Today, brands leverage social media, online ads, and email marketing to promote their products or services. These tactics might be enough to catch internet users’ attention. However, companies must do more to win users’ loyalty and improve their own image in public.
What do they need? The answer is digital loyalty programs.
According to research, 60% of customers have better experiences with businesses because their connection transcends transactional thanks to loyalty programs.
Rewarding consumers is easier with loyalty cards. Discounts, gifts, or rewards all fit into a loyalty card they can receive from your business.
However, you must think of loyalty card design first. The overall look should reflect your business and showcase your visual identity. The colors, elements, and logo must immediately remind customers of your brand.
PassKit, our digital loyalty platform, can help you with the loyalty card design. Our app provides loyalty card templates and integrates your loyalty program into Google Pay and Apple Wallet to connect customers’ online and offline experiences.
PassKit is an all-in-one digital loyalty solution, so you don’t have to build a custom app for your loyalty program. Design, edit, manage and promote loyalty cards in just a few clicks. It’s that easy!
Start your 45-day free trial now.
In this article, we’ll discuss creating an effective loyalty card design and how PassKit makes this process more straightforward.
What is a loyalty card?
A loyalty card is a physical or digital card customers use to record points and receive rewards. They must earn points to get vouchers, special offers, or gifts. If you distribute digital loyalty cards, customers need to scan them in a physical or online store to use the incentives.
More than 80% of loyalty program members make a redemption from the program. If you’re wondering if loyalty cards are worth the investment, there’s your answer.
Any business can launch loyalty cards. Gym, nail salon, hotel, or restaurant loyalty programs show you appreciate customers’ loyalty.
Why are loyalty cards important?
Loyalty cards positively impact your business and revenue. You can:
- Increase customer loyalty – satisfied customers are loyal. They forget about other companies when you reward them or show how much you value them. Research shows that consumers spend more when they are loyal to a brand.
- Improve customer experience – the promise of a voucher or discount creates excitement among consumers. People are aware that every purchase counts, so they are not wasting money. It creates a positive customer experience.
- Boost customer retention – no one wants to abandon a business that takes care of them. You put your consumers first, and they will stay around for years.
- Increase sales – loyalty programs motivate people to buy more. They know that purchases get them rewards, so they increase their spending cap.
Let’s now see how a poorly designed loyalty card affects your customers and business.
How does a poorly designed loyalty card impact your customers?
Image source: Pexels
You offer the best incentives to consumers, but they still run away from your loyalty program. What is the reason? You probably have poorly designed loyalty cards.
Let’s discuss how poor loyalty card design can impact your buyers.
1. It discourages customers from signing up for your loyalty program
Broken links, unattractive design, and unresponsive signup pages are surefire ways to lose customers. No one wants to sign up for a loyalty program that doesn’t work. They don’t gain anything from it.
You have the power to prevent consumers from heading the door. Start using PassKit to create and design loyalty cards for businesses. We will help you develop a sophisticated design to stand out from others.
Use loyalty card templates to speed up the process and personalize them according to your needs. You don’t need to be a professional designer when you have PassKit at your disposal.
2. It confuses customers on how to use their loyalty cards
Loyalty card design should be simple, straightforward, and easy to understand. Too many confusing elements will make it difficult for customers to figure out how to use the card and whether the rewards are worth their time. A simple design will help customers feel confident about using their loyalty cards.
3. It makes it difficult for customers to keep track of their points
Customers need an efficient way to track their points. They might get confused about how many points they have or need to collect to get a reward. For these reasons, they might miss valuable opportunities. Both of these issues can undermine the value of your loyalty card program.
4. It makes it difficult for customers to redeem their rewards
Customers should be able to redeem their points quickly and easily without navigating any confusing technical challenges. Clear instructions are critical. Your loyalty card should be easy to understand and indicate crucial steps to redeem a reward.
5. It can result in expired points
If your customers don’t purchase often, they won’t be able to accumulate enough points in a specific time frame. It’s essential to state how much time customers have before their points expire. Adding expiry dates will ensure customers redeem their rewards, leading to increased satisfaction with your brand.
6. It causes customers to lose interest in the loyalty program
If the loyalty card does not offer good value, customers may be less likely to use it. If the loyalty program is not well promoted or communicated, customers may be unaware of its existence. These factors can contribute to customer disinterest and ultimately lead to poor loyalty program performance.
7. It makes it easy for customers to cancel their loyalty membership
Consumers don’t cancel loyalty memberships if everything is alright. If the number of lost customers increases, you should check the design and develop new customer loyalty program ideas.
How does a poor loyalty card design affect your business? Let’s find out!
How does a poorly designed loyalty card impact your business?
Image source: Unsplash
According to Forbes, there is a direct correlation between business expansion and quality loyalty card design. In other words, a poorly designed loyalty card without the brand logo and other relevant details can hinder your growth. Let’s discuss how.
