Making best use of Designer QR Codes

QR Codes have caught the fancy of advertisers in the recent past. Starting from Ford introducing it to view the Figo video to Levis Jeans, Infosys, Platinum Guild and many more, that small little square arrangement of black and white dots are becoming a lot trendier. The recently launched GRT Jewellers Golden Seed campaign rings in the New Year with customized designer QR Code – a step ahead of the normal black and white QR codes that you have seen until recently.

It is the first of custom designer QR codes adopted in retail advertising and probably the first in the country. Targeted at Smartphone users with any QR Reader installed in their phones, each scan led the user to a microsite with a call-to-action. What’s important to note is that although this is targeted at a niche audience, advertisers must try and leverage best practices to make QR codes successful.

Here are a few tips …

1.    Enhance Brand Equity:
QR Codes can be more than just black and white squares and dots. You can make smart use of spaces to integrate your brand identity and win over your customers. Beautiful, rich, smart and trendy QR Codes can give your brand a facelift and also paint the picture of a savvy business. What better way to reach out to your audience in a 2cm x 2cm graphic advertisement.

(Designer QR Code for Rangde.org – leads you to their website)

2.    Ensure 360º Visibility:
The easiest way to let customers know about your QR code are through your regular print advertisements. But then you can also have it at any point-of-sale within your store by way of posters and outdoor media through hoardings, banners and even product packaging. If you do email marketing, online advertising and are active on social media networks, you could milk the most of these media to let the audience scan your QR code. The chances of QR scans by customers online are even more and sharing becomes easier.

What’s in the QR Code is more important than how it looks? Most QR Codes allow you to embed an URL (which can eventually lead to a website, video, image or blog), a Text message or a Phone Number.

We recommend going that extra mile to make the scan worthwhile. Going by the conventional advertising adage – there are a few smart things you can do to make that QR Code attract attention, create desire and trigger an action.

3.    Link to a Microsite :
Perhaps the best way to offer more information on your product and/or service is to provide a link to an URL that could be campaign specific information. Linking it to a video commercial that is already on air on popular channels might be a waste of the medium. Unless of course, if your media planner has saved you a few lakh rupees and kept your video embedded on your microsite or on YouTube. Like every good search engine marketer, we also bet on microsites that have lead generation forms to capture contact details of your customer.

(Designer QR Code for Saint-Gobain Sun Ban Glass)

4.    Offer a Promo Code :
If you have an e-commerce site or are running a sale at your retail outlet, it is a good idea to offer a promo code that could give them either a price or a percentage discount. Customers see the promo code after scanning the QR Code and can enter it while they checkout of the shopping cart online, or while they purchase off-the-shelf. This way you ensure sales and your cash registers ringing.

5.    Make use of SMS Short Codes :
You can make use of SMS Short Code services to embed key pull messages from your customers. There are also options where you can trigger an SMS to be sent to the Customer’s mobile number. The desired objective is to capture the contact information of the customers scanning the QR Code and then having your sales staff follow-up with them.

It doesn’t end here. Go one step further to analyse the performance of your QR Code.

6.    Measure Scans:
Make use of analytics to review the number of scans on a daily basis and the region from where you are getting the most number of scans. This can be a little tricky because most analytics default it to the gateway of the telecom service provider. So a Vodafone user in Chennai might always show up as Bangalore or Mumbai. This makes it redundant, but then comparing your scans with the amount of conversions you clock daily will give you a fair idea about the performance. These metrics provide a guided mechanism to plan your advertising and marketing spends.

7.    Improvise Campaigns:
Once you start seeing the results, improvise on your campaign with newer schemes and promotions. Like every business, innovation is key. Innovate on your offers and innovate on your QR codes. Touch wood, your QR codes can have customers queue up at your store – be it offline or online.

(Designer QR Code for Acme Fitness – leading to the TRUE Fitness Campaign)

Albeit new to a desired Indian Target audience, the marketer must remember that the smartphone users are much lesser compared to the mobile phone users. And then the number of smartphone users who have a built-in QR scanner (in their smartphone or tablet) and those who know how to use them are relatively lesser. But the interesting and the promising fact is that, this is set to grow in the coming years. And with mobile commerce picking up, what better way to make a sale than by just scanning the QR Code.

The GRT Golden Seed Campaign with its Lotus QR Code was developed by Niyati and integrates Analytics to not only measure the number of scans of the QR Code but also the conversions that happened at the microsite. This may be India’s first attempt at designer QR Codes by a Retail Jeweller and we are happy to be connected with a niche smartphone audience and grab their attention. Want a designer QR code for your marketing campaigns? Talk to Niyati today!