Your source for plastic card solutions in Africa
Our How to use QR Codes (and how to get it right!) Series is complete, but that doesn’t mean that the information we have to offer is depleted!
That’s right! In true CardsPlus style, we’ve compiled industry tips and tricks into a single PDF document. It’s easy to read, fast to follow and packed full of tips that you won’t find elsewhere on the internet.
Best of all, it’s still free.
Yes, using QR codes is simple and easy- and it’s certainly not rocket science. However, since the world {and your customers} have seen it done oh so wrong before- here’s a few tips and tricks that will help make your QR code containing campaign a hit off the bat.
1. Use it to bridge the gap between “Real world” marketing and online marketing by placing it on print ads, stationary, advertisements, business cards, loyalty cards, gift cards or vouchers, member cards and even product packaging.
2. Have ridiculously useful content. Make scanning worth their time. Vouchers and coupons are easy, but games, social applications and videos are immensely more fun!
3. Test! Check that it scans on different phones with different scanners. Your users will expect that your code will work on their QR code reading phone or device. So test, test, test!
1. Sending it in an email. They are already online- so just give them the link!
2. Compromising safety. Be careful about placing QR codes on billboards, trains, cars and in other areas where it is considered dangerous to use a cellphone.
3. Hiding your code! If users have to search, they won’t scan.
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This post is Part 2 of a 3 Part series on QR codes in marketing. If this post is helpful, please feel free to download our infographic guide to using QR codes {and getting it right}.
Does your printer operation give you hassles now and again? It might be time for a refresher course in training!
Benefits of Proper Training on Direct to Card PrintersTo ensure proper printer maintenance and allow for your company’s maximum up time and optimized print quality, CardsPlus provides expert training where printer operators and resellers can receive the skills they need to effectively handle the equipment, provide basic troubleshooting and operation. Trainees learn correct printer operation through hands-on activities, such as:
CardsPlus offers training for every printer purchased through us- and offer training refresher courses to brush up on your printing skills. Our trained and certified technicians are ready to assist you with your specific requirements.
Book a refresher course by contacting us through our website www.cardsplus.co.za today!
The world has gone green! We’ve entered the age of balance, harmony and lush elegance. From 2010′s vibrant pink, to 2011′s lively tangerine, we’ve seen the colour trend go topsy turvy in 2012. On Friday, Pantone, the professionals behind the standardized color reproduction system, has announced that the 2013 PANTONE Color of the Year is Emerald.
The more relaxing emerald “is absolutely the opposite of 2012′s Color of the Year,” says Leatrice Eiseman, Pantone’s color specialist. Most often associated with brilliant, precious gemstones, the perception of Emerald is sophisticated and luxurious. Since antiquity, this luminous, magnificent hue has been the color of beauty and new life in many cultures and religions. It’s also the color of growth, renewal and prosperity – no other color conveys regeneration more than green. For centuries, many countries have chosen green to represent healing and unity.
“Green is the most abundant hue in nature – the human eye sees more green than any other color in the spectrum,” says Eiseman, “As it has throughout history, multifaceted Emerald continues to sparkle and fascinate. Symbolically, Emerald brings a sense of clarity, renewal and rejuvenation, which is so important in today’s complex world. This powerful and universally appealing tone translates easily to both fashion and home interiors.”
Green is said to represent growth and fertility, which is why we think emerald is the best hue to help you inspire new sales in your latest marketing campaigns. The gem-stone shade of green is rich, and lush, and is perfect for conveying a sense of exclusivity and elegance in your campaigns.
Other colours also in the spotlight are:
Mix and match in this palette easily. They all translate into plastic with ease. The CardsPlus graphics specialists recommend freshening up emerald with a dose of Lemon Zest and Dusk Blue for a young fresh approach, or enhancing it’s elegance with a dash of Monaco Blue (my personal favourite!) and Linen. Oh the possibilities!
Go ahead and give your campaign the 2013 twist by going green and including emerald in your upcoming plastic card designs and marketing ventures. We can’t wait to show you how it will turn out on plastic!
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CardsPlus is committed to providing fully inclusive customised plastic card solutions. We do this with help from our unique combination of speedy service, flexibility, knowledge, commitment to quality and support.
We’re proud to have helped thousands of African companies get the most from their plastic cards. Read more about us on http://www.cardsplus.co.za/
Plastic card printers make your life easier and safer. You use them to print ID cards for staff members, police verification, personnel identification, membership management, client loyalty, and other mission critical applications.
But deciding which machine to get can be like wading through muddy water. Brochures are written for the IT department, even though you will be the one using the machine.
Reading a plastic card printer brochure shouldn’t be so difficult.
This infographic compiles all the features of the DCP350 in an easy to read A4 page with clearly indicated benefits to you, as the user.
