You have likely scanned countless QR codes with your smartphone. QR codes use machine-readable black-and-white squares to encode information. In our last blog, we listed a number of ways that they can revolutionize your business. They include growing e-commerce sales, boosting consumer engagement and garnering feedback.
Here are three more ways to grow your company’s success with QR codes:
1. Deliver your QR codes through a multitude of sources.
There are practically no limitations on how you can disseminate a QR code. You can place them on your product packaging. They can be printed on your business cards. QR codes can be emailed. They are so easy to deliver to the public that there is practically no reason not to do so. Unlike with a web address, a QR code can’t be typed in incorrectly. The information stored on it guarantees that consumers are directed exactly where the marketer intends.
“Build a campaign around your code,” encourages Adam Hirsen on Forbes.com, “Put it on your direct mailers, your table tents, your print ads. Make it into a sticker, and stick it on your cash register or front desk, and in bathroom stalls. You can even blast it out on social media and incorporate it into your digital signage. Make sure your QR code is seen, and the chances are higher that it will be effective.”
2. Use your QR code to offer customer service.
Remember the days when every product came with printed instructions? They don’t seem like that long ago, do they? Sure, there are still many items that come with directions for assembly and other information on paper. However, many of today’s products contain QR codes on or within their packaging. In many cases, those codes lead purchasers to instructions and other details that would generally be found in a manual.
“The problem with printed instructions is that they evolve over time as you get feedback about their strengths and weaknesses,” points out Mark Roy Long on Fool.com, “Include a QR code on the print copy that links to the latest online or PDF version.”
3. Create more engaging campaigns with your QR codes.
Using a QR code to market your brand enables you to get creative. You don’t necessarily have to say “visit our website” when offering your QR code to consumers. A marketing strategy that incorporates QR codes can help to spark some curiosity and intrigue. You can even put a little “game” into your ad. As Hirsen points out, gamification is an extremely effective strategy for engaging customers and driving behaviours.
“It takes something ordinary and makes it fun to interact with,” he writes, “Turn your QR codes into a game: Make the code mysterious by saying, ‘Scan for a surprise,’ or turn your QR codes into a golden ticket scavenger hunt by letting customers know that one of the 10 codes you share has a unique prize. The possibilities are endless as long as you are imaginative.”
With Unity Payments’ commission-free online ordering system for restaurants, you can offer your customers a QR code that they can scan with their handheld devices. It gives them quick and easy opportunities to order food and beverages and pay when they’re done! For more information, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-800-661-3761 or email us at info@unitypayments.ca to learn more.