1. Lack of customer engagement
Engaging your customers can become a difficult task. You need to know on what channel they spend most of their time so you can send targeted messages and boost their interaction with your brand. It is not possible with paper or plastic cards.
Digital loyalty cards provide quick access to your customers because they use these loyalty cards on their smartphones.
PassKit ensures you meet your customers where they are. You can set up a multichannel distribution system to engage shoppers no matter where or how they purchase your products or services. Try PassKit now!
2. Lack of customer insight
Data drives every successful marketing decision. Without data on customer behavior and purchase history, you can’t know how many people signed up for your loyalty program or used your loyalty cards, whether online or offline.
3. Decreased customer retention
Loyalty programs are not only about points and discounts. They are also about how you make consumers feel. Customers won’t stay if your loyalty card annoys or frustrates them. They also won’t stick with your business if your rewards don’t align with their needs.
4. Poor customer experience
A study shows that 61% of people will switch to a competitor following one bad experience. To boost your customer experience metrics, design user-friendly loyalty cards so customers can take full advantage of them. To make your cards more effective, you can provide a personalized experience to each loyalty member.
5. High customer acquisition costs
A well-designed loyalty card can help businesses attract new customers and strengthen brand loyalty. A poorly designed loyalty card can do the opposite: it can result in high customer acquisition costs, lost revenue, abandoned carts, and dissatisfied customers.
6. Reduced customer loyalty
Customers may become disappointed when they receive a card that does not work or is outdated. They may also have different negative feelings if they can’t use their own loyalty cards for other reasons. In turn, this can lead to decreased loyalty in the future. As a result, there is reduced revenue as well as wasted resources.
7. Poor customer service
To build customer loyalty, companies need to provide excellent service, which includes everything from how they treat customers during the purchase process to how they respond when things go wrong.
By keeping these things in mind when designing a loyalty program, companies can ensure that the loyalty cards they launch effectively retain customers and increase overall loyalty.
Now that you know how loyalty card design significantly impacts your customers and business let’s discuss how you can solve these issues with PassKit, our digital loyalty platform.
How to use loyalty card templates with PassKit Pass Designer
PassKit is our customer loyalty app you can use to create digital loyalty cards, membership cards, or coupons. It integrates with mobile wallets such as Google Pay and Apple Wallet, making it a convenient and safe solution for your customers because they can store and use their cards with their smartphones. It all leads to contactless shopping and connected customer experience. According to consumer trends, your customers will surely appreciate these possibilities.
With PassKit, you can say goodbye to paper and plastic loyalty cards and eliminate all issues these outdated cards bring to your business.
It provides all features you might need to design a loyalty program, so you don’t have to hire a development or design team to create your custom app from scratch.
PassKit also boosts your marketing efforts since you can distribute loyalty cards on multiple channels and track loyalty program data, including redemption rates.
You can combine PassKit with
- Receipt marketing
- In store advertising
- POP marketing
- Retail marketing
- Location based marketing
- NFC payment
What’s best, you can start using our Pass Designer and prepare your loyalty card design in minutes. Let’s explain how it works in detail.
PassKit Pass Designer for creating a loyalty card design
You can sign up for a 45-day free trial to start using our Pass Designer. As you can see, it has a user-friendly panel you can use to create your loyalty card design.
The upper menu lets you name your design and choose if you want to create a digital loyalty card, membership card, or coupon.
When you click on the Add item tab, you will see a menu with all the relevant information you should include on your loyalty card to increase its usability.
With this feature, you can define
- The program name
- Points
- Name
- Tier
- Additional information
If you choose present fields, you can
- Include your email address
- Add links such as your website or social media pages
- Create a customized field and add any information according to your needs
If you choose advanced fields, you can
- Include an expiration date
- Add a mobile number
- Include first and last name
- Add gender and date of birth
- Include the member status
- Add legal information and more
As you can see, your digital loyalty card will include all the necessary information to help your customers easily understand how to use it, and start collecting points and redeeming rewards.
What about branding?
With our Pass Designer, you can add your logo, choose the template color, and include a hero image that best represents your brand. Our loyalty card templates align perfectly with Google and Apple design, so you don’t have to worry about your card appearance in mobile wallets.
What about loyalty card scanning?
Finally, you can add a barcode to your loyalty card to quickly scan the card while customers are at your business. You can also include encoded barcode content and text below the barcode.
When you complete editing your loyalty card, hit the Save button and start distributing your loyalty program. It’s that fast and easy.
Start designing your loyalty cards with Pass Designer today!
Since you now have the perfect solution for your loyalty card design, let’s share some bonus tips to help you create cards that will provide the optimal experience for your customers.
13 tips from the pros for effective loyalty card design
There are some elements your loyalty card design must include to be appealing and pleasing to the eye. Here are our 13 tips for effective loyalty card design.
1. Keep it simple
Don’t fear simplicity. Less is always more. The design doesn’t need to feature bold colors or too many visuals to be eye-catching.
