Thursday, July 14, 2011

Don't Forget QR Codes

If you are a printer, one of the first questions you should ask your customer when he gives you a job is if they need a QR code on the printed piece. Quick Response (QR) codes are becoming very common in the U.S. to drive prospects to mobile websites. With the growth of smartphone use, more people can quickly access

CNN reports a February survey of U.S. smartphone users by MGH, a Baltimore social-media marketing company, said 32% of respondents said they have scanned a QR code. Of those, 53% said they used the code to get a coupon or discount. And 72% said they were more likely to remember an advertisement with a QR code.

Another big bump will be for QR code use is coming from the US Postal Service. They are running a discount promotion if you use QR codes in the mailing. Visibility will also be increased when Valpak, the advertising envelope starts putting QR codes on the outside of the envelope and on individual inserts. Over the next two months Valpak will mail more than 80 million households with the QR Codes resolving to mobile pages  providing additional information and sweepstake entry.

People now know what QR codes are. The smartphone is the most popular phone in the US now and the tool you need to read them. Printers should be jumping on this opportunity to get people to throw away their old marketing material and reprint new ones with QR codes include. And when a customer asks why should they throw away the old material, just ask them how many leads are they missing because they don’t have the QR code on their material now? The value is that high.

2 comments:

  1. It will be interesting to see where the future of QR Codes lie. Although studies have been very positive, some are saying now that RFID tags will replace the QR technology before it can really catch on. What are your thoughts?

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  2. I'm not sure what is going to happen in the future. Microsoft Tag is a player and I'm sure other things will come up to replace it. The issue is that printers can make money with QR NOW. They need to know them, know how they relate to mobile marketing and know how to tell the customer how to effectively use them.

    It isn't an issue of waiting to see what catches up. It is a reason to get out and talk to customers and use it to sell printing.

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