Increase Your QR IQ
As any tech savvy advertising professional can attest, QR codes, otherwise known as Quick Response codes, have made their way onto print ads, billboards and television screens in countless campaigns throughout the last year. They have also recently garnered their fair share of criticism from social media enthusiasts begging the question: How can the public understand & benefit from the use of QR codes when the people creating them don’t know how to use them? The companies creating these digitally enhanced advertisements can save the QR code from a swift & brutal demise by making a few simple preemptive strikes.
Account for all of your target audience. While many smartphone users have a barcode reader and every app under the sun downloaded and at the ready, some users don’t already have a scanning tool available on their phone. Don’t miss out on these potential purchasers by providing a URL to a website like ScanLife wherever you place a QR code to allow those users to easily download a reader and scan the code in an instant.
Plan for perfect placement. It may be tempting to splash your QR code across every single one of your ads now, but you will save yourself a migraine later by thinking of how your QR code will prove most beneficial in the real world. Placing the code on a banner ad that stands tall against the side of a skyscraper is an ambitious, albeit difficult undertaking and will most likely disappoint as a cost effective advertising option. Advertisements on the subway can be futile when cell phone reception is almost obsolete underground.
Motivation is the key. Does your QR code offer a discount, play a video or enter people to win an all-inclusive trip to the Bahamas? A code by itself, without telling the potentially interested party what they get if they scan, will make them significantly less interested and less likely to take the time to scan the code. Give those soon-to-be customers the little extra nudge they need by including a call to action with the code, telling them what they will receive and how it will benefit them.