QR Codes in Digital Marketing: Optimizing Your Marketing Mix

You probably know what QR Codes are. They are just like barcodes and store information. But they go a step ahead of barcodes to store much more data in a smaller space.

This is why QR Codes are also called advanced barcodes. A QR Code can store a wide array of information from text and numbers to multimedia. Hence, they have picked up popularity these days.

To substantiate it with data, according to Bluebite, the following surge in QR Code usage was reported from 2018 to 2020:

• 96% growth in QR Code Reach
• 94% boost in the number of interactions
• \98% increase in the number of interactions per object

Thus, it makes sense to use QR Codes. And the most common use case of a QR Code is marketing, especially digital marketing. Why? The digital world is filled with competition. Hence, you need an extra to stay at the top. Moreover, digital ads have low attention span. So, you need to make them attractive and unique. And QR Codes help you offer it. From offering a business’s location to generating leads, QR Codes are useful everywhere.

And you can customize it according to the ad design. This will add a unique touch to your ad copies.

The best part is that all your target audience needs to do is—pull out their smartphone to scan the QR Code. And that’s it. A simple scan gives them access to all the encoded information. It’s as easy as clicking a picture.

In the subsequent sections, we’ll talk in detail about how QR Codes can help you revamp digital marketing.

A. How QR Codes can be used for digital marketing

As discussed already, QR Codes can be very useful for digital marketers. They have a room for every use case and here are some of them:

1. Generate leads

It is common in marketing to generate leads. After all, it is how you acquire new customers.

But getting your target audience to submit a lead generation form is a hectic job. This is especially true for digital ads. Why?

That’s because due to a lot of digital content around, the audience’s attention span for digital media has gone pretty low.

Hence, you’d want a sustainable solution that can grab their attention quickly. And print media is the way to do that. But the downside of print media is that it’s not actionable.

Introducing—QR Codes. You can generate leads via QR Codes in no time. And you can even customize them by adding colors and a brand logo.

This helps them grab maximum scans from the target audience.. So the question is—how does the QR Code make lead generation better?

Here’s how:

• Select a QR Code generator that offers a lead generation feature
• Once selected, create a QR Code depending on your use caseNote that the content you enter here is what the end-users will see after submitting the form
• Next, you enable the lead generation and specify the data to be collected in the form
• Now, download and add the QR Code to your promotional campaigns and creatives
• Your audience sees the QR Code on a tablet, laptop, or phone
• They scan it to see the fields specified by you
• Now, they fill out the form and submit the required details

After submission, they see the content you added while creating the QR Code. For example, text saying ‘Thank You‘, a coupon code, or even a document (lead magnet).

To see the lead data, you just need to visit your QR Code generator. You can access them anytime you want.

2. Assist in campaign tracking

Since you are planning to use digital promotions, it makes sense you monitor their performance. And QR Codes can help you do it. QR Codes let you monitor their scanning activity. This means you can track details such as:

• How many people have scanned the QR Code
• Where did they scan it
• When did they scan it
• Which device did they use to scan it

All this data can help you better optimize your digital marketing.

In addition, you can dig deeper into user behavior. QR Codes can help you see exactly how people interact with the encoded content after scanning them. This could be anything such as hitting the sign-up or register button. This is made possible via a feature called Event tracking.

This will help you optimize your future campaigns.

3. Increase app downloads

If you have a mobile app for your business, you’d want people to download it.

And an App Store QR Code can make the whole process easier. Just place it over your digital promotions. When scanned, it will redirect the end-users to your app on the relevant app store depending on their phone’s operating system. This is quite efficient for eCommerce businesses.

In addition, if you’d like them to visit a particular page in your app, you can go for an App Deep Link QR Code.

4. Assists in navigating toward your store

Customers often have a hard time finding stores, especially with digital ads on computers. And if that’s the case with you too, then you need to assist your customers.

And to do that, QR Codes can help you out. Just create a Google Maps QR Code. This QR Code, when scanned, pops open the encoded location on the end user’s maps application.
Hence, they can then easily drive their way to your store without any hassle.

5. Give coupons and discounts

You know the importance of coupons and discounts. They help you attract new customers while
keeping the existing ones coming back. Hence, a lot of businesses are using them.

But many times, customers get coupons without an easy way to redeem them. So, it makes sense for you to use a seamless omnichannel marketing approach.

