How savvy business owners are using QR codes to increase engagement

Savvy business owners innovate to overcome obstacles!

Business owners have always faced many challenges getting their message across and building engagement with prospects. 

You can’t be in business today without a website, so you put links like your website address (URL) or your email address, etc. in your printed materials. When you send electronic messages (emails and texts) you can put those links in and they are clickable. That’s great, but an over-reliance on email can hurt your ability to close sales. Prospects are increasingly suffering from “email fatigue” and the average lifespan of an email is 17 seconds. So you can’t rely on electronic means alone.

To stand out, you need quality printed materials as well.

To build interest with leads, keep prospects engaged, and follow-up with customers, businesses rely on printed materials such as flyers, “leave behinds,” brochures, proposals, business letters, postcards, etc. Even your business card is a reflection of your quality.

But in printed materials, it is up to the reader to to type your URL or email address in their browser or email program. If it’s a long URL, they’re likely to get it wrong, and no one wants to do it anyway.

Benefits of a Pandemic?

The pandemic has taught people 2 things — how to use Zoom, and how to scan a QR code. You can’t go to a restaurant and get a menu anymore, you sit down and scan the QR code to read it on your phone. QR codes have been around forever, but they’re everywhere these days — on signs, posters, etc.

The benefits are obvious and immediate – a scannable QR code is the best way to get your long URL out into the physical world, and combines the immediacy of digital with the power of physical presence.

How can you create a QR Code?

Savvy business owners create QR codes by using a QR code generator to convert their long URL into a scannable code. A really good QR code generator lets you customize the colors and add your logo. Once you get the code looking the way you want it, you can download it and add it to your printed artwork, or business letter.

But you want to make sure your QR code generator can create a dynamic QR code. What’s dynamic? A static QR code is one where the URL associated with it can never change. If your website gets updated, or the link changes in any way, you have to generate a new code, and the old code becomes useless. A dynamic QR code, on the other hand, is one where you can update the link at any time, so if and when it changes, your QR code that’s out in the wild remains valid.

Get even better results to increase engagement

To truly increase engagement, savvy business owners look for a QR code generator like LINKEM that does more than just print codes. A great QR code generator provides statistics — you can see how often your code is scanned, and even get information about the geographic location, the operating system, the type of device, and much more. These stats allow to see how well you are doing so you can continue to fine-tune and improve your marketing to get better results.

Let’s say you send a letter to prospects. There’s no “open rate” you can track. But you can track the number of scans you’re getting, so you can see how well your letter is doing. You can see how many of your prospects are on mobile, or using desktops computers, and that lets you adjust your website and other