With the start of every new year, business owners  are always looking for a new and exciting way to increase sales and traffic into their stores. What the first thing that comes to mind? Membership cards and loyalty cards!  You want to be able to offer your customers something to show your appreciation, and offer incentives for repeat business.  

At Plastek Cards Inc, we have the perfect solution. We offer lots of different plastic cards that can be incorporated into every type of industry. When starting your search, it can often be overwhelming with the endless choices that you have to customize a plastic card. Should you do loyalty cards, gift cards, membership cards? The options are endless.

Looking for a quick and easy solution? One idea that seems to be the new trend is punch cards. We offer 12 mil thickness cards -  which is about the thickness of a regular business card, and because we print on PVC plastic they will won’t rip, and are extremely durable. The promotion that you want to highlight can be just about anything you can think of. For hair salons, clients can receive a punch for every visit and the 5^th visit rewards the client with a free styling product. Auto Repair shops can offer a free oil change, after 8 visits. Another option would be to track the cards with the amount of money the client spends per visit - $20 equals one punch – after 4 punches you can offer a 20% discount on their purchase. No one knows your clientele better than you – so be creative!

There are several different types of custom hole punches that can be purchased, the best way to protect your business is to get one that is unique to your store. The back of your card can explain the program you are offering and any details that can assist the client.

Above you will see an example of a punch card that is not just a plastic card. The owner decided to add a shiny silver metallic background, and purple foil stamping to highlight the logo.  Not only will it grab the attention of your client at the store – but it won’t get misplaced in a wallet because of the it looking like “just another plastic card.”  Punch cards are a quick an easy way reward your clients and offer incentives to keep them coming back again and again.

Display your cards with a customized display stand. Our display stands include a customized background that we can create. This can help in the advertising of your new plastic cards whether it is gift cards, VIP cards or rewards cards. The display stand can give your cards placement on a counter, in a display window or just stand as a showcase for your plastic card needs. We have many different display stands to choose from. We have single tier, double tier, 5 x 7, 8 x 10 and many, many more to choose from. This does include the customization of the backing and shipping. What a perfect way to display your new plastic cards for your business.

We are pleased to offer plastic card displays as a convenience to one stop shopping when you order plastic cards to be printed here at Plastek Cards. They are acrylic stands. Most of them are clear and we can also print out and design a display to slide into your plastic card displays. Please contact us to see the different styles we offer.

UV light detection is an added security that can be featured on your plastic cards. With the growing numbers in fraudulent activity, UV light detection can help in making it harder if not impossible for your plastic cards to be duplicated. UV light detection is not visible to the human eye; however when put under a black light you will be able to see the UV ink that will glow on the plastic card. This would be a great feature for club owners with VIP cards or membership card programs.

A barcode is a series of wide and narrow bars that can be scanned.  There are many different types of barcodes you can put on your plastic cards; the most common one seen is the Universal Product Code or UPC code that you see on items that you purchase at stores. You can scan the barcode with your barcode scanner and it will then bring up the information that is stored in your system from the barcode. A number can also be printed that is associated with the barcode as a human readable number on your plastic cards. So if your barcode did not scan you can also manually type in the barcode number in which it would bring up the same information that is stored. The type of barcode you will need will be dependent on the type of system you have. This information would be found through your product provider. There are many different types of barcodes that are used today so all we would need to know is the type of barcode you will need and the number sequence that you would like to use on your plastic cards.

UV finished will generally make the plastic cards come out nice in color quality, more vibrant, but if the plastic cards are being used a lot there would be no protection. UV finish is recommended for cards that have bright color in nature, cards that will not be handled often or maybe a one-time use reward card or some kind of discount card.

Overlay makes the color less vibrant but it lasts longer if the cards are being used more often. There is more protection with this option. We recommend using overlay with membership cards, loyalty cards, rewards cards, any type of cards that will be used frequently.

No matter what business you’re in, you know that the key to increasing sales is staying visible to customers and getting their attention as often as possible. By keeping your message in front of your customers over and over again throughout the course of the year, it becomes that much easier to boost your revenue through people who think of you first when they need the types of products and services that you offer. One simple and effective way to ensure your company gets the attention that it deserves is by ordering wallet-size plastic cards with a yearly calendar printed on them. Here are a few tips to help you design calendar cards that customers want to keep year-round.

