Tag: scanning qr codes

Using the best practice methods for quick response codes will go a long way toward success.

If there is one form of mobile marketing that can be considered highly controversial at the moment, it’s QR codes.

While some feel it is one of the best technologies currently available, others feel it was dead before it started.

No matter how you may feel about QR codes, the fact is that some companies have used them in order to achieve tremendous responses and highly successful campaign results. The difference between the efforts that have been a complete flop, and those that have broken records is in the techniques that are used. After all, the technology remains the same, no matter how it is applied.

QR codes are not all that complex, but need to be made worthwhile or they will not be scanned.

Among the issues to consider are best practices as basic as the following:
• Placement – if your QR codes are positioned in a way that they will not be noticed, then the odds are that your results will be minimal to nonexistent. You need to make sure that they are visible enough that the viewer will spot them, as well as being the right size that they will be easily scanned. Make sure that they are not located in the crease of a magazine or in a spot that the user will not be able to conveniently snap it.
• Call to action – when you apply QR codes as a marketing tool, you need to make sure that you are encouraging the customer to do something, such as make a purchase, learn about a relevant product, or take advantage of a promotion. By simply linking to a homepage, you will be creating a dead end for users as they have been provided with no further instruction as to how to proceed. The success of these barcodes is based on using them to accomplish a specific goal.
• Landing page – the page to which consumers are directed after scanning QR codes don’t need to be complex or large. They simply need to be mobile optimized, useful, and interesting. They can include written content, but they should be designed in a way that provides a little bit at a time and encourages the user to continue to learn more. Additional content options such as videos can help to improve interest, provided that it does not overlook the call to action.

There is a demographic that is broadly using these barcodes and marketers should target accordingly.

Though QR codes got to a slow start in terms of their use by consumers, despite their broad implementation by brands and marketers, the Millennial demographic has now embraced them and is using them quite regularly.

The key is to make sure that when you market with QR codes, you focus on the right age group.

Millennials are, after all, the demographic among whom the smartphone has the greatest penetration. They are tech savvy and use their mobile devices for many of their everyday tasks and communications. They are also used to the regular introduction of new features, technologies, and uses for their gadgets. Therefore, it is only natural for them to easily accept the use of barcode scanning, and the app download and snap the image to scan the code.

At the latest Business Insider’s Mobile Advertising Conference, Jason Wagenheim, the publisher and vice president of Teen Vogue, told those in attendance that 42 percent of the readership of the magazine is currently scanning the QR codes printed among its pages.

Teen QR code scans have increased by 133 percent in a period of 18 months.

Similarly, the Mr. Youth managing partner and senior vice president of account and strategy service, Melissa Lentz, has agreed with Wagenheim’s statement that QR code scanning is important and growing. Her statistics show that 46 percent of Millennials use product bar code scanning as an factor in their shopping experience, as they search for better deals on the internet.

This makes it not only very important for marketers whose target audience is Millennials to begin the use of QR codes as a part of their overall marketing strategies, and to make sure that those barcodes actually work. If they cannot be scanned properly, then it will taint the entire opinion of the Millennial.

Mobile commerce changing very quickly. Where it would have been exceptionally challenging and involved to accomplish a simple goal a couple of years ago, the same task can be completed in hardly a blink nowadays. With an evolution at this speed, it is important to keep on top of the latest consumer behaviors and trends, to help to make sure that the right moves are being made and that they align with the current and likely future direction of m-commerce.

Moreover, Millennials have certain expectations about the redirection from their scans. They don’t simply want to be brought to the standard mobile website homepage. Instead, they want to gain access to content that is exclusive and easy to use.