Gift Certificate Template

The best way to approach this project is by asking yourself a few key questions: What do you want the gift certificate template for? Do you need it in printable format or only digital ones that can be emailed around? Are there any special elements on your site’s branding design which should also appear as part of the gift certificate?

Once you’ve answered these questions, it will be easier to design a template that matches your site and brand. You can also use this opportunity to try out new ideas for your company logo if you think yours needs an update.

What Needs To Be On The Gift Certificate

At a bare minimum, your gift certificate obviously needs to state what it is that you’re offering the customer, but there’s a few other things that you might overlook that are mandatory inclusions:

• The name of your company and the certificate’s validity period. These are obvious things, but it never hurts to be reminded about them for this particular project.
• A space where you can fill in a message that will accompany the gift certificate if given out physically (i.e., hand-delivered or mailed to the recipient).
• The name of the recipient, if it’s a physical printable version or an emailed one so that people will know who to give the actual product to when making purchases on your site for their friends and family members.
• Terms and conditions. The least fun part but needs to be on there to prevent a minority of customers who will try and take advantage of your generosity.

How To Design The Perfect Gift Certificate

Canva is a great place to get started designing your perfect gift certificate. You can really get your creative juices flowing and design something that’s both consistent with your brand and that resonates with your customers.

Firstly, sign up with Canva using this link (it will give you a free trial). You can also download their app which is available on both iOS and Android. This means that wherever it suits you best – be it your laptop, tablet or mobile phone – you can be creating your design and uploading it straight away. Choose a template that matches the colour scheme of your brand (we recommend choosing one from their free templates). You can then start customising by adding in images, text boxes and different callouts to make sure everything fits perfectly together. Once you’re done, save the image as a PDF and upload it straight onto Instagram by hitting ‘share on ….’ at the top of your post editor.
Now remember that the design process is entirely subjective but there are certain design choices that many would agree are objectively good or bad. Here are some pointers on ensuring your design looks as professional as possible:

• Keep QR and barcodes away from the edges. If you are going to offer a paper version of the gift certificate, make sure that it is designed so as not to get damaged during transportation or storage and also designed in such a way that businesses can easily scan barcodes on receipts with minimal fuss.

• Print it on quality materials that will last as long as possible, which means avoiding cheap card stock or poor printing techniques like using inkjet printers for the print job – most businesses have at least one laser printer in their office so if you can get hold of a format that your printer can handle, stick to it.

• Keep the design clear and easy to read. If you are printing the card on low quality materials, it may be difficult for businesses or their customers (or staff) to scan.

• Keep the expiry date and terms and conditions clear and readable, not just illegible smallprint at the bottom. You don’t want angry customers who didn’t see them.

• Make sure that it is as easy as possible for customers to redeem the gift card. There should be no steps which are not necessary and it is best if you can avoid people having to complete any form or other paperwork in order to cash out. If a customer has earned points that they want converted into actual value, make sure those rewards have already been converted into actual value.

• Make sure that your gift certificate design is not too complicated or will confuse people. Keep it simple and easy to understand, even if you need to use some kind of visual representation rather than plain text for the redemption process (which should be as concise as possible).

• Make sure there are no strings attached, such as requiring a customer to present their gift certificate with something else in order for it to qualify or that redeeming the card will require them having an account.

• Get creative. If you are able and willing to put in some time into designing your own custom style of certificates which make use of more than just the common plain text, it may be worth doing so – these will give your customers something that they cannot get from other businesses and can help you create a bit more of an identity for yourself.

• Use simple symbols to represent things which are hard or impossible to describe in words alone like discounts amounting to a percentage of the original purchase price or other things which can be used to make your gift certificate design look more professional and appealing.

• Remember that less is often better when it comes to designing custom certificates – there’s no need for you to spend hours on one with lots of fancy graphics, colour scheme changes or changes in fonts when it comes to ensuring that the gift certificate is easy for people to use – just stick with using a simple design.

If you aren’t sure what makes something look professional, there are endless examples of well-designed certificates and websites which tell businesses how they can make their own more professional looking, along with free templates which can be used to make this process easier. Here are some examples we found online: