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Printed business cards are a very important source for networking, advertising, and marketing your business and what you can offer to the public. Many businesses fail at reaping some of the greatest benefits of having a printed business card and utilizing it to its full potential. There are many mistakes that new businesses may be unaware of that can hinder them from obtaining customers. Here are 5 mistakes to avoid with your business cards:

A card that is not unique- Some people select cards that are the basic printed business cards, they are not unique and are like many business cards that get tossed away, ruined, forgotten, and are the same as any other. This is one of the biggest mistakes one can make when selecting a business card. Your card should be unique and stand out from all the others that may be your competition. Today’s printing technology can enable you to create a card that will leave your presence with whomever it is acquainted with. Do not settle for something blasé.

Flimsy and low-quality material- Some paper business cards can be nice, however they are not too durable and have limitations that plastic printed cards do not. When you choose a low-quality card, you are risking potential business, lacking in presentation, and may be seen as less appealing to prospective clientele. Try to choose something that is durable, can fit in a wallet or pocketbook organizer, and that will come in use when the need arises. Printed Plastic cards may cost a bit more, but they are well worth the investment, because they are long-lived, very attractive, and are high-quality business cards that will be remembered.

Lacking Essential Content- There are many businesses that forget to include important content in their printed business card. Every card should possess a characteristic, slogan, or small summary of why someone should use your service or purchase your goods. Your card should contain key points that indicate experience, reliability, and quality. In addition, try to make it clear to the potential customer why they should choose you and what it is that makes you special.

Presentation- Presentation and appeal are crucial elements that every printed business card should consist of. It should be eye-catching and attractive. The print should be legible and large enough for anyone to read. It should contain important information about your business, have no spelling or grammatical errors, and not be over clustered with artistry and text.

Color- The choice of colors on a business card can be a deal breaker. It is of great significance that you select colors that compliment your design are not too blacked-out, or too dull that they are boring to look at.Use colors that contrast and compliment-not those that blend and are unidentifiable.

If you try to avoid the common mistakes with printed business cards, you will be well on your way to a positive outcome, and optimizing your chances of landing valuable clientele. Remember that quality of material used, presentation, content, color, and uniqueness do make a grave difference in expressing yourself or company through your printed business card as to whether you are worthy of an individual’s business or not.

Today there are many card printing solutions from quality photo id system manufacturers. If you need to print a photo ID or a different type of custom printed card, there are many systems to choose from.

There are several reasons that an organization may wish to obtain plastic card printer system. Plastic cards are printed every day for various reasons. In fact over 3 million cards are printed every day according to major manufacturers of card printing systems. Companies such as Evolis, Zebra, Datacard and Fargo have high quality printers that are known worldwide.

A common custom card is a driver’s license. Government agencies around the world print driver’s licenses and state identification cards for their citizens. There are printers specifically designed to accommodate this high volume, high security type card.

I recently got the privilege to work with a national recognized and accredited general contractor, 1 G.R. Builders. This business dominates central Ohio for residential and commercial construction. This company prides itself on quality craftsmanship, exceptional pricing and a commitment to their clients that is unsurpassed by any other company in their industry.

When Plastek Cards Inc was approached to help brand and market the company, we knew our business and gift cards had to be unique and trend setting. The end product needed to be an exact representation of 1 G.R. Builders. The company wanted to highlight a couple tasks that they specialized in; hardwood flooring, granite, ceramic tile, bathroom remodeling and general construction. Adding www.1grbuilders.com to the front of the card gives the client an easy reference to turn to, and also helps to increase the traffic to the company site. This was the perfect idea! Business cards need to be direct and to the point without overloading your potential clients with too much information. The final design that was approved for production was distinct and innovative.

The thickness of the cards were 18mil. This way their sales team and construction crew could easily carry several cards in their wallet, without being too bulky. They wanted their card to have texture to make it stand out above the rest, we achieved this applying a matte finish to both sides of the cards. The design of the card was simple and contemporary. At first glance it is somewhat reflective of a hotel key card. However if you study the card, the arrow will subconsciously bring your attention to the contact phone number that is printed. The color scheme in combination with a crisp modern font helped complete the design.

Often times some clients just want us to convert their existing business card design and print it on plastic. When we have the opportunity to work with clients that are willing to take a risk, and are involved in the design process the end result is worth it.  When working with 1 G.R. Builders, their creativity and design skills were impressive. The attention to detail was first-rate and they were involved in every step of the process from the beginning to end.

Everyone has so much to do with so little time.  We find ourselves saying to ourselves “there are not enough hours in a day”. With that in mind, who has time to think about the future? Who would have thought that now would be the perfect time to start planning and thinking about the busy holiday season?

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.

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 5th 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.

