Quick Response Codes, also known as QR codes can serve as a great opportunity for marketers when used correctly. With so many different marketing opportunities out there, QR codes might not feature on the top of your list. But trust me, these codes can actually be leveraged to grab the attention of your customers if you optimize them correctly.
Some Asian countries like India, China, Japan, South Korea have seen high adoption of QR codes in promotional and transactional campaigns.
One school of marketers believes in being present on limited marketing channels and maximizing the returns from these marketing channels. On the other hand, another school of marketers believes in being omnipresent and serving customers across channels. Whatever be your priority, you can consider QR codes as a feasible marketing channel. Here’s why.
The reason why QR codes shot to fame was because of their ultra-fast tracking and scanning capabilities. With smartphone adoption rates up, the expansion of QR codes was justified.
Mistakes that Create Setbacks for QR Code Marketing
What you need to understand as a marketer is why people should scan a QR code. A prospect should have an incentive to scan a QR code in the first place. Instead of getting into the heart of it, QR codes just became another fading trend. But it’s still not over yet.
The first mistake in QR code marketing would be the offering. If you want your prospects to scan the code, you have to offer them something substantial. The reason why QR code marketing fails is that marketers do not give people reason enough to take out their phones and scan the QR code.
You need to offer something more than what you are advertising because this added value is what people are looking for.
Another big challenge that marketers need to overcome is providing a relevant and high-quality landing page for customers. If someone is making an effort to scan your QR code, you should make sure to successfully engage this particular customer. The best way to do this is to create an effective landing page or a high-quality download.
The most important thing that you need to remember is QR codes are being scanned by mobile devices, so your landing page must be optimized for such platforms.
Why use QR Codes?
When it comes to QR codes, you have to understand their purpose to improve their effectiveness. Are you gearing people towards coupons or do you want to offer them some kind of product detail?
Leverage Cross-Channel Marketing
QR codes can be inserted everywhere, as long as the viewer has a smartphone at hand. One of the best ways to create an effective QR code marketing campaign is to use them in your emails.
Offline marketing channels like visiting cards, brochures and flyers, display advertisements can use QR codes to improve their engagement rates at no extra cost. This will help you create cross-channel marketing that will help customers take the leap seamlessly.
Instead of asking your leads to search your website online, you can ask them to scan QR codes instead and send them to the relevant landing page.
Adaptable & Versatile
When you are using a QR code in a campaign, you have to make sure you choose the right place to insert it. Maybe the next time you hand out a business card, you can have a QR code printed there.
If your QR code does not feature in the right place, chances are it will be ignored by most consumers because of reduced visibility. You need to place your QR code in plain sight visible to everyone, and probably screaming for attention. The thing is, QR codes are suitable for a lot of things, it can be synced into anything to engage more customers.
Customer Engagement
QR codes provide consumers with a direct link to the online world. There are countless ways to promote your product and engage your customer.
You can run contests, sweepstakes, or promotional events that will drive more customers to your website via QR codes. You can offer them anything you want. As long as it is relevant and irresistible.
Customer Experience
When a customer chooses to scan your QR code, they are already choosing to request further information from you. They are already more involved. You can use this opportunity to collect information from these visitors and enhance their experience to make their buying experience a better one.
Getting Feedback
QR codes, as we have already established provide a direct point of contact between you and your customer. You should take advantage of this and start a dialog with them.
You can use it to get feedback that you can use to improve your products and services. Put a QR code near the exit of your offline business and see how many customers leave feedback about your service via QR code.
Accessibility
QR codes are easy to apply and extremely cost-effective. Since it is targeted at mobile users, you can reach your audience whenever you want. You do not require anything special to implement QR codes, so they can be implemented any time you want. What about now?.
Measurable
With QR codes you can track and measure the effectiveness of your campaign. You can keep a count and identify what device was used to scan the code. You can tie it up with your customer details and thus make the campaign transparent. It acts as a quantifiable measuring tool automatically without the need of having to employ complicated metric analyses.
QR Codes are not Dead
The number of mobile devices is rising, and there is very little or no chance of that going down. Thus technically the market for QR code campaigns is widening.
During India’s demonetization drive, QR codes from mobile wallet companies actually served as PoS terminals enabling electronic payments for businesses who didn’t have PoS machines.
Coupled with better network speeds and improved connectivity, QR codes actually have the chance to become a seamless method of communication between marketers and their customers. It can become a key element in marketing campaigns and lead to greater acceptance amongst consumers.
Do you use QR codes? Let us know, if it’s helpful in your marketing campaigns.