Loyalty Card Printing Basics At-A-Glance

Information | Instant Quote | Templates | Samples | Printing | Material | Options | Size

Loyalty Card Printing [top]

Attract new customers and reward current customers with quality loyalty card printing from My1Stop. Use the helpful loyalty card printing basics below to create loyalty cards that drive value to your customers and your organization.

Plastic loyalty card printing basics feature brand building graphics and loyalty focused features. Your design should prominently feature your brand and might include personalized customer information. Choose features like high scan rate barcodes, numbering, a magnetic stripe and personalization to make your loyalty card program easy for you and your customers to use.

Digital printing on a white background card lets you use quality graphics including photos, logos or multiple color lines of text on your cards. Since white cards tend to cost slightly less than colored cards and digital printing tends to cost slightly more than one or two color printing. The result is affordable, high quality full color gift card printing. We suggest that you incorporate full color graphics printed on white cards into you loyalty card printing design.

Loyalty Card Printing - Sizes [top]

The standard loyalty card size is changing. The traditional 3 3/8" x 2 1/8" card size is being replaced by the less costly, more visible loyalty key tag. Key tag or key chain loyalty cards are typically 1 1/6" x 2 7/8" - often used by grocery store chains for their frequent buyer programs. There is always an option for a custom size or shape, too.

What's the right size for your loyalty cards? Your decision might depend on how well you can fit your loyalty card design to the smaller, key tag format. If your brand is well established and your logo is well recognized, try designing for the smaller - more convenient - and more affordable - key tag cards. Be sure to verify that your magnetic stripe readers and encoders will work with the smaller format mag stripes.

If you need more design room or simply favor the traditional size, be assured that this card size is familiar to your members and it fits well in wallets, purses and pockets. Traditional sized cards also allow enough room for design flexibility and branding such as logos and tag lines as well as adding a personalized touch like printing your customers' name on the card.

Going to a custom size or shape can draw attention to your cards and help build some brand or loyalty card program recognition. Just remember that custom sizes and shapes will cost more and can have longer turnaround times than standard sizes and shapes.

Loyalty Card Printing - Material [top]

White 30 mil is the most durable and therefore the most economical choice for loyalty card printing material. 30 mil is the same thickness used in printing traditional credit cards. The lighter weight While 20 mil and 12 mil white cards while readily available are not always the less expensive choice. The thicker, 30 mil card stock tends to wear better than the thinner 12 mil and 20 mil materials. My1Stop does offer Custom loyalty card printing materials are available. Be sure to contact the My1Stop customer service team to get the latest information about custom materials. To keep in mind that custom materials tend to cost more and add turnaround time to loyalty card printing projects.

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Loyalty Card Printing - Options [top]

Options to consider for loyalty card printing projects include magnetic stripes, signature panels, personalization and barcodes.

Magnetic stripes (or mag stripes) are encoded with the unique information about each customer. The encoded information can include customer name, membership type or points earned, name, address, phone number and more. Mag stripes can also be used to track customer purchases, frequency of use and other valuable marketing information.

Add a signature panel if you need to verify that the customer presenting the loyalty card is actually the card holder. A signature panel can be printed on the front or the back of the loyalty card. The panel is typically printed in white matte ink that is suitable for ink and marker pen signatures.

Personalizing each loyalty card with the customers' name can help set your program apart in your customers' eyes. Digital printing makes adding personalization relatively easy and affordable. Customer names can be printed on the card rather than embossed, this can cut costs and turnaround time, dramatically.

Consider barcodes if processing speed is a requirement for the use of the loyalty cards. Typically, barcodes can be used to tell you a few essentials about your customer as their card is scanned. While barcodes typically contain less information than mag stripes, they can be quickly scanned and read into your systems - and they can out-wear mag stripes. Given the relatively low cost of adding barcodes, many loyalty card programs include a mag stripe and a barcode. The small footprint of a barcode can make them an excellent option for key tag card printing as well.

If you're not sure which options you need, please contact the My1Stop customer service team. Put them to work for you on your customer loyalty card printing project.