You should include elements that make the loyalty card recognizable. Customers should take one look and be able to connect it with your brand.
They won’t focus on the important things if you add too many elements. Your logo and business name should be the only thing to stand out.
2. Use fewer fields in your sign-up forms
Too many fields take the fun out of joining a membership program. No one likes to spend ten minutes signing up for a loyalty program. That’s why you should use fewer fields when asking customers’ information.
For instance, PassKit asks your members for only basic information. They need to add their full name and email address to join. It is enough if you want to collect customer data with your custom loyalty cards.
3. Use your brand colors
Let’s say you own a restaurant whose colors are white and beige. You decide to create a restaurant loyalty program and use a template that features orange and red. How would customers connect it with your business? Remember to be consistent with your branding.
4. Use different colors for different tiers
Most loyalty cards feature different tiers. The point is to differentiate between new customers and repeat buyers. Each tier should have its own color.
It helps you make sense of your program and indicate to clients which tier they belong to and the benefits to use.
5. Use whitespace wisely
Whitespace refers to the empty space around your loyalty card content. It helps you create visual breaks between elements to make your card more uncluttered and emphasize critical information.
6. Keep the design consistent
Every business should stay consistent in its design. Why? Here are the main reasons:
- It builds customer relationships – people like to interact with things that look familiar to them. Over time, they learn what kind of style your business uses. It is why you must stick to the same design of your loyalty cards.
- It saves time – you already have established a style for your business. You start designing loyalty cards and save time because you don’t have to develop a new style.
- It looks professional – Consistency helps you look more professional. A lack of it can confuse people, and they won’t be sure if it’s your brand or not.
7. Use attractive fonts
Fonts also matter. You should optimize your typography to improve the user interface. We’ve prepared some tips:
- Don’t use too many fonts – Let’s say you select a loyalty card template and realize it uses around five fonts. Do you need that many? No – use up to three different fonts to ensure your card looks professional.
- Pay attention to the font size and stroke width – customers access the cards from multiple devices. You should use a typeface that works in all of them. For instance, PassKit lets you see how your loyalty card design looks on Android and iOS devices. It ensures the design appears impeccable regardless of the mobile wallet they use.
- Ensure you have distinguishable letters – make sure your content is readable. Customers who can’t distinguish between letters won’t understand the message.
- Use high-quality images
The use of graphics and imagery helps you convey messages users can easily understand. Quantity isn’t significant—quality is.
Today, customers expect to see quality images. Don’t treat them as nice-to-have. You should find high-resolution visuals that fit all screen sizes. Remember to check how they look on the small screen as the number of smartphone users is increasing.
9. Highlight important information
Every designer knows how crucial it is to highlight important data and information. You want to draw users’ attention to the content that matters. They should take just one look at your loyalty card to understand which message you want them to remember.
10. Include a call to action
A call to action (CTA) is a helpful tool. It is an element you can use to tell your customers what you want them to do. You can ask them to check a special promotion, use their vouchers and look at their points with the help of a CTA.
11. Make it scannable
Consumers present their cards to your employees, who then scan them. It is how they earn points from your store purchase. Include barcodes or QR codes on your cards for this purpose.
12. Include an expiration date
Every card has an expiration date. You should make that evident by including it on the card. Consumers won’t need to visit your store to check the expiration date. The information they need is already on the card.
13. Test the design on different platforms
Every design appears differently on different platforms. Your job is to test the design to ensure the colors, logos, fonts, visuals and content look the same across all platforms.
Loyalty card design: Wrapping up
Your loyalty card design tells a lot about your business. If it appears sloppy and unprofessional, you won’t attract many consumers. However, if you invest time and effort, your loyalty card design will help you stand out from competitors and increase repeat purchases.
PassKit helps you create a loyalty card design aligned with Google and Apple standards. The process is straightforward, and you don’t need design or coding knowledge to create loyalty cards.
The power of PassKit doesn’t stop here. You can also distribute your cards on multiple marketing channels and track your loyalty program performance, including redemption rate.
To get the most out of PassKit, start your 45-day free trial.
FAQ about loyalty card design
We researched and prepared answers to frequently asked questions about a loyalty card design. Continue reading to learn more.
What size should loyalty cards be?
The standard paper or plastic card size is 3.5 x 2 (inches). You can use a digital loyalty card, and you won’t need to worry about its size!
How do you get a digital loyalty card?
You need a digital loyalty solution like PassKit to create an online loyalty card. Our platform helps you make the card, brings it to customers’ mobile wallets, collects data, and ensures you improve your program!
What does a loyalty card mean?
A loyalty card is a form of incentive a business gives to consumers so they can earn points and redeem rewards.
What is the purpose of loyalty cards?
Loyalty cards enable consumers to profit from their purchases. Each purchase earns them points, which they can use to buy products or services at lower prices.
