Quick response codes have been appearing more and more in businesses, big and small, that want to make an impact on the customer. Since a QR code can contain such a wide variety of information, it makes for a very interesting marketing tool that can help arouse the interest of potential customers.
You may have noticed that these handy little codes are popping up everywhere – in magazines, advertising materials, business cards, product packaging and even on movie posters.
QR codes can be used for a number of things:
- Name tags & business cards
- Product specs
- Automatically looking up an address on Google Maps
- Email newsletter signups
- “Buy Now” links, order links, “Buy Now” buttons
- Social media sites
- Videos on sites like YouTube
We also know that the typical use for QR codes is to direct people to a website but that’s really just scratching the surface. They can be designed to autofill information on a web form, look up addresses automatically on Google Maps or even create a text message with the content automatically filled in.
However, there are rules on how to make the most out of QR Codes and let the people who see it, get the most out of the time they spent decoding it.
There may be times when you include a QR code as an afterthought or including one you never tested because you were crunched for time to release the latest round of advertisements.
This is not the way to get the most out of it. By not ensuring that the code works, you risk more money by having to, at the very least, make changes to the QR code that you put on the posters; and worse, you may have to pull down and change the entire poster to include a properly working QR code.
While there are many styles of including the QR code in your business to make it work for you, allowing the QR code to stand out on its own is better than designing a stylish advertisement that makes it hard for people to notice the actual code.
Another thing you need to remember when including QR codes in your marketing campaigns is to make the QR code worthwhile for the person concerned. While it is hard to quantify the worth of the QR code once it is decoded, you can include a small discount code, downloads, freebies, or anything that you can think of. Just make sure that the data that is contained in the QR code is actually relevant to your marketing campaign and not some random stuff that you make the customer waste their time decoding.
Once you invest in the time and effort in perfecting your marketing strategy using these QR codes, you will see that people will make an effort in making the most out of your hard work. Most people already know what QR Codes look like and how they can decode it, so you only need to ensure that they can do it where they are and that they get their money’s worth just by doing it.
This was the final lesson in the QR code series. I sincerely hope that you have learned a few things about how QR codes work and how you can use them in your own business!
Lesson 1: What Are QR Codes and What Can They Do For Your Business?
Lesson 2: How Do QR Codes Function and How Do They Compare to Barcodes?
Lesson 3: How To Integrate QR Codes Into Your Business
Lesson 4: How To Make The Most Out Of QR Code Assisted Advertising