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HOW TO USE

QR CODES

You’re trying to convince your boss to transition away from old school print media, but old habits die hard. What do you do to boost website traffic, convert more leads, and grow your social media presence using stuff like direct mail, local commercials, or even flyers? Some might argue (more on that later) that one way is to get a QR code on those bad boys. Although QR codes (quick response barcodes) are no longer brand spankin’ new to the marketing scene, they have become more widely utilized, and the barrier to entry is lower than many marketers might think. Not only that, there’s a multitude of creative uses of QR codes that help engage others with your brand and bridge the gap between outbound and inbound marketing. With that in mind, this ebook will cover how to get started with your first foray into creating QR codes, and for the sake of healthy debate, delve into whether they’re actually still relevant. (That’s right, you might leave this ebook thinking you don’t need QR codes, after all.)

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The Most Remarkable Marketing Campaigns EVER

HOW TO CREATE A QR CODE

STEP 1

Find a QR Code Generator There are many out there, but the key is finding the right one for your needs. Some things to look for when choosing a QR code generator are whether you can track and analyze performance, if it allows you to design a code that is unique to your brand, and if it is compatible with common QR code readers. Although

there are many other options out there, a very well regarded one is Kaywa. It allows you to create your QR code very quickly with its generator, downloads in multiple file formats, and makes it easy for you to change your destination link at any time with ease.

STEP 2

Create, Design, and Link It Up The fun part of creating QR codes is customizing the design of the codes to your brand. Want your code to look like your logo? Go for it. Want it to reflect your website’s design scheme? No problem. But after that’s said and done, the most important thing to consider is your end goal. What do you want to accomplish when someone actually uses your QR code? If you’re at an event, for example, you might

want to distribute business cards with a code on them that automatically links to your vCard so it’s easy to save your contact information. On the other hand, you may be gunning for more leads, so perhaps you should link to a landing page on your website to download the awesome presentation you just gave. Keep your end goal in mind when creating QR codes, and just like any call-to-action, make it worthwhile for the scanner.

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The Most Remarkable Marketing Campaigns EVER

HOW TO CREATE A QR CODE

STEP 3

Test It In all the excitement of creating your first QR code, don’t forget to check to see if the QR code “reads” correctly, and be sure to try more than just one reader. A good place to start is the free tool Google Goggles, which takes a picture and then tells you what

link or item it “reads to.” Another great free tool is QR Code Reader, which automatically takes you to whatever it “reads.” Both are easy to use and well worth the quick test before launching any QR code (especially if you’re new at it).

STEP 4

Track and Analyze Just like any marketing campaign, you should track and analyze how much traffic comes from each specific code, and how well that traffic converts (if conversions are something you’re interested in improving). Are people scanning your code but not redeeming their offer once they get to your land-

ing page? Or are they not even compelled enough to scan your QR code? Knowing this will help you troubleshoot and adjust your poorly performing QR codes to more closely mirror those that work well – or to adjust the assets and campaigns surrounding those codes, if that’s where the problem is occurring.

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The Most Remarkable Marketing Campaigns EVER

BUT WAIT... ARE PEOPLE EVEN USING QR CODES?

WHERE QR CODES STAND

There’s a lot of heated debate about whether QR codes are relevant in 2014. There’s no doubt we still see them around – but you should second guess their relevancy before incorporating them into any campaign. Let’s examine where QR codes stand in today’s marketing landscape. A 2013 survey found only 21% of American smartphone owners say they’ve ever scanned a QR code, and just 2% say they scan a QR code at least once per day. You might think that, in an age when consumers tend to keep their smartphones close by at all times, an application that connects the physical and digital worlds -- kind of like Instagram, FitBit, and thousands of other apps do -- would take flight. While some people argue -- marketers especially -that QR codes are still alive and well, a whole other crop argue they’re dead as a doornail. So, we decided to look for success stories and data to see whether QR codes really are still a thing. Though we could hardly find a data

point that was less than two years old, here’s what we did find, (and what it might mean) for QR codes in marketing. First, let’s tackle the limited data we did find – which suggests that QR codes are not widely used. For example, Inc’s 2012 research found that 97% of consumers don’t even know what a QR code is. Digital business analytics company comScore found that 6.2% of the total U.S. mobile audience scanned a QR code on their mobile device in 2011. Since 2011, the number of mobile users has increased, especially among the younger population, while QR codes seem to have maintained steady popularity and visibility. According to comScore’s report, the number

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The Most Remarkable Marketing Campaigns EVER

BUT WAIT... ARE PEOPLE EVEN USING QR CODES?

WHERE QR CODES STAND of people who have scanned a QR code seems to have plateaued since 2012: As the number of smartphone users continues to rise, the number of consumers scanning QR codes remains the same. So why are some marketers so attached to QR codes? Are they in denial that the trend is out of style, or are some of them actually seeing real success? After all, it’s understandable that we’re constantly looking for ways to bridge offline and online marketing in our internet-driven world -- so to us, links you can “click on” in real life are a godsend. Data from MarketingCharts suggests that the average marketer’s view on QR codes is “somewhat at odds with the consumer statistics. Whereas relatively few consumers say they’re actively scanning QR codes, marketers are finding them to be quite an effective mobile marketing tactic.” To be specific, of the marketers who responded to an Experian survey about the effectiveness of QR codes as a mobile marketing tactic, 29% of them rated QR codes very effective, and another 66% effective.

So what does this data all mean? Basically, QR codes appear to be working for that small, stagnant population that knows how to use them. While QR codes aren’t “dying,” they’re certainly not thriving. The question is why, given how many consumers have smartphones nowadays. There are a number of reasons why QR codes might be going “out of style,” but the most important is probably that they’re often misused. They’re in subway stations where there’s no WiFi, on TV commercials that have an air time of a second or two, and some of them lead to broken links or landing pages that aren’t optimized for mobile. Once a consumer is disappointed by the mobile experience behind a QR code, she may never scan one again. For those of you who use QR codes properly and offer great mobile experiences behind them, this is probably very frustrating. But even when QR codes are used properly by businesses, the bigger issue is that many users don’t know how to use them properly. They have been poorly adopted in the United

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The Most Remarkable Marketing Campaigns EVER

BUT WAIT... ARE PEOPLE EVEN USING QR CODES?

WHERE QR CODES STAND States and haven’t really broke out of the tech-savvy crowd. And although mobile devices incorporated a preloaded version of a QR code reader into their system (Apple’s is built into Passbook, not the camera itself), that isn’t very widely known or used. It turns out that the action of taking out your phone, opening a QR code reader, holding the camera from the app up to a QR code with steady hands, and pressing a button isn’t super. Marketers who believe QR codes are alive are already drinking inbound marketing Kool-Aid -- they’re just trying to use an offline channel to drive website visits. So, what are other ways to bridge the online/offline gap and draw more people to your website? One practical solution is to lock down a short, memorable URL and give people that URL – perhaps even alongside a QR code if you’re looking to keep it around. Consumers are becoming more and more familiar with their smartphones, and nowadays, typing a

URL into a mobile browser is not a problem for most people. Just make sure that these URLs are short and that they contain a unique UTM tracking code so you can measure your success. (HubSpot customers: you can create that right within your software.) If QR codes are a part of your marketing strategy and you believe they bring you success, I suggest that you run an A/B test or two to gauge their effectiveness. For example, at your next event, you could include a QR code on half of your programs, and a shortened, easy-to-remember URL in the other half, both linking to the same page on your website. Put separate UTM tracking codes on the QR code link and shortened URL so you can compare how many people visit from each, and voila -- you can see if your audience likes to use QR codes. Just because QR codes don’t work for some companies doesn’t mean they won’t work for you, and this type of testing is the only way to know if they work for your unique audience.

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