WITH QR Codes The Essential Guide to - QR Codes are Resurging
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
The Essential Guide to
MARKETING
WITH QR Codes
QR Codes are Resurging
DON’T MISS THE OPPORTUNITY!
Looking to provide your customers and prospects with a safe,
easy way to connect to product or marketing information
in a mobile environment? To allow a seamless multichannel
experience from printed piece directly to the web?
Think QR Codes.
9906 Mesa Rim Road • San Diego, CA 92121
858.625.4111 • tpsprinting.com
QR Codes (or Quick Response or pay for their meals right
Codes) are shortcuts to landing from the table.
pages, discount coupons, videos, • Food containers at movie
and other mobile content straight theaters, where QR Codes
from printed (and digital) media. To encourage theatergoers to
scan to access promotions and
use them, open the camera on most
discounts on their next orders.
smartphones, point the camera at
the code, and the camera’s browser • Posters at public transit
eyeballs by asking people to manually
locations, where local businesses
will recognize the code and take input URLs or scribble them down onto a
capture eyeballs while riders wait.
you directly there. What was once a piece of paper that might get lost.
• On business cards, where people can Plus, QR Codes cost little or nothing to
static medium suddenly becomes a
add someone’s contact information add to your printed pieces. There is no
dynamic, interactive one.
simply by scanning the QR Code on reason not to use them.
the front or back of the card. In today’s world of social distancing
The list of uses for QR Codes is endless. and extra health precautions, QR Codes
also say, “We care about your safety”
Tested, Useful Technology by allowing shoppers and other viewers
QR Codes have been around for many to access information without needing
years, but with the rise of the COVID-19 to have physical contact with the piece.
pandemic, they have started to see a Buyers gain access to your product,
resurgence. Businesses from retailers and marketing, or company information in a
events venues to local coffee bars have safe and touchless way.
increased the use of QR Codes to provide
easy, effective, and touchless ways to
QR Codes look like checkerboards. engage with their customers, and those
Sometimes they are in color, but most benefits will last long after the pandemic
often they are in black-and-white. You is over.
see them on direct mail pieces, magazine While most mobile phones can scan
ads, in-store posters, and at the drive- QR Codes natively, phones with older
through at McDonald’s. They can also be browsers can access QR Codes by
added to digital channels like email, large downloading a free QR Code reader.
screens, and e-books. However, most phones today have QR
Here are some ways you might see QR Code reading capability built in.
Codes used: Whether you are a retailer placing a
magazine ad or a local business doing a
• Real estate postcards, where they
sales promotion, the benefit of QR Codes
connect recipients to virtual tours of
is that they capture viewers at the very
available homes.
moment of interest. As soon as buyers’
• Table tents, where restaurant patrons attention is piqued, they can act on the
can connect to interactive wine lists information right away. You don’t lose
photos ©istock.com
They’re Interactive
QR Codes are powerful from a
For example, one burger restaurant
uses a QR Code to send customers
Used by
marketing standpoint, too, because to a video about the sourcing of its Top Brands
they make a printed piece interactive. ingredients. Its call to action? “Our
Interactivity increases ingredients are hand
engagement and picked from local
makes the information biologic farms. Watch
more likely to be this video to learn
remembered. more about it.” It’s not
A good example what you’d expect on
comes from the food burger packaging . . .
industry, where the use and that’s the point.
of QR Codes is exploding. Regardless of your
Here are some of the ways QR Codes industry, make those static printed
are being used: pieces come to life. Add “live” product
• Provide access to recipes. demos to sell sheets. Send trade show
attendees right to a landing page Direct mail.
• Give buyers more information on
ingredients. created just for them. Let viewers The real estate company Home
• Provide access to coupons and “save the date” for your events right Finders mails out postcards
discounts. from your promotional mailers to their promoting homes for sale in buyers’
• Encourage customers to follow the phones.
local areas. It has added QR Codes
brand on social media. to the mailers so that if home
• Let shoppers learn more about the They’re Trackable
buyers like what they see, they can
company (great for organic and Wait! It gets better. Because QR Codes
mission-minded brands).
request a showing right from the
go straight to websites, they are an easy
Increasingly, consumers want way to track the interest level of many postcard.
transparency about the companies of today’s mobile consumers.
from which they buy. For example, they How many people scanned the code
care about where brands are sourcing from the brochure you mailed out after
their materials, how they are addressing the virtual trade show? Were mobile
the issues of sustainability and waste users more likely to respond to your
reduction, and how they are investing promotion from the local newspaper or
for social impact. QR Codes are terrific regional lifestyle magazine? Do people
ways to tell that story and create really pay attention to window clings?
positive feelings around your brand. Track these and more with QR Codes!
Printing
It is no wonder so many of today’s top brands are using them. These include GMC, Ford,
Google, Pepsi, Ralph Lauren, The Weather Channel, Best Buy, Chevrolet, Starbucks, Facebook,
and countless more. Let’s look at a few examples...
