One of the best ways to improve your mem­bers’ expe­ri­ence is to pro­vide them with mem­ber­ship cards. 

Cre­at­ing them may seem like a fair­ly straight­for­ward process, but believe it or not, how you design and dis­trib­ute your mem­ber­ship cards can have an impact on your mem­bers’ sat­is­fac­tion and even reten­tion rates! 

In this post, let’s go over two dif­fer­ent ways to cre­ate mem­ber­ship cards. We’ll also share free tem­plates you can use or refer to for inspi­ra­tion when design­ing your own.  

What Is a Membership Card?

A mem­ber­ship card is a phys­i­cal or dig­i­tal card that proves a member’s mem­ber­ship with your orga­ni­za­tion. 

It can be used when admit­ting mem­bers into events and to give them access to oth­er mem­ber ben­e­fits. If you have part­ners who offer dis­counts to your mem­bers, mem­ber­ship cards can be used to access these dis­counts, as well. 

While mem­ber­ship cards have tra­di­tion­al­ly been made from paper or plas­tic, more and more orga­ni­za­tions are mak­ing the move to dig­i­tal mem­ber­ship cards. They are much eas­i­er to cre­ate, dis­trib­ute, and update, espe­cial­ly as your mem­ber­ship grows. 

Not to men­tion, dig­i­tal cards are pre­ferred by mem­bers because there’s vir­tu­al­ly zero chance that they’ll for­get their card at home or lose it. 

6 Elements You Should Include on Your Membership Card 

What you include on your mem­ber­ship cards will depend on how you and your mem­bers use them. Not every item on the list below is a must-have, but this should give you a good start­ing place. 

1. Your organization’s name, logo, address, web­site, and con­tact info
2. Member’s name, ID num­ber, pho­to, and sig­na­ture
3. Their mem­ber­ship tier
4. “Mem­ber since” date and mem­ber­ship expiry date
5. How this card can and can­not be used (may dif­fer depend­ing on mem­ber­ship tier)
6. A scannable bar­code that can be used to ver­i­fy mem­ber­ship and track the use of the card