by Nils Engelking
The strength of a company's marketing and sales strategy has a major impact on its success and growth. Inserting QR (Quick Response) codes into a marketing toolbox can be an effective and cost-effective way for a company to promote brand awareness, reach a target group, increase customer loyalty and measure the success of a campaign.
Whether your company is a startup or an established brand, learn how to use QR codes effectively to improve your next marketing campaign.
Startups in particular often find it difficult to draw their company's attention to themselves and to tell potential customers what problem their product or service can solve. With QR codes, you can add a digital button to print ads, business cards, posters or storefronts to make it as easy as possible for customers to connect.
When reggae musician Craig Thompson or Craigy T first started building his GafJam Records label, he looked for ways to connect with fans and bring his music directly into the hands and smartphones of a new audience. With a social media QR code on business cards and album covers, he was able to display all of his profiles in one place. In addition, he was able to use scan statistics to better identify his audience.
“The platform allowed me to expand and analyze my fan base in a way that I would never have thought possible for a growing brand,” says Kingston, born. "Great stuff!"
Mac Zen’s mobile IT support team tried to introduce the company's services to the best available advertising medium: their vehicles.
“I had to put a QR code on my car so that passers-by could get a digital business card. [This] gave me the unique opportunity to have a scannable code that I could reuse over time without the cost of reprinting, ”said Mac Zen founder Aitan Roubini.
For small businesses, cost savings in printing marketing materials can make the difference between boom or bust. Dynamic QR codes can be changed and updated as often as necessary, saving both time and money.
Up-and-coming brands not only want to make ends meet, but also to build trust in their customers. One way to promote this is to create a unified brand message across all channels that can then be applied to your QR code materials. For example, if you use a matching URL to link the code to a custom domain name, you get an additional level of transparency for scanners.
"The ability to use custom domain names for the address meant that when scanning the code, customers had more confidence in the security of the link they were going to," Roubini said.
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After Nils Will had firmly established himself in his German business for industrial cleaning products, Furth Chemie, he faced a challenge that small business owners had in common: How can his target markets be better identified and his marketing strategy improved? By using QR codes on product packaging, Will was able to determine which products were selling well and adjust the design of the QR codes to see how his customers handled the products.
“In this industry and for this type of product, the code has to do something useful. Buyers of industrial cleaning agents are interested in function via form, so the QR codes are inherently more practical, ”explains Will.
The codes on its packaging for cleaning products often lead to an online reorder form, so customers don't have to waste time looking for the right product in a cleaning supplies store. For particularly sensitive products, Will includes additional product information or an instructional video to promote safe use.
For established brands, QR codes can be a way of giving something back to your customer base, e.g. B. by hosting giveaways or promotions.
For example, the Dutch recruitment agency Synensis wanted to connect more with its target market. The solution: host a bike giveaway with a brand QR code on a poster. Not only was this a happy day for a scanner, it also increased brand awareness through simple but inexpensive technology. And with a dynamic QR code, the company can customize and repeat the giveaway many times without having to reprint the poster, which saves time and money.
In another example, Diesel Power Gear, a retailer of apparel with diesel motifs, used QR codes as car stickers to advertise a giveaway for a massive diesel truck – with amazing success. To date, more than 30 diesel trucks have been given away, and thousands of scanners from all over the United States have dealt with the brand using this QR code marketing tactic.
Admittedly, not all companies make it into the success phase. In fact, according to the Small Business Administration, only about half of all small businesses survive the first five years. In addition to offering a high quality product or service, strong sales and marketing strategies are often a critical factor. What good is it to have the best product if nobody knows about it?
Companies that figure out how to reach their customers with all the tools at their disposal will make it. These are the companies that want to make their product more customer-oriented – and when it comes to improving the customer experience, QR codes are valuable tools.
With strategic planning and attention to design, placement, and functionality, QR code marketing can be an inexpensive way to boost the growth of small and medium-sized businesses in any industry. Whether it's a way for customers to track the origin of olive oil, get a delicious recipe, or download an exclusive voucher, the options for QR codes are as diverse as the companies themselves.
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Posted by: Nils Engelking
Nils Engelking is co-founder of the software-as-a-service company Egoditor. Together with the engineering expert Nils Drescher, Engelking successfully booted the startup without external funding in order to become a leading international platform for the creation and marketing of QR codes. He has a degree in international business from the University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld and specializes in QR code marketing, company organization and management as well as international scaling strategies.
Company: Egoditor
Website: www.qr-code-generator.com
Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
