo.

Encoding –

Recording electronic information on to a magnetic stripe.

Degaussing –

Magnetic stripe data erasing.

Digitizing –

Conversion of non-textual data to digital form.

Embossing –

This is the raised letters or numbers that can be put on a card that looks like the letters and numbers on a credit card. Letters have to be capitalized and can only be in small embossing and numbers can be small or large, however the space can only be 19 characters across including spaces.

ISO –

International Standards Organization, central body for formation and dissemination of industry standards for all national standard bodies.

Lithography or Offset Printing –

Most common process for plastic card printing based on the concept that oil and water is not compatible. The ink is the oil and the alkaline fountain solution represents the water. These are the two main components which must interact during the printing process, allowing the ink to adhere to the image area of a printing plate while the fountain solution repels the ink from the non-image area.

On-Line –

A transaction on a terminal permanently connected to a network that is on-line to the card account.

Off-Line –

A transaction via paper or reader not connected to a central system.

Personalization –

Printing, encoding and programming a card with data specific to an individual.

PVC –

Polyvinyl chloride, the most widely used plastic material.

Radio Frequency Card (RFID)

A proximity card in which the coupling between the card and the interface device is by radio.

These are some of the terms that are used in the plastic card printing industry. There are many more, but these are the most common ones that people have questions on.

There’s a certain simplicity in letting friends and loved ones choose the gift he or she wants rather than just guessing at a particular person’s tastes. Gift certificates and plastic gift cards are becoming a more popular purchase for people who aren’t quite sure what to get for the ones they are shopping for. You may already be offering gift certificates or gift cards to your customers, but are you using them to your best advantage?

Gift cards can actually be used to increase your sales, not just as a way for customers to redeem a pre-paid purchase. Here are three ways to use plastic gift cards bring in more money than ever this year.

1. Use your plastic gift cards as a way to give back to the purchaser and not just the recipient. For example, it’s a common practice to have sales of ten or twenty percent from time to time, so why not treat the card as a sale purchase in itself? In other words, advertise that when any gift card is purchased for someone, the buyer gets a “bonus” gift card worth 10-15% of the amount the original card. The buyer will have a greater incentive to buy a gift card since he or she will be getting one to keep as well. In fact, buyers will have a desire to buy gift cards with higher amounts on them because they will be getting something back in return. And as far as your profits are concerned, it’s the same as if you had run a sale for the bonus amount.
2. Print a special offer on the gift card itself as a way to entice a larger purchase when the recipient comes in to redeem it. If you set up your gift card printing so that cards have specific amounts appearing on them, you could arrange that the special offer is valid when an amount higher than the face value is spent at your business. For example, a $50 gift card may offer a 10% discount when $100 or more is spent in your store at one visit. Your customer will be enticed to spend the extra $50 just to get the $10 discount – but will in all likelihood spend even more.
3. Make your gift cards reloadable. By purchasing cards with a magnetic stripe on the backing, you can give customers the option to add money onto them when they bring them back into the store to be redeemed. You’ll want to make sure to give them a compelling reason to do so, such as a 5% cash bonus on the card or a special gift of a low-margin item from your inventory. Customers love the idea of getting something as a bonus, even if they have to spend more to get it.

These three tips can take an ordinary paper gift certificate offering and turn it into something that adds more to your bottom line every year. Consider using any or all of these tips and create a powerful sales tool that puts more money into your pocket. Using your business gift cards strategically will keep customers coming through your doors long after they receive their gift cards.

Plastic cards and plastic card printing services are getting so popular. When you are standing in any retail store line, you will see plastic gift cards, plastic phone cards, plastic poker cards, and all other kinds.

You will notice the many different kinds of designs and styles there are and every year you will see different ones.  Some plastic cards will look better then others and some are just very unique.

