At a recent event, I was delighted to see most of the exhibitors had QR codes on their display posters. A what I hear you cry?! A QR code or Quick Response code is this strange square image on the left here. QR codes are two-dimensional bar codes, which can hold way more information than a standard bar code. You can scan them with an app on your smart phone. I use i-nigma, a free one I found on the App Store.
So of course with phone in hand, I had a go. Admittedly I’m a bit of a geek, so I found it really exciting to scan a code and see where it would take me. The exhibitor’s chose to direct traffic to their websites, rather than invest in dedicated landing pages. This is totally understandable because QR codes are a bit ahead of the curve in Brussels and not many people will know what to do with them. However it got my mind racing. So here’s my two cents worth on what you could do with this kind of technology.
1. Make the code easy to get to, rather than at the top of a 2 metre poster, for example.
2. Take the visitor through to a mobile-enabled dedicated landing page that is easy to read and navigate… on a phone.
3. Add tracking to get statistics on your visitors and their behaviour. This will help you improve the process next time.
4. Give a way cool stuff (suitable to the target audience) to get people to register their name, email address and/or mobile number.
5. Add a call to action to register for a your newsletter, follow on Twitter, Like you on Facebook or hook up via G+circles.
6. Add these subscribers to a ‘cool’ list in your database. This tool is pretty advanced for the average bod, so make your QR code-scanning-people feel special; give them VIP treatment when you can. You never know they might help you in the future to share content, give feedback on new marketing approaches etc.
Trying out different internet tools and platforms is fun but potentially a bit of a time suck. However they can be an extremely effective tactic to achieve one part of an overarching communication or marketing strategy. When we have a better understanding of the opportunities that these tools can offer, we can develop and implement plans that bring a real return on invest.