And Coupon QR Codes can help you out here. Just add them to your digital ads. It will help customers avail of the discount easily. Here’s how:

a. On scanning the QR Code will lead them to a landing page with all the offer details and a button to redeem it. No need for them to carry a coupon all the time

b. Also, it relinquishes the need to remember the coupon code. A simple scan is all they need to do

6. For multilingual digital campaigns

Say you own a website and have customers from different cultures, languages, and backgrounds. So it’s important for you to cater to their individual needs and give them a personalized experience.

To do this, you’ve created a multilingual website. So you wish to direct your end-users to the suitable webpage as per their language preferences.

For example, you wouldn’t want your Japanese audience to be taken to the English version of your website.

This is what a Website URL QR Code can help you with. Your customers can scan the QR Code and it’ll direct them to the specified webpage as per their location.

Hence, you’ll be able to use one QR Code across all your promotional campaigns. Isn’t that great?

7. Improve email marketing campaigns

Do you want your offline audience to reach out to you via email? This could be for any use case such as seeking customer support or product information.

Email QR Codes can help you do it. You can add an email address to it. When people scan it, it pops up a prepopulated mail with your email ID. they can then send you a mail in no time.

8. Push AR into marketing

Augmented reality is an all-new way to enthuse your audience today. It makes physical objects come to life by overlapping digital media with the physical world.

So many marketers are using AR technology to make their campaigns a success. But how do you offer AR via promotions?

Well, this is where QR Codes can help you out. Here, they bridge the gap between digital ads and real life. Just create a QR Code for AR and place it on your digital ads. Customers can scan it to get the AR experience on their phones.

For example, QR Codes with AR markers can help the real estate industry. It can be especially helpful for long-distance buyers who can’t visit the site physically. With the projection of the property over the smartphone, you can engage buyers better.

9. Dynamic content that’s editable

Say you’ve created a QR Code to boost app downloads. But after some time, you want to redirect people to a specific page within the app.

Here, dynamic QR Codes can help you do it. That’s because they are editable. This means you can edit the encoded content anytime you want without the need to create a new QR Code each time.

Also, with dynamic QR Codes, you can change the QR Code category from App Store to App Deep Link. That means great flexibility for your campaigns.

10. Builds brand recognition

QR Codes can be customized for design in your digital marketing campaigns. How? Well, by adding colors, a logo, or even a background image to them.

Thus, marketers or digital marketing agencies can create personalized ads. This will invoke a sense of belonging in customers.

Moreover, it is a known fact that custom QR Codes attract 50%-200% more scans than basic black-and-white ones. Hence, for use cases that are customer-facing or promotional in nature, it is recommended to design the QR Codes.

B. How to create a QR Code for digital marketing

Now you know why it makes sense to take advantage of QR Codes for digital marketing. Next question is—how to create one?

1. Decide on a QR Code category

Depending on what content you want your end-users to see, you’ll need to select a relevant QR Code category.

For example, if you want to provide coupons and discounts, you’d need a Coupon QR Code. On the other hand, if you want to increase app downloads you’d create an App Store QR Code.

Once you’ve decided on the QR Code category, head on to find a suitable QR Code generator. For your convenience, here is a detailed comparison chart of the best QR Code generator available online. You can go through this to find the best one for your use case.

2. Create a QR Code

Using Scanova for demo purposes, here’s how you can create a QR Code for your digital marketing:

a. Go to Scanova
b. Select the relevant QR Code category

c. Enter the content you want to encode and click Continue
d. On the page that loads, name the QR Code and click Create QR Code
e. Now, you’ll see the preview of the QR Code along with the Edit Design option

f. If you click on the Edit Design option, you’ll then see two design options to choose from—Custom Logo Design and Custom Background Design

Custom logo design: It allows you to add your company’s logo and colors to the QR Code. A logo can be an image or text.

Custom background design: It helps you place your QR Code on an image.

g. Once you’ve decided on design or no design, click Download. A window will open prompting you to sign-up for a 14-day free trial. Once you’ve signed up, proceed to download the QR Code

Note that no credit card information is required for sign-up.

8. Now you’ll be asked to specify the QR Code image’s size and dimensions. Once you submit the details, click Export

That’s it. Your QR Code will be downloaded and ready for use. It is always advisable to test scan the QR Code before putting it out for your customers.

That is all you need to know about how QR Codes be used in digital marketing. You can now go ahead to create a QR Code and boost your digital marketing campaigns.