With the advent of smartphone culture, consumers are continually accessing information about products, services, entertainment, and more. And they want this information fast.
A recent study showed that customers have an attention span of just 8 seconds on the internet. In an over-saturated digital world, businesses will lose their customers if they are not able to connect with them quickly.
Using QR Codes in digital marketing campaigns not only delivers information in a single scan but also helps measure the ROI of otherwise immeasurable campaigns.
Table of contents
- Top 6 QR Code digital marketing strategies
- Leverage QR Codes for app download digital marketing campaigns
- Leverage QR Codes to run multilingual digital campaigns
- Marketing digitization through Email marketing
- QR Codes deliver Augmented Reality experiences on e-commerce platforms
- Measure the impact of influencer marketing on offline sales through QR Codes
- Retargeting through QR Code digital marketing
- Rise of QR Code digital marketing campaigns amongst top brands
QR Codes help digital marketers in collecting customer opinions and attributes to provide location-based product offerings.
Marketers can create directed promotional activities in a personalized and interactive way. The distribution and access to information is location independent without any barriers.
Marketers can provide more information to their customers through dynamic QR Codes and update campaigns frequently based on the acquired results. They can track the number of scans and analyze the effectiveness of campaigns in real-time.
It also gives marketers the ability to retarget customers and create personalized campaigns for the potential buyers.
Let’s dive deep to understand the top 6 Digital marketing strategies that made the best use of QR Codes.
Top 6 QR Code digital marketing strategies
1. Leverage QR Codes for app download digital marketing campaigns
Apps are one of the most powerful digital marketing channel for businesses since smart devices are everywhere and always with customers.
However, for an app to be profitable, businesses need downloads. There are many ways to achieve this, like App store optimization(ASO) and Search Engine Optimization(SEO).
But with QR Codes, customers can directly get access to download an app either through webpages or from offline marketing materials.
Let’s say a business offers promotional items at an event—a QR Code link placed on this promotional material can give exclusive benefits to only app users.
Through this, businesses can incentivize customers and increase app users.
With dynamic QR Codes, businesses can onboard customers to app downloads regardless of the platform or the device they are using.
For example, an iOS user is directed to the App Store while an Android user is delivered to the Play Store with the same QR Code.
2. Leverage QR Codes to run multilingual digital campaigns
To reach out to customers belonging to different demographics and lingual backgrounds, brands can use multilingual QR Codes.
Product ads, ebooks, web pages, or digital billboards can have multilingual QR Codes. When customers scan them, they can access information in their preferred language.
All brands have to do is choose a multilingual QR Code and map it to all the languages that their target audience speak. When users scan the QR Code, they are directed to a landing page based on their language preference configured in their smartphone.
When customers scan the QR Code, it will detect the language preferred on the mobile and redirect to the webpage that has the same language.
3. Marketing digitization through email marketing
Adding QR Codes on emails helps connect the customer’s desktop experience with mobile experience and increase email engagement. Most marketers understand the various benefits of email marketing in customer acquisition and retention.
A point to note – You can also use QR Codes to send emails. It is super convenient for the user to send an email as they do not have to manually enter the recipient’s email address and the body content.
QR Codes to provide discount coupons
QR Codes within emails can be used to incentivize customers with offers. Retail or e-commerce brands can send personalized emails with QR Code discount coupons that can encourage customers to continue shopping.
QR Codes for digital signatures
QR Codes can be used in your digital signature so that subscribers can save your contact details directly on their smartphone. These are commonly known as vCard QR Codes.
QR Code as entry tickets
By incorporating QR Codes in the event invite email signature, or ticket confirmation emails, users get a hassle-free entry to the event by just displaying the QR Code. Event organizers can effortlessly keep track of the attendees.
Also read: Our guide on how to create QR Codes for tickets
4. QR Codes deliver Augmented Reality experiences on e-commerce platforms
With the help of AR QR Codes, brands can create an immersive mobile experience.
Fashion e-commerce and beauty product websites place QR Codes next to their products to deliver Augmented Reality experiences through the native camera app. It allows customers to visualize a product before purchasing or trying it on.
Furniture stores like IKEA have been using AR Codes on catalogs. When scanned, customers can see how different types of furniture would look inside their home in terms of color, placement, setting, and then decide to make a purchase.
5. Measure the impact of influencer marketing on offline sales through QR Codes
Influencers can place QR Code coupons on their social media posts for their subscribers. Customers have to show these QR Codes at checkout of the respective stores to get the offer. Tracking the scans can help brands evaluate the success of the influencer led campaigns. Similarly, QR Codes can be used for tracking links as part of effective affiliate marketing strategies.
Also read: How to do a QR Code campaign like Taylor Swift’s
6. Retargeting through QR Code digital marketing
According to research by CMO, 25% of the customers enjoy retargeted ads because it reminds them of the products and services they were looking at previously.
The main reason why brands should consider retargeting users that have scanned QR Codes is that there is clear purchase intent.
QR Codes can be used to retarget customers on Google and Facebook.
Once a customer scans a QR Code, they get added to the retargeting list. The next time, they search for a related term or browse through Facebook, they will start seeing ads of respective brands and businesses.
For example, if a customer scans a QR Code on a product packaging, that makes them a potential customer interested in the product. Brands can continue promoting suitable products for up-selling and cross-selling.
Another example where retargeting makes perfect sense is when a lead scans a QR Code attached to a lead magnet but doesn’t convert. Brands can target these inactive leads to push them into the sales funnel.
7. Enhance your digital marketing experience with landing page QR Codes.
Landing pages are a great initiative to target your preferred audience with the correct information. The concept of a landing page QR Code comes into action when a user scans a QR Code and lands on a specific page set by your business. You can create customized landing pages with Uniqode that have the chance to increase engagement. There are many tools to measure the effectiveness of landing pages.
You might have questions like: Why not use the About Us page? Or just the website’s homepage? That would be a great question, but it’s crucial to be straightforward. Providing hassle-free and to-the-point information attracts the user to engage more with your business. Fewer navigations and engaging content with brilliant CTAs are what the user would prefer.
Since there are 6.64 billion smartphone users in the world, having mobile-optimized landing pages would generate more engagement as well.
Rise of QR Code in digital marketing campaigns amongst top brands
Many brands are making a shift to QR Code in digital marketing campaigns. CPG brands are using QR Codes and NFC tags to provide better customer experience.
Top DTC brands like Nike and Adidas are investing in QR Code marketing.
Brands are extending their digital campaigns through videos such as youtube video and TV advertisements. They have successfully integrated various digital experiences to create impulse shopping experiences.
Case in point, Burger King placed its QR Codes on their video ads so that customers could avail their free Whoppers. By scanning a floatable QR Code with the Burger King app, customers were redirected to an exclusive page to place their free orders.
Digital marketers have even converted customers on other platforms into potential customers using innovative QR Codes.
For example, NBCU channel placed shoppable QR Code ads on TV shows for viewers to buy products from an e-commerce site.
The possibilities of QR Codes in digital campaigns are endless. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, QR Codes will help digital marketers find new ways to engage customers and produce quantitative benefits for marketing activities.