Quick Response (QR) Codes: Part 3

Some additional best practices for Marketers to understand

By Jill Wangler, Director of Marketing

My previous posts stressed the importance of relevant offers, mobile optimization of landing pages, the power of personalization, importance of testing, and more. Here are some final thoughts on the topic:

Make time to Measure.

Make the time to look at the back-end analytics so you know what your campaign generated. You’ll want to look at which devices/browsers are used (shows you what you should reference when optimizing your landing pages), daily/hourly activity, location information, links clicked, etc.

In addition to the hard numbers, review feedback from your users. Provide an option for them to send comments on your campaign. Typically it will be skewed: you’ll hear from the highly pleased and highly displeased folks more than those that had an average experience.

And, track your results against your other channels of response (e.g. PURL, call center, business reply card, email, etc.).

In short, metrics and feedback will better inform subsequent campaigns to increase their chances of better success. A marketing campaign is never a complete failure if you learn valuable lessons from it.

QR Codes Are More than URLs

Personalized or not, web pages are not the only actions that a QR Code can evoke. It can also be a:

• Phone number/Email address: just tap to dial/send or save for future reference. No typing.
• VCard or business card: touch to enter the contact record in your address book. No typing.
• SMS text/Plain text: automate a text message log-in or a one touch opt-in.
• Appointments: excellent use when registering people for events. In particular, using variable QR Codes can auto populate information on a registration form. It’s essentially a guarantee that your registrations will increase since they don’t have to type all of the information you already know on the individual (name, address, email, etc.).

As well, the Code can go to a video, a coupon, an information sheet, a menu, a contest entry form, download a ring tone, show a location with a map or GPS, etc. Be creative!

Get Social

If social media—LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube—is an integral part of your marketing strategy, incorporate the vehicles in your landing page. Simply putting your social media links on your landing page can help your message or offer go viral.

Business Cards—A Case Study

Putting a QR code on your business card can be a useful addition. The question is: Where should the QR code take the Smartphone? One of the best solutions I’ve seen is letting the QR code take the viewer to a landing page that shows the business phone, cell phone, and email address of the person on the card with a button next to each. Pressing the button makes the call to the person or opens up an email dialog box. It also allows the capability to download a VCard if another button is pressed. This small set of choices is easy to read on the small screen and the button provides an instant action step.

Email me if you’d like a copy of my white paper: 10 Tips for Using QR Codes in Your Marketing