Membership Cards

Membership cards are growing in popularity. As it happens the American economy is spiraling down right now and this creates a fantastic opportunity for those that are open to it. While some companies are scrambling to find new customers, the smart money is on the businesses that spend a small amount of money retaining the customers they've already got.

It costs a fortune to advertise, and market to, and convince new people to spend money at your place of business. And while everyone wants to grow their business, if all you're doing is replacing lost business with new business, you aren't growing at all.

Adding a membership card to your business model is one of the most cost-effective ways to add customer loyalty and if you throw in a few inconsequential benefits, you'll have an extremely pleased customer base as well. You can also advertise the benefits of using your membership program to new customers, too.

So what kind of membership card should you get?

Membership cards themselves can take many forms. It depends on whether you want to have customers fill out an application, then somehow assign a card number to that application. There are generally three ways to accomplish this task.

1. Have your plastic card manufacturer build a card with a barcode on it and apply a removable label to the card. Then they run this card through a second piece of equipment that scans the barcode on the card and prints the same barcode on the removable label - MOST RISK
2. Have your plastic card manufacturer build a card with a barcode on it and have them affix (or tip) the card  directly to an application. During the application process, the barcode on the card is scanned and instantly printed on the application. - LESS RISK
3. Have your plastic card manufacturer build a card with a barcode on it BUT also with a Teslin label built right into the card. Then you simply peel the label from the card and manually affix it to your application. - ZERO RISK

This third option is clearly the safest option. However only Teslin card manufacturers can offer this feature. In fact, only one company in particular offers it, but that's topic for another day.

Another benefit of the Teslin membership card is the ability cut the card into virtually any shape. If you want to stand out from your competition with a unique shape, Telslin is probably the way to go.

It occurs to me that many of you probably don't know the difference between PVC and Teslin cards. I'll discuss that in the next post.

Printing Plastic Cards - An Introduction

Plastic cards are everywhere. There are quality cards... and sub-quality cards. There are cheap cards... and there are less than cheap cards. This site still focus on all aspects of plastic cards:

• How to know what to look for in a good plastic card
• What to look for in a  good plastic card manufacturer
• Understanding the difference in all of these different kinds of cards
• Why you should purchase Teslin cards over a PVC cards
• Price vs Performance
• Why you need a loyalty card for your business
• Which kinds of cards are the most envrionmentally friendly
• And on, and on, and on...

There are tons and tons of things to consider when you are looking for a quality card manufacturer. If you've been around the block before, you may be familiar with some of these questions. You may have figured out some of the answers. But I bet you could still learn a few things from an insider. Like me.

If you are new to the card biz, I can teach you all kinds of things that you'll never learn anywhere else. How can I do that? Because I don't sell the cards. I'm an independent source of good information for everyone out there looking for information.

Loyalty Cards

The loyalty card market is booming. No matter what the economy is doing, all companies want to reinforce customer loyalty and the loyalty card / membership card is key to doing just that. Starting up a loyalty card program is critical to your continuing success.

Times are tough right now. There are options for folks looking for a cheaper option. Most of the big-time companies all want the "shopper card"... essentially a unit consisting of a card (the technical name is CR-80) and two keytags. If you can't afford this option, you can get just the CR-80, or just the keytags, or just one keytag, or any combination of items you want.

Oddly enough, the most important part of the loyalty card program has very little to do with the card itself. We'll get more into that in another post. We can't cover every aspect at once.

For now, just realize that you've found the best, HONEST source of information about the card market. I'll work to answer any questions you may have. I'll also work to provide a valuable source of information about printing plastic cards that you'll come to over and over again.

That's all for now.

Cheers,

Card Guru

Welcome to Printing Plastic Cards Center

Welcome to Printing Plastic Cards Center. This site provides all the knowledge you need to know about printing plastic cards, purchasing loyalty cards, or brushing up on your knowledge of anything in the laminated card industry. If you have questions not covered in Printing Plastic Cards Center, please feel free to post your question below.


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Card Guru