You will see some cards are printed over the edge and some have a white border on them? Most of the time you can see the difference in quality between the two. Quality matters mosts in printing. Plastek Cards print the highest quality cards with our Heidelberg printers. Full bleeds all around. I would make sure you check the quality of the plastic card printing Company before you place your order. Ask them for samples. I always urge our clients to compare the quality of our cards with others to make sure they are satisfied before choosing.

We know how everyone is talking about our ozone and environment of our earth. The plastic card industry came out recycling ideas which we can now reuse plastic cards and reduce making new everyday. Since the plastic card industry is growing very strong and wont be going anywhere anytime soon. We have have offering our new line the ABS Recycled Cards as our green line in reducing the pollution of the earth.

What is the best way in showing off your plastic card? Definitely the more color you use the better in most cases. At Plastek Cards we do not charge extra if you are doing 2 colors or 4 colors on one or both sides. This gives you unlimited design ideas so that you don’t have to watch your budget just because you don’t want to spend more on your custom plastic card design.

We offer a variety of gift card displays and card sleeves for your convenience. These products will help you increase your product for your promotion cards at your business.

As a custom manufacturer of wholesale business and corporate plastic gift cards we ensure that our cards are compatible with most POS software or service providers. Whether you have a provider who you are currently working with or you need us to refer one to you, our cards can be custom ordered, designed and programmed to work with your current or new system.

Smart card contains electronic memory, and possibly an embedded integrated circuit (IC). Smart cards have two different types of interfaces– the contact smart card and the contactless smart card. Contactless smart cards only require close proximity to a reader to enable the transmission of data, commands and card status, hypothetically taking less time to authenticate versus contact smart cards. Both reader and card have an internal antenna that securely communicates with the other.

Contact Card

Contact smart cards must be inserted into a smart-card reader. The reader makes contact with the card module electrical connectors that transfer data to and from the chip.

Contactless Card

Contactless smart cards is normally a credit card sized plastic card which is embedded with an integrated circuit chip. It provides not only memory capacity, but computational capability also. Because of this characteristic, smart cards are often used in different applications which require strong security protection and authentication.

RFID Card

Radio frequency identification (RFID) is a generic term that is used to describe a system that transmits the identity (in the form of a unique serial number) of an object or person wirelessly, using radio waves. A RFID system consists of an antenna and a transceiver, which read the radio frequency and transfer the information to a processing device , and a transponder , or tag, which is an integrated circuit containing the radio frequency circuitry and information to be transmitted.

ifare Card

Mifare card is a type of RFID. Philips has developed Mifare MC1 1C S50, Mifare MC1 1C S70 to be used in contactless smart card according to ISO/IEC14443A. The Mifare system is designed for optimal user convenience. The high data transmission rate allows transactions to be handled less than 100ms.

“A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC), is defined as any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process information. This implies that it can receive input which is processed - by way of the ICC applications - and delivered as an output. There are two broad categories of ICCs. Memory Cards contain only non-volatile memory storage components, and perhaps some specific security logic. Microprocessor cards contain volatile memory and microprocessor components. The card is made of plastic, generally PVC, but sometimes ABS. The card may embed a hologram to avoid counterfeiting.”

You can read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_card#Contact_smart_card

Many businesses use paper loyalty cards to encourage customers to return multiple times to purchase their products and services. Repeat purchase programs such as “Buy 10 get 1 free” offers entice the customer by keeping them in a state of anticipation for their reward, and people simply love to see the card get punched – it makes them feel like they have gained something tangible each time it happens. What many businesses are coming to realize, however, is that plastic loyalty cards can be even more effective at boosting sales than paper ones. Here are a few tips that you can use to increase your bottom line with plastic loyalty cards.

• Use multiple types of cards, each with its own bold, glossy color, to keep the loyalty offers fresh. For example, the first card can have a simple “Buy 10 get 1 free” offer. But when that card gets redeemed, switch it out for a “10% off on 10 purchases” card. Make each reward a little more interesting and/or valuable than the last, and your customers will stay with you longer.
• Plastic loyalty cards allow you to use thermal printing to put your customer’s picture on the front of the card. By making it “their” card, you increase their perceived value of it, especially if you specify your product in a caption. For example, if you’re running a music shop, you could print “Music Lover” under the customer’s picture.
• Consider making a “mystery loyalty” card that uses special scratch-off overlay panels instead of punch holes. Have different one-time discounts under each panel that must be scratched off by the cashier to be redeemed. Your customers will feel the suspense of wondering what the next discount will be, but they will have to walk into your store to find out!
• Use an encoded magnetic strip to make the loyalty card an easy way to track customer sales over time – something you can’t do with an ordinary paper card. By recording the price of the purchases that your customer makes, you can offer them incentives such as discounts or gift cards as they reach certain purchase thresholds. You can also discover who buys particular types of products and use that information to target your marketing more precisely.

Plastic loyalty cards also have many additional benefits over their paper counterparts. Plastic cards are sturdier than paper ones by nature, which means they will not only be easier to slide in and out of wallets without creasing, but they will also not tear after being hole punched. They also have a more “credit card” or “gift card” feel to them because of size, shape and texture, so customers associate them as being more valuable than easy-to-lose pieces of paper.

Finally, you can count on the uniqueness of a plastic loyalty card that uses any of these tips to draw in more repeat purchases. Very few people are using these strategies and you can benefit from having an interesting twist on the familiar. When you are planning your next loyalty card program, consider the benefits of plastic cards and make your marketing strategy one that has the highest chance of making your customers repeat buyers for years to come.

In the past trading business cards has always been the typical way of getting into a prospect’s contact list. But times have changed. Cards are traded back and forth so often that many have become numb to them, collecting them in stacks on desks or filing them away into wallets, never to be looked at again, until they get cleaned out and tossed into the trash. Today, in order to stand out, be noticed, and get callbacks from the people you want to connect with, it’s more important than ever to have a business card that’s memorable enough to make people want to get in touch with you again and again.

Plastic business cards are an excellent way to stand out from the competition from the moment you place one in a new contact’s hand. Since few people leverage the powerful visual and psychological effects of a non-traditional business card, you can make it easier to create the powerful first impression you need to be remembered. Just think of the times you have received a card that was a little out of the ordinary, and reflect on how you still can remember it after all that time.

Here are a few ways you can use the power of plastic to make your calling card unforgettable as well.

• Make use of a great visual effect on the front of your card. If a people find your card attractive, they will be much more likely to hold on to it. In fact, a well designed card is often shown to friends and other business contacts long after your initial meeting. But unlike traditional paper cards that wear easily, your plastic card will look crisp and neat for a long time to come. Consider for a moment how profitable it would be if your callback rate doubled or tripled, and you’ll see why investing in a compelling design for your card can be a real business-booster.
• Make it effortless for a contact to remember who you are and what you do the first time they look at the card. If you have a professional-quality picture of yourself, you can include it on the front along with a short line about what you do that goes beyond your professional title. This way, your contact will be able to associate a face to your name as well as a general idea of what you offer. This is a powerful way to achieve “top of mind” status with them so your name is the first one they think of when your services are needed.
• Don’t just give out information – let your card become a true conversation starter. While this can be difficult to do with a traditional paper card, plastic business cards with their double-sided nature make this easy to accomplish. On the back of the card, you can create reasons for your contact to call you quickly, whether for a free price quote or a sample consultation to find out if your services are the right fit for them. You could also feature quotes from satisfied customers, or include a special coupon code that compels them to take action. And if you’re not selling anything, the back of the card is always a great place to expand upon your personal story.

Remember, in today’s fast-paced world, it can be extremely difficult to capture people’s attention long enough to start building a long-term business relationship. By giving your contact a well-designed Plastic or laminated business card that will get them to perk up and take notice, you can make it much easier to create a memorable impression that could bring you business for years to come.