The DCP350 was designed to meet all entry level printing requirements with ease, high performance and superior print quality.
It’s the first of it’s kind and we hope you like it!
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CardsPlus is the exclusive EDIsecure dealer for Subsaharan Africa. Pre orders of the DCP350 are available on www.cardsplus.co.za
We’re excited to announce that a brand new RewardsPlus website! Visit it here: www.rewardsplus.co.za
Read in depth about:
Using our simple downloading tools, you can download the user guide and 30 trial version for free!
With it’s easy to use interface, we hope that RewardsPlus.co.za will help you improve your gift and loyalty campaign.
View it here. www.rewardsplus.co.za
One of my favourite memories growing up was first job. I was 13, and living in the beautiful state of Oregon in the United States.
My first job was to pick berries. I picked blueberries, marionberries, huckleberries and strawberries with tender fingers while the sun rose each summer. My favourite were the raspberries. As the sun rose slowly over the hills in the distance, the fruit would warm, and send sweet, sweet fragrance across the farm plains. It was simply magical.
I suppose the reason I enjoyed picking raspberries over the other berries was that they, in the berry world, were a bit of a challenge.
The ripeness of a berry was crucial as over ripe raspberries would turn to mush in your fingers and not yet ripe berries were unsaleable. But there was more to it than just seeing the right colour on the berry. There were a couple tricks to take the berry off the stem too.
For instance, when removing the berry from the stem, your fingers have to be strong enough to caress the berry off the conical stem, but not too aggressive as to squish the berry between your fingers. Your arms have to be tough to navigate the thorn ridden stems of the bush, and nimble to weave as quickly as can be.
As I would collect berries one by one, I would place them into a bucket I tied around my waist. But I noticed quickly that the heavier the berry laden bucket was, the more “raspberry jam” I found at the bottom of the bucket during counting but too few berried in the bucket made me run back and forth from the farmhouse much too often.
Picking raspberries was a very careful balancing act.
I believe that this is exactly the approach that we need to make with customer loyalty
Get up early
Early adopters are known to jump onto new ideas, processes and habits before the rest of society follows. Seize this niche market by doing it first. “It” can be a new concept with how points are used, redeemable products, or even communication channels. Is everyone in your industry offering silver/gold cards? Go blue! Or purple! Is the communication always via sms? Use Facebook or Twitter. Trying something new in your industry will take a little effort. It will require extra creativity. But the market it there- ready to jump on board.
Give them a strong reason to choose you over your competition (get them off the stem!)
I’m not talking Tshirts or bigger discounts here. I am talking about generating real value to your customer (here’s someone doing it right) to make the programme worth the expense.
Positivity works! (Don’t squeeze the berry!)
Reward positive actions. Most programmes allow points to be allocated based on either visits or value. Choose the results you want to see before implementation to ensure that you are getting the most positive action for your business.
Be tough and ready to change direction (Weave around those thorns!)
Getting loyalty to bring in heaps of cash is a learning experience. Some things work well, others don’t. Each industry has their own niche of cliched loyalty programme offerings that are not exciting anymore. Don’t be afraid to try new approaches, testing along the way to success.
More does not bring more money (Focus on the berries worth saving!)
You can’t win everyone. Studies show that 20% of your efforts bring in 80% of your results. Focus on the results that are coming in, and navigate accordingly.By pinpointing your loyalty marketing, you can secure better business, instead of just more clients. Afterall, isn’t the focus to bring in more money and higher ROI?
Plastic cards are an important part of branding your loyalty programme. CardsPlus is a South African based plastic card manufacturer with a wide range of product solutions. Learn more about us on www.cardsplus.co.za
What’s so great about a plastic card? Plastic cards reveal uniqueness.
In Identification, plastic cards are used as a validation tool. The card proclaims “This person, seen here, is important to this company!” Plastic ID cards allow access into certain areas. They provide certain perks and they recognise the importance of that individual.
In loyal sectors, a loyalty card and membership card is exclusive- even a little luxurious. They entitle the bearer to special treatment, discounts or opportunities.
People who carry plastic cards relish in their own uniqueness and in their own sense of belonging to an exclusive segment of society. Making your card feel luxurious and exclusive is the key to launching your plastic card campaign. By embracing the feeling of uniqueness in your card holder, you increase their willingness to spend money at your establishment!
Thankfully, there are many ways to add glitz and glamour to your plastic card campaign without costing you a small fortune. This month, we are featuring our new most popular (and FUN!) glitzy features. We offer a selection of “bling” that you can add to your plastic cards while we manufacture them and capitalise on that sense of exclusivity.
