How To Make Your Own Printable Gift Certificate

Posted on March 24, 2011 by

You’ve decided to make your own printable gift certificate for your small business. Congratulations! You are joining a growing trend: last year, more than 23 billions of dollars worth of gift cards have been sold in the United States.

Before we get started on how to make your own printable gift certificate, keep in mind that quality will play a very big role in convincing customers to buy it for their friends or relatives. They should be proud of their gift! That means that the better your gift certificate quality, the more you will sell. Concretely, that means you should have design skills if you want to do it yourself. Alternatively, you may want to check Gift Certificate Factory for professional gift certificate templates, or if you are willing to spend more money, you could hire a designer to do it. In that case, budget for a few hundred dollars to have the gift certificate customized to your business.

Choose gift certificate wording

You should at least write the following information on the gift certificate:

  • name of your company
  • recipient’s name: the person receiving the gift certificate
  • gift certificate value (in dollars or different currency) or service provided
  • a unique serial number identifying the gift certificate

You can have the following optional information:

  • logo of your business: that adds a nice professional touch
  • details of your business (address, website): purely optional
  • purchaser’s name (likely, the person who will buy the gift certificate)
  • signature (making sure the gift certificate has not been duplicated)
  • any other information you find relevant to a gift certificate

Gift certificate format

You can have your own format of course, but the most common format is 8? X 4? (inches). You can use standard 8? X 11? (inches) paper or custom paper. Make sure you use good quality paper, as it will make a big difference in how your customers will perceive the value of the gift certificate. Remember, this is a gift, so it has to look neat. You need to make the customer buying the gift certificate proud of buying it. Similarly, use a good printer or if you don’t have one, use the services of a professional printer. It will cost you a few dollars but it will certainly be worth it.

How to design your gift certificate

You can browse for pictures matching your business (if you make a spa gift certificate, look for “spa pictures” online) or you can use ready-made templates for your software of choice (Microsoft Word has some templates for gift certificates for example).

Additional considerations when making your own gift certificate

You will need to keep track of gift certificates to make sure people can’t fraud, which would be very costly to your business. To get the most out of your gift certificates, you might consider to read our article on how to sell more gift certificates.

Gift Certificate Factory provides gift certificate templates that you can print and sell to your customers. Check out our gift certificate template gallery.

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