One of the hardest fields to break into is the real estate market. You need to find new and innovative ways to introduce yourself to the market if you want to be successful . Often times sending out flyers and internet ads introduces yourself to the community. There are more productive ways to establish yourself reputation.

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.

The CMYK color model (process color, four color) is a subtractive color model, used in color printing, and is also used to describe the printing process itself. CMYK refers to the four inks used in some color printing: cyan, magenta, yellow, and key black. Though it varies by print house, press operator, press manufacturer and press run, ink is typically applied in the order of the abbreviation.

The “K” in CMYK stands for key since in four-color printing cyan, magenta, and yellow printing plates are carefully keyed or aligned with the key of the black key plate. Some sources suggest that the “K” in CMYK comes from the last letter in “black” and was chosen because B already means blue.[1][2] However, this explanation, though plausible and useful as a mnemonic, is incorrect.[3]

The CMYK model works by partially or entirely masking colors on a lighter, usually white, background. The ink reduces the light that would otherwise be reflected. Such a model is called subtractive because inks “subtract” brightness from white.

In additive color models such as RGB, white is the “additive” combination of all primary colored lights, while black is the absence of light. In the CMYK model, it is the opposite: white is the natural color of the paper or other background, while black results from a full combination of colored inks. To save money on ink, and to produce deeper black tones, unsaturated and dark colors are produced by using black ink instead of the combination of cyan, magenta and yellow.

Color printing is the reproduction of an image or text in color (as opposed to simpler black and white or monochrome printing). Any natural scene or color photograph can be optically and physiologically dissected into three Primary Colors, red, green and blue, roughly equal amounts of which give rise to the perception of white, and different proportions of which give rise to the visual sensations of all other colors. The additive combination of any two primary colors in roughly equal proportion gives rise to the perception of a Secondary Color. For example, red and green yields yellow, red and blue yields magenta (a purple hue), and green and blue yield cyan (a turquoise hue). Only yellow is counter-intuitive. Yellow, cyan and magenta are merely the “basic” secondary colors: unequal mixtures of the primaries give rise to perception of many other colors all of which may be considered “tertiary.”

While there are many techniques for reproducing images in color, specific graphic processes and industrial equipment are used for mass reproduction of color images on paper. In this sense, “color printing” involves reproduction techniques suited for printing presses capable of thousands or millions of impressions for publishing newspapers and magazines, brochures, cards, posters and similar mass-market items. In this type of industrial or commercial printing, the technique used to print full-color images, such as color photographs, is referred to as four-color-process or merely process printing. Four inks are used: three secondary colors plus black. These ink colors are cyan, magenta and yellow; abbreviated as CMYK. Cyan can be thought of as minus-red, magenta as minus-green, and yellow as minus-blue. These inks are semi-transparent or translucent. Where two such inks overlap on the paper due to sequential printing impressions, a primary color is perceived. For example, yellow (minus-blue) overprinted by magenta (minus green) yields red. Where all three inks may overlap, almost all incident light is absorbed or subtracted, yielding near black. It is because of this poor “subtractive” black that a separate black ink is used. The secondary or subtractive colors cyan, magenta and yellow may be considered “primary” by printers and watercolorists (whose basic inks and paints are transparent).

Two graphic techniques are required to prepare images for four-color printing. In the “pre-press” stage, original images are translated into forms that can be used on a printing press, through “color separation,” and “screening” or “halftoning.” These steps make possible the creation of printing plates that can transfer color impressions to paper on printing presses based on the principles of lithography.

An emerging method of full-color printing is six-color process printing (for example, Pantone’s Hexachrome system) which adds orange and green to the traditional CMYK inks for a larger and more vibrant gamut, or color range. However, such alternate color systems still rely on color separation, halftoning and lithography to produce printed images. Within the specialist area of printed packaging, an emerging method of full-color printing is another system, Chapter1, developed by design group LFH. Chapter1 can be tailored to individual companies and was recently adopted by Unilever. It involves the traditional process colors (cyan, magenta and yellow) plus three additional colors chosen to best reproduce a particular company’s range of branded packaging.

Color printing can also involve as few as one color ink, or multiple color inks which are not the primary colors. Using a limited number of color inks, or specific color inks in addition to the primary colors, is referred to as “spot color” printing. Generally, spot-color inks are specific formulations that are designed to print alone, rather than to blend with other inks on the paper to produce various hues and shades. The range of available spot color inks, much like paint, is nearly unlimited, and much more varied than the colors that can be produced by four-color-process printing. Spot-color inks range from subtle pastels to intense fluorescents to reflective metallics.

Color printing involves a series of steps, or transformations, to generate a quality color reproduction. The following sections focus on the steps used when reproducing a color image in CMYK printing, along with some historical perspective.