Windows.
Businesses are
awakening to a powerful
but overlooked
marketing channel —
their own windows. By
adding text, images,
Food packaging. and QR Codes to their street-facing
Spark Cinemas uses QR Codes to glass, they can engage shoppers
boost a key profit center in its before they even enter the store.
theaters: concessions. One of the Ciao Pizza, for example, added a
ways it does this is to add a code QR Code to its window art that
with the call to action, “Scan the encouraged customers to scan the
QR Code to Get 50% Off Your code to be taken to their social
Next Order” right on the popcorn media pages. Below the code it says,
box. “Scan the Code to Follow Us for
Deals & Offers!”
Menus.
Nonprofit mail.
Lots of hands touch restaurant
When Samaritan’s Purse wanted
menus every day, so The Grand
to promote Operation Christmas
Hotel Suites and Resort added a
Child, which provides Christmas
QR Code to the front of its menu
presents to needy children all over
— using the tagline “From
the world, it added a QR Code to
your phone to our
its direct mail envelopes. The QR
kitchen”— to
Code connected to a video clip
provide a
showing distribution of the boxes,
safe and
beaming faces of the children, and
contactless
photos ©istock.com
the benefits of the program.
way for
patrons to view
their dining choices.
9906 Mesa Rim Road • San Diego, CA 92121 858.625.4111 tpsprinting.com
Creating QR Codes Try Scanning QR Codes Now!
Although there are some common
Download a reader to your smartphone
applications, you can use QR Codes for
almost anything. The creative possibilities and scan these QR codes.
are endless, and creating QR Codes
couldn’t be easier. Although there are
proprietary applications, basic QR Codes
are free and easy to create. Best Practices for QR Codes:
Just Google “free QR Code generator,”
and you’ll come up with a myriad
options. Go to the site, input the URL to
which you would like the code to point, MAKE
THE CODES
and hit “generate code.” You’ll get back a
EASY TO READ
.png or .jpg image that you can insert into
Keep the URLs simple. The
your layouts. longer the URL, the more dense and
Yes, it’s that easy. hard to read the code becomes. Make the
Using more complex software, you code easier for phones to read by using a URL
can also create personalized QR Codes shortener like TinyURL or Bitly. Also make sure
(say for generating personalized URLs), there is enough space in the layout around the
code so it’s not crowded by text or images.
codes with embedded logos, or codes If you’re going to be placing QR Codes
that provide detailed tracking and multi- in permanent locations, think about
channel integration. Some QR Codes are things like reflections or
“smart codes” that can customize the shadows that might
content based on the date, location, and impact readability.
model of phone that is reading it.
OPTIMIZE FOR
MOBILE SITES
Because people will be
scanning these codes with
mobile cameras, make sure
Is it time to update your marketing the content to which you are
driving them is optimized
materials by adding QR Codes? Talk
for mobile viewing.
to us about where they can help to
accomplish your marketing goals
and where they can boost sales,
increase audience engagement, and
improve your customer experience.
This code will take you to our This code takes you to our This code will take you to our
TPS Printing website homepage TPS Printing contact form TPS Printing roll label page.
(Quick access for your home page.) (This is a quick way for customers to contact you.) (QR codes are popular on roll labels.)
MAKE IT SERVE This code will take you to our
A PURPOSE Contact Information
(typical business card information)
Not only should the code be worth decoding,
but it should serve a specific marketing goal.
What is the intent on the back end? Gather
information? Conduct a survey? Get buyers to
make a purchase? Know your target audience
and make sure the content is well
matched to their needs
and interests. MAKE THE
Like any marketing QR CODE
WORTH DECODING
technology or Make the code worth decoding.
application, QR Codes Don’t just send people to your website.
Provide interesting, relevant content. If you
work best when
are selling something, send buyers directly
certain best practices to a product-specific landing page with
are followed. Here are promotions specific to that code,
for example, or send them to
a few of them. review sites or fan pages.
Make it worth
INCLUDE their time.
INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDE MULTIPLE
FOR USING THE CODE. PATHS TO RESPONSE
Although QR Code use and awareness is Although you want people to use
growing, you may want to include short the code, include multiple paths to the
instructions for using the code for those who are information. Not everyone will scan the
unfamiliar with them. Part of success code, so make sure they can access the
with QR Codes is information other ways. After all, it’s
TEST, TEST, TEST. user education. not about getting prospective
Test QR Codes before deploying buyers to respond to a code.
them and make sure the code points It’s about getting them to
to the right site, that your content is respond period.
up to date, and that your users will
have a positive experience on the
back end.
Contact TPS Today via our contact form!
(scan QR Code below)
Don't Miss the Opportunity!
This code will open our This code will take you
Contact Information to our Email
(typical business card information) customerservice@tpsprinting.com
Printing
9906 Mesa Rim Road • San Diego, CA 92121
858.625.4111 • tpsprinting.com
© 2021 GRCINC.
customerservice@tpsprinting.com
You can also read
