Potential homebuyers will spend every weekend each month exploring open houses. At the end of the day when it’s time to review the properties, everything seems to run together. What will make you stand out?

Unique business cards are one way to elevate you above your competition: less than 10% of business cards that are passed out, are kept by your prospective clients. With knowing this information , it  is well worth the time and investment to create an eye catching card design.

The new trend is making a multifunctional card. All business cards will need to have your contact information, but what else can be added to enhance the card? Below are a list of ideas that can help you elevate you above your competition.

·         Yearly calendars or tip charts on the back of the card. Clients will find the information valuable and worth keeping in their wallet.

·         Offer a percentage off closing costs.

·         A $500 credit  towards  updating  the house they are selling, or it can be used for a renovation for their new home purchase.

·         For commercial buyers offer them a VIP card to get  a first look at new listings.

·         List the requirements necessary  to qualify for a loan.  For example, bank statements, tax returns, paystubs etc. Clients will reference this card multiple times throughout the process, and it will make for a smooth transaction.

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.

This is the time to start thinking about holiday shoppers and purchasing gift cards for your store. With the convenience of offering a gift card at your store, your client’s can purchase the gift card for someone and not have to worry about whether the person liking the gift or not because the person would come back at their convenience to use the gift card and purchase something that they picked out themselves. With this in mind, offering gift cards will also help reduce the chance of returns and help with having a steady and controlled inventory.

 In addition to offering gift cards you can also provide a carrier that will go with the gift card. This will help save your client’s time. When they purchase the gift card they can also receive a carrier to put the gift card in so they will not have to go to another store to purchase a greeting card or worry about how they will be giving the gift card to the other person. Everything will be located in the convenience of your store.

In today’s society, most everyone is busy with their daily lives. Even though a client may not have time to browse through your store finding the perfect gift for their special someone, they can still come in and purchase a gift card so that their special someone can come in at their convenience and buy whatever they would like.

Clear cards can generate many different types of effects.  We can make your clear card so that it is completely clear so that when you are looking at the clear areas of the card it will look like how it looks when you stare thru a clean window. We can make the clear card so that it is translucent with maybe giving it a frosted finish so that when you are looking at the clear areas of the card it will have a look of how a mug looks when frosted.  Clear cards can be printed on the front or both the front and back of your cards depending on design and can be on a gloss, frosted or matte finish. On clear cards, depending on design the thickness can be on a 12 mil card which is a thinner card and up to 30 mil card which is standard credit card thickness.   Even though there are some limitations when printing your card design on a clear card, there are also a lot of different options that you can choose from while designing your clear card.

The next time  you are searching for ways to promote your business and gift cards, business cards, loyalty cards or any type of card that you are thinking of using, remember to weigh in the option of designing your cards on a clear card.

Plastek Cards, Inc now offers a pre printed paper sleeve so when ordering your gift cards ask your sales represenative about this inexpensive way to give a added boost to your gift cards.

These pre printed paper sleeves can also be used for merchandise credit cards or cash cards as you can put the amount that is on the card right on the sleeve when handing it to your clients.

Our pre printed paper sleeves are available with a minimum order of 250 sleeves starting at $45.00.

Plastek Cards introduces Eco-Friendly Biodegradable plastic cards as an alternative in the manufacturing process. This process is to reduce waste of material as well as helping with the earth environment.

PETG Cards

PETG ( Polyethylene Terephthalate Glycol ) is one of the most environmentally friendly to produce plastic cards and PETG has been wildly used for leading plastic card retailers and credit cards. It exhibits the same characteristics as PVC plastic cards. PETG cards can be recycled without creating any harmful gases or even polluting the environment. Reasons for using PETG for plastic cards; a wide range of innovations and tailor-made specifications thanks to the co-extrusion process, high mechanical strength and excellent flex tests with PETG and the wide spectrum of card applications can be made. Finally and more important are ecological considerations since PETG is environmentally friendly.

PLA Corn Cards

PLA plastic cards cards(or corn cards) are manufactured from corn oil (also poly lactic acid from corn) these corn cards look and feel just like the PVC cards which promises the same durability as PVC does. PLA plastic cards require 35% less energy and produce 25% less green house gas. PLA Corn cards are biodegradable and produce no toxins when destroyed during incineration, the ground and atmospheric based environmental advantages of PLA corn cards are significant. The durability, life span and printing of the PLA corn cards are very similar to PVC plastic cards. PLA corn cards are a new family of our eco-friendly biodegradable plastic cards.

ABS Plastic Recycled Cards

This process is to reduce waste of PVC material as well as extra sheet materials. The ABS plastic recycled cards are manufactured with the same high quality printing and personalization processes used on our standard PVC plastic cards. This product is from 100% recycled product and about 90% recycled with magnetic stripe. If you are interested in any of these product lines, please let us know and we will be sure to supply your cards with our environmental friendly materials.

Gift card sleeves add an extra touch to your gift cards. It is always nice to have something to put the gift card in after purchasing this for someone, the client then will not have to worry about buying a card to place the gift card in when giving the gift card as a gift.

We offer a variety of paper sleeves, we have some that hang or fold and these are fully customized to go with your gift card design. To download our paper sleeve catalog please go to http://www.plastekcards.com/images/plastekcarriers.pdf.

We also offer a generic gift card sleeve that has A GIFT FOR YOU on the top front and below this has To: From: and Amount:  Ordering the preprinted sleeve is an inexpensive way to promote your gift cards giving your clients the option to have their gift cards placed in a envelope with no hassles to have to go out and purchase anything else.

When ordering gift cards do not forget to accessorize with gift card sleeves! Whether you decide to order a custom paper sleeve or the generic paper sleeve, give your client’s the option of having something to put their gift cards in. This will be a great way to market your new gift cards.  

Thinking of new ways to promote yourself and your business? Why not have plastic business cards be your #1 solution. Plastic business cards gives an added touch to you and gives your client’s a reason to keep your business cards rather than a paper business card that they receive from other companies. With a plastic business card you know that even if your client leaves the plastic card in their back pocket and it goes through the washer it will still come out okay, now imagine if that was paper? All the information would be faded away and your contact information would be lost forever.  

There are many different options that you can incorporate into your plastic business card to make it shine, we can even make it have a softer look with maybe a frosted or matte finish, whatever you decide to have on your plastic business card it will definitely leave your client’s with a lasting impression of you and your company because you went the extra mile to promote your business with a plastic business card!

Having problems finding a good point of sales company or not quite ready for the added expenses of having the point of sales system integrated with your system now? We have different point of sales companies that we can refer you to, but while you are considering your POS options, you should check out this company, which can enhance the POS you choose. That company is StickyStreet.

StickyStreet is an online resource that will create, track and manage in house gift card and loyalty card programs that is web-based which allows you to use it anywhere you have an Internet connection. StickyStreet allows you to create, manage and determine the type of program you want to offer and what type of incentives you want to give out with easy access to change or modify the programs and incentives.  The five main programs or campaigns are:

1. Point-based Campaigns – Allows you to set your own Points to Dollar Ratio, Profit Ratio, define as many promotions as you would like or as many reward levels as you want, redeem by points, dollars, or preset award levels.
2. Gift Cards Campaigns – Amount spent will allow your clients to redeem gift cards to your business which can be spent at a later time.
3. Buy X, Get X Free Campaigns – Allows you to set any number of products or services, set a different quantity until free for each product or service.
4. Number of Visits Campaigns – Allows you to set as many reward levels as you want.
5. X Dollars per Visit Campaigns – Set your own dollars earned per visit ratio.

These programs are offered without additional software, separate terminals or transaction fees. Your clients can also track their incentives by going to your website and accessing Balance Lookup which will allow them to look at their balances in real time. StickyStreet also can add a QuickEnroll link to your website that will allow your clients to enroll into your program straight from your website. StickyStreet offers a free trial to their program so you can test it out and see if this is something that you can implement into your business just visit www.stickystreet.com for more details.

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.