What is QR Advertising?
QR Advertising gives you a whole new way to promote your business online. Learn how to make it work for you.
What’s with those funky looking squares I keep seeing on posters and ads in magazines? What do they do and am I supposed to do with them? Welcome to the world of QR Advertising, a cool way to strategically connect offline and online media.
These funky boxes are 2D matrix barcodes, better known as QR Codes (Quick Response Codes). Think of them like the bar codes you find on products in a store. QR Codes are scanned by a mobile phone that has a camera and QR Code reader application. QR Codes originally popular in Europe for years and slowly gained traction on this side of the pond, and today many software applications use them to identify devices for security purposes, like 1Password, and even for inventory management software applications, a benefit because you don’t need a hand-held scanner, because anyone can use their smartphone.
QR Advertising is a simple way to promote your online sites on paper. Companies are using them in advertisements, brochures, posters and promotional swag to get users to check out online landing pages. This is because the online world can hold so much more information and interactivity than the printed page can.
How Can QR Codes Be Using for Marketing and Advertising?
We’ve been seeing QR Advertising everywhere—dog tags, key chains, even a billboard. There are limitless possibilities on the ways you can use QR Codes to promote your business or brand while driving users to your online sites. You could put it on a mail-out flyer to direct customers to weekly specials and coupons. Put it on product packaging to instruct users how to put your product together. Realtors can put them on For Sale signs so interested homebuyers can check out additional home specifications and interior photos.
Awesome Reasons to Implement QR Codes
It all comes down to money, doesn’t it? You’ll be happy to learn that QR Codes don’t cost a dime to produce—100% free to generate a QR code! You can use them on anything your magnificent and creative brain comes up with, like security and inventory management as earlier mentioned. Besides, consumers are always looking for ways to make their lives more convenient—and by providing them with an easy way to get the information they’re looking for like connecting devices to one account, and managing inventor for a brick and mortar and online store.
Things to Keep in Mind
Just because you put a QR Code on your ads or marketing material, it doesn’t mean that users will use it. Keep the context and content in mind—it should take users to content that complements the printed material. If it just sends them to your homepage, you’re not going to convert anyone. The QR Code should offer directions and a call to action—something like “scan this code to save 50%” will make your ad more enticing to scan. And since users will be on a mobile device when scanning your QR Code, it makes sense that the site they land on should be mobile friendly.
Have you ever used a QR Code in your marketing or advertising campaigns? What other software applications have you seen it used? Share with us on Twitter or Instagram.