Add Sparkle:
Sparkles are now available on digital offset! Most recent to the CardsPlus arsenal is the ability to produce sparkle plastic cards in our standard 2 week turnaround. This shimmer metallic effect is particularly striking paired with light artwork, and provides an elegant backdrop to your gift card, loyalty card and membership card. This process of printing is a quick, cost-effective method of adding shine and character to your plastic card campaign.
Add Embossing: 
Sometimes called “Raised letters”, embossing is a beautiful and functional feature to add to your card. The cards are run, one by one, into a large embossing machine that punches the numbers and letters into the plastic. The cards are then “tipped” with a coloured foil to make the characters stand out visually. We recommend choosing silver or gold foil for the most shine. Embossing is most appropriate on gift cards, loyalty cards, or membership cards, although we’ve seen several companies use embossing for their luxury business cards.
Add Foil Stamp: 
Foil stamps are the most flexible and fun way to personalise your card design. Foil stamps are custom die cut foil pieces that are stamped into the plastic. By resting above the overlay, the foil provides a brilliant shine in the design of your choosing. The foil dies are precise and can be used for geometric shapes like circles or stars (Hint! Sterkinekor uses gold foil stamped stars on their cards!) or organic swirls or text (Hint: Truworths uses foil stamped text on their gift cards!). The design options are huge!
Although most frequently seen on gift cards and business cards, foil stamps are moving into every industry including security, loyalty, and membership. Foil stamps are available in many different colours, as well as a fun mirror finish.
Adding little touches like these to your plastic card campaign will make your card just a little edgier than the rest of your competition and secure a little extra loyalty from your very important clients.
If you would like to add extra features to your plastic cards, contact us for a complimentary consultation and quotation. We want your campaign to succeed!
Plastic cards are simple tools that can propel your company into high-tech professionalism or weigh you down with unnecessary expense. But how can you tell if plastic cards are harming you or helping you? 
We have put together a few questions that might help you nail down the best plastic card solution for your project.
There are so many technologies available. With plastic cards touching such a vast array of industries, there is standard and advanced technologies available for nearly every market. Sometimes your requirement is such that you need advanced technology found in smart cards. Sometimes, you don’t.
How do you know?
This is a difficult question to answer. After 25 years in the industry, we still learn new things. This is why we make an effort to educate anyone who is interested. We believe information is power! The more you know, the more valuable you are to your company, to the industry and to the reputation of plastic cards globally.
We try to remain transparent, and enjoy providing as much information as we can about the topics you need, from ID management to EMV (Europay, Mastercard, Visa Loyalty/Gift schemes) to NFC (Near Field Communication – like mobile payments, and certain types of smart cards) to even QR tags.
We offer both a Facebook platform and a Twitter stream for communication and interesting articles we come across, as well as complimentary consultations in and through our offices.
There are a couple of questions you can ask yourself too. What is the best option I can find? I’m not talking price here, although that surely factors into your concerns, but for value. An inexpensive Loyalty solution isn’t going to help you print ID cards. In the same way, a cheap, but useless solution isn’t going to help you much when what you require is a little bigger, a little bit more expensive, but will meet all of your requirements.
It’s about value. You can continue to ask yourself, is this technology offering me the value I require? Is it still meeting my changing needs? If so, great! If not, there are dozens of options for you (and it might not even cost you a cent!)
Are you printing photos and logos on a desktop printer in batches to personalise later? Or ordering small quantities of stock to “tide you over” until you can afford a large batch of cards? These systems ratchet up your costs unnecessarily. Perhaps printing stock on a Just in Time service might be a better solution for you.
Have you purchased an exorbitant number of cards to grab a bigger discount, only to change a phone number or rebrand and have to toss them all into the recycling bin? There are other ways to grab a low-cost per card without risking all the wasted money, time and plastic.
There are a number of stressful tasks you have at the office. Purchasing plastic cards shouldn’t be one of them. If your solution is causing you more panic than peace, it may be worthwhile into grabbing an alternative solution.
If you find that your client (or your boss) often requires cards on a more urgent timeline, but you are pressured into waiting 4 weeks or even 2 weeks, you have options of speed services. If you or your designer is worried about colouration or quality, we can ensure you receive a hardcopy proof.
With so many demands at the office, you need the right equipment to get the job done quickly, professionally and easily. Having the right card printer, software and cameras can turn a printing chore into a printing pleasure. Is your card printer super simple to use? Can you change out ribbons quickly, and repair card jams without calling a technician? Is the software intuitive? Does your camera integrate into your software easily? Check that your equipment is working perfectly for what you need.
Plastic cards are great little tools to keep your company secure, to boost sales and to promote yourself. Having the correct solution for your company is critical.
CardsPlus offers comprehensive complimentary consultations for your project. Call us today for yours.
