The Dummies’ Guide to QR Code Marketing

It is normal for a business owner to look into QR codes for marketing purposes and be a little confused.  With all the things that QR codes could do, it will be very difficult to know where to start.  Additionally, there are literally a myriad of things you need to do to make a campaign work.

BeQRious.com has some guidelines for you to make sure that you have everything  need in order to come up with an effective QR code campaign.

1. PLAN to a great start!  For the first step, all you need to do is to decide where you are going to place the QR code and the type of content you are going to offer.  These are decisions are closely tied to the main goal of your QR code campaign.

Do you want to inform people about your products, services, company or about yourself? We suggest putting your QR codes on marketing flyers, brochures, in-store signs, newspaper advertisements or even a TV commercial.  The code would resolve to a special mobile site or a video with the information you want to share with your customers.

Do you want to give discounts? Same places, but when customers scan the code, they get an image file that serves as their discount coupons.

Do you want people to know how to contact you? A QR code vCard is a good way to make people know your contact details.  

Do you want to have an ongoing marketing program, or a loyalty-based program? Then you can ask people to scan an in-store QR code to enable them to access a special website where they could record their activities or earn points.  Or you could direct them to your Twitter account or Facebook Like page.

2. Generate the QR code.  Now that you have your purpose and content all figured out, it’s time to create the QR code.  You can do this by visiting our QR code generator.  All you have to do is to input the necessary information onto our form and create the code.

Make sure to test the QR code using several smartphones, such as an iPhone, an Android phone and other phones with their own proprietary operating systems.  It would also help to test your new code using different readers.

3. Design your code.  The QR code may be a black and white, two-dimensional code, but you can spruce it up.  You can either get your QR code customized to include some graphics such as your logo, your products or anything that may fit.  Or you could find a way to deftly and creatively incorporate the black and white QR code into your marketing materials.

Be sure to include short instructions on how to scan the code and where to download QR code readers.  More importantly, make sure that you tell your customers what exactly they could get from scanning the code.

4. Look at what others are doing.  If you are losing your inspiration, or running out of ideas, you can look at what other brands have been doing and try to get what they did right.

5. Track your QR codes.  All marketing campaigns are not worth doing if you’re not tracking it.  QR code campaigns are no exceptions.  Make sure that you track your QR codes and find out if it’s working or not, what needs to be improved, and what needs to be changed.  You can also find out which of your QR codes are more effective and what time of day — on the average — your customers are scanning.

6. Review and revise.  Once you have all the data coming in with your tracking, you can then go ahead and incorporate these data with what you see in real life.  Then you can review your campaign or revise it accordingly.