• When you lay out your calendar, be sure to leave a little bit of room at the bottom for you to put a personal message. While you could put your company logo here, this will not necessarily give your customer an incentive to do more business with you. Instead, give them a prompt to think about your company for a moment and to consider what they might need to purchase from it. Having a phrase such as “Flip over this card to see 5 special offers” gives them a perfect incentive to think about buying from you again.
• On the back of your calendar card, list a few truly compelling special offers or discounts that your customer will be sure to appreciate. You could offer specific discounts, or use the card itself as a coupon by printing scannable bar codes on the back. One other option is to print plastic cards that have scratch-off squares on the back that reveal extra discounts or offers. You have a lot of possibilities when it comes to plastic card printing, so spend some time thinking about creative ways to market using your calendar cards.
• Finally, ensure that the calendar is more functional to the customer by adding little touches that make it easier to read. Shade the weekends so that the work week stands out. Add a bit of color to typical holidays or special days throughout the year. Or, better yet, link the offers on the back of the card to specific days, and then mark those days on the calendar by shading or changing the text color to something unique. This will give your customers one additional push to return to you again and again.

Many companies use a plastic card printing service to create calendar cards for them, but fail to scratch the surface of what can be done with them. By doing little more than printing a calendar along with a clever logo or business name, they do not create something the customer will keep and refer to year round. But by using the three tips above, and designing your card so that it has a strong call to action and an attractive calendar, you could bring in repeat customers and increase your income all year long.

Clear plastic business cards are a unique way to elevate your company’s image to the next level while making a lasting impression. Today’s competition in the job market is fierce, clear or frosted business cards are the means to get recognized. Utilizing the transparency of the cards our clients are able to pull off unique effects that would be impossible on a traditional plastic or paper card. Clear or transparent cards give a modern day look for any type of business. Some of the leading companies today such as Starbucks, Victoria Secret, American Express all now have clear cards as part of their gift card or credit card programs. The cards give an extra WOW to your image which the image of your company is what stands out to the everyday consumer.

Companies have long used branded merchandise such as mugs, caps, pens and other items in attempts to keep their names in front of current as well as potential customers. But promotional pieces have more often than not been considered throwaway items of low quality, and not much use to the people receiving them.

You don’t want to spend your valuable marketing dollars on promotional items that are here today and gone tomorrow, so why not give away something that will be used and appreciated. Prepaid minutes on high quality printed plastic phone cards are a great way to do just that.

When your prospects receive a plastic card with free phone time already on it, they feel like they have been given a gift with actual monetary value. Unlike a pen or a Frisbee, or other cheap promotional merchandise, this card will go straight into a wallet or purse where it will be kept and not thrown away or forgotten. And every time the recipient pulls that phone card out to make a call, you have a chance to present your company to them, again and again.

Here are a few tips for setting up your plastic phone cards to be an effective marketing tool.

• Make sure the front of your card is eye-catching and delivers the message of what your company is about in a clear and memorable way. Since plastic card printing allows you to cover your card with full four-color printing, the sky is the limit for what you want to put there. Include the number of minutes on the card, of course, but save the majority of the front side of the card for a great first impression that makes the prospect want to learn more about you.
• On the back of the card, include the call-in number for your phone card, but very close to that put your website address in a bold, bright color such as red or bright blue. If you don’t have a website for your business, put your primary telephone number here. By putting this information right by the call-in number, you will remind the prospect of your contact information every time they look at the back of the card.
• Also on the back of the card, you can benefit by printing a special offer that will entice the prospect to either go online or come to your store. You could offer a 10% discount or similar loss leader to prompt the prospect to take action, and they will be reminded of it every single time they use the card. Better yet, by including the special offer on your card you increase the chances that they will hold on to that plastic card long after they use up their prepaid minutes.

When you plan your next promotional giveaway, don’t settle for trinkets with a high novelty factor but no long-term value. Keep your company, your message and your products in front of your prospects every time they reach for the phone, and start building your sales today. Click here to learn more about prepaid phone cards.

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.