Successful QR Code Campaigns

Guest contributor Flaretag shares this post from their blog:

Most QR Code campaigns today pretty much suck. This is a really sad fact because the technology itself is brilliant and cost effective. With the proliferation of web-enabled smartphones, the potential reach is just going to grow. The ability to use something physical like a piece of paper or a billboard to capture consumers and engage with them via their smartphones is fascinating and opens up new marketing opportunities. However, like with any powerful tool, power comes with responsibilities and the carelessness currently used when incorporating QR Codes into marketing material is slowly casting a dark shadow over this wonderful technology. Let us do our part to fix it!

You should always start by asking yourself 3 questions when creating a QR campaign:

1. What do I want the consumer to do?
2. What benefit does the consumer need in order to take action?
3. How do I clearly communicate the benefit?

A Sample Campaign

The owner of a coffee shop that just opened in the neighborhood wants to get more facebook fans to her facebook page. This way she can keep everybody updated about upcoming events like meetups, tastings and book readings that she’s planning to organize. This is a great way to build a loyal clientele. Facebook is a great platform to reach other people outside of the immediate fans of her business. How does she answer the questions above?

1. She wants people to become fans of her facebook page.
2. She thinks that offering a free coffee would probably entice most people to take action.
3. She’s planning on having a poster at the entrance and next to the counter along with some postcards on the tables.

The 2 phases of a successful campaign

It is important to understand that QR Code marketing is a mix of offline and online marketing techniques with one clear line separating them: The Scan. With this in mind we can say that there are 2 phases in every QR Code campaign: Pre-Scan and Post-Scan. Both are equality important and each contains a distinct set of challenges:

• Pre-Scan Phase: This phase takes place in the physical world (paper, flyer, billboard) and has one main goal: Get the consumer to pull their phone our of their pocket, open the scanner app and scan the code.

• Post-Scan Phase: Congratulations! you have convinced the person that it’s worth going through all the trouble to scan the code. You have them over in the digital world, the QR Code has done its job but you haven’t yet…  Now, you need to remember what you told them in the previous phase and deliver it.  Simplicity is key here, take them to a mobile-optimized website, with little text and a lot of visuals. Your call-to-action and benefit should be the most visible and obvious thing on the page.

We can’t always assume that the person was able to scan the code. In some cases the Pre-Scan message is so powerful that almost anyone would want to scan and try (e.g. Scan to win a trip to Hawaii). Sadly in some cases no matter how powerful your call-to-action is, people won’t be able to move to the next phase.  These are the most common pitfalls and how to avoid them:

• The QR Code is too small: Reserve at least 1 square inch.
• The QR Code is too fancy: Stick to black QR Code on white background.
• The person has never scanned one or doesn’t have a scanner: Give people a web address to learn more and download a scanner. You can use this: http://flaretag.com/help.

To view the original article and to learn more about QR codes, visit the Flaretag blog.