QR Codes (short for quick response codes) are a wonderful tool for any integrated marketing campaign. You can use them to entice your customer right at the point of making a purchase decision. You’re able to reach people just as they’re making comparisons, to offer more information or an incentive that will help them make that decision in your favor.
Used well, QR codes can help your brand appear cutting-edge and current. However, if used incorrectly, QR codes can make your brand look clueless and out of touch, even setting you up as the unwitting target of mockery. With that, take note of these basic tips that will help you get the most out of QR codes, while avoiding the potential downside.
Best QR Code Practices:
- Go mobile: Drive your prospect to a mobile-friendly web page. It should be obvious that your website is going to be viewed on a phone.
- Offer an incentive: create a unique landing page that offers a reward of some sort to those who took the time to scan your code. Give them valuable information or a discount code. Provide your mobile prospect something more than just the same old home page of your website.
- Measure results: if you’ve created a dedicated landing page for your QR code, tracking visits becomes simple.
- Test first: make sure your QR code actually works before launching an entire campaign around it.
Worst QR Code Practices:
- Get your terms straight: ask people to “scan” the QR code with their phone, not “swipe” it.
- Don’t flash your QR code on a TV screen for a mere second or so. Do you really expect people to get their phone out that quickly to scan it?
- Don’t email a QR code. If you want to send people to a web page from an email, just add a link. People can’t very well scan a QR code if they’re already viewing it on their phone or computer screen!
- Don’t put a QR code on a billboard. Or the back of a bus. How are people supposed to scan it while driving?
- Don’t put a QR code on a banner towed by an airplane.
Sadly, all of these worst practices are not made up—they’ve actually been committed by real brands! (We’ve just omitted the names to save them from further embarrassment.) Don’t let your company be the next one to get attention for the wrong reasons by making the same mistakes. Follow the best practices, and avoid the worst-case scenarios.
