How to Design Gift Cards for Your Small Business

You may have purchased gift cards as present for your family, or seen them on the counters of other businesses, possibly even your competitors. No matter the size of your business, you can have your own gift cards, personalized with your name, logo, and in amounts of your choosing.

Why Have Gift Cards

There are a number of reasons why having gift cards is a good business practice:

• Gift cards are like mini billboards; they help market your business every time the card is seen
• More than 90% of US consumers will purchase or receive a gift card this year
• Often gift card holders will spend more than the face amount
• Having card purchasers register their personal details helps you build a strong customer list for marketing

How to Design Your Gift Cards

A gift card is a visual product, and the better it looks, the better it will sell. Your design should reflect your business, product, or service, but also the “experience” your company offers customers or clients. The design of the card isn’t something you should try to conquer on your home computer unless you’re an expert, but rather should spend a little money on to hire a professional designer to come up with something truly great. Designs that have lush colors, graphics and fonts are more likely to get noticed at your point of sale, and translate into more revenue for your business.

Depending on whether you are integrating the card into your own system or using a processor, you will have to make sure you have the appropriate information embedded in the magnetic strip or bar code on the card.

How to Market Gift Cards

Most gift cards don’t ‘fly off the shelf’ all on their own, but require a little extra effort by your personnel, which in turn will roll over into more sales.

Obviously, a display by the register or checkout is a great place to have gift cards available. You’ve captured your customer while they are spending money, conducting a transaction, and with gentle marketing from your employees, you might add a gift card to their sales figure.

But don’t stop at just having them at the register; tasteful displays throughout a store with marketing reminders can increase sales as well.

As the cost of the blank cards is practically nil, you might consider them as premium giveaways to encourage customers to load the cards by offering special incentives, like time-oriented discounts or matching funds.

If your business sends monthly statements to customers or clients, enclosing unloaded gift cards can also spur sales; as a worst case, again, they merely reinforce your message.

All Year Round or Seasonal Sales

As we’ve noted, gift cards can add to your top and bottom line; it’s your choice to offer them year around, or centered around special selling seasons like the Christmas holidays. Whatever your ultimate choice, committing to a gift card program is a solid step towards growing your business.