How Not To Use QR Codes

QR codes can be very useful marketing tools, but only when used correctly and at the right times. When deciding to incorporate QR codes into your digital marketing campaign, it is essential to consider carefully where you are using them to gain the maximum benefit.

Common sense should dictate, for example, that placing a QR code into an in-flight magazine, where it will only be accessible to passengers who temporarily have no access to their phones or iPads due to being on an aircraft, might not be the best of ideas!

A similar questionable idea is advertisers placing QR codes on underground ads, where commuters trying to view them are likely to be experiencing non-existent signal on their smart phones.

Also when running time sensitive campaigns, like TV commercials, remember to display the QR code for ample time so as to allow your audience to access their mobile and scan the QR code. It is most frustrating for your audience to get ready to scan and the QR code disappears.

In an age where smart phones have never been so popular, QR codes can be a great choice as they have an air of innovation about them and show people that you are ahead of the game. It is important to realise however, that as a digital marketer you need to keep aware of all the latest technologies and how they can benefit your business, but also be able to realise the occasions where they are not appropriate for use within a marketing campaign.

There should never be an occasion where the QR code’s goal, whether it be a call-to-action, encouraging a customer reaction etc, should not be possible to accomplish. By creating a situation which provides a non-functional QR code, it essentially means that you are not serving the customer correctly, or helping to reach your campaign goals.

It is not just QR codes that are affected, however.  Simple web browsing is rapidly becoming covered with marketing errors. Examples include bad hyperlinks on major sites that lead the viewer to a “page not found” error message and publishing pop-ups requesting customers to select check boxes for newsletters subscriptions etc., but making the fields impossible to scroll down to in order to fill in. These errors put obstacles in the way of intended call-to-actions, therefore affecting the company’s goals and objectives, and damaging your brand with the audience.

New technologies are arriving every day and there is now a far greater need for integration of business goals and platforms etc, than there was in the times of traditional marketing.

If you want to know how QR code services can benefit your business then why not give us a call and speak to one of our digital strategists.