It’s all well and good to print quick response codes on all of your marketing, but are you giving consumers a reason to act?
It has reached the point that it has become difficult to make your way through a day without seeing a QR code, and yet many companies are still finding that their mobile marketing campaigns aren’t generating the overwhelming number of scans that they had expected.
Are quick response codes dead or have marketers failed to give consumers incentive to scan?
Our QR code detectives were out again, this week, and spotted two examples of barcodes that have done their job in providing people with the information they need to not only know how to scan but also to understand just why they should. All too many barcodes are currently printed without any instructions or details to tell consumers what they can gain by hauling out their smartphones and using their reader apps to scan. Moreover, all too many still lead to the homepage of a website – instead of a specific relevant landing page – that is that isn’t even mobile optimized.
Without intending to, many marketers are practically using the QR code to turn consumers off the tech.
However, here are some examples discovered by our detectives during their investigations, this week, which show how the QRcode can be used to generate lots of scans:
Bootsy Bellows – this very popular club in Hollywood offered a photo booth feature that printed a QR code onto the pictures that were printed out. Once scanned, the smartphone user was automatically directed to the night club’s FaceBook page. This can help to generate more “likes” for the page, but it also complemented another level of the photo booth’s service. The machine asked for the user’s cell phone number which – for the premium price of $5 for 4 pictures – texted the images to the smartphone so that they could be shared over Facebook or email. While not entirely perfect, the service as a whole did employ several different forms of selling, marketing, and social media elements that certainly encouraged scanning, interaction, and a possible sale.
Keller Williams MW Real Estate Group – the managing director of KW Commercial, Wolf Baschung, circulated postcards that featured a QR code. However, this one differed from the typical mailer in that the barcode was accompanied by instructions for scanning as well as information about what the device user could expect to obtain by doing so – in this case, instant access to a 38 page digital brochure. The code was easy to scan and did exactly what it promised.
The QR code has entered into a unique phase of existence in which it has become quite commonplace to see them, and yet not everyone knows how to use them. Successful use requires instructions for the consumer to tell them not only how to scan, but also why they should bother in the first place!
Excellent point! Too many CPC’s slap a QR code on their products (because everyone else is doing it) and then play “Field of Dreams”, aka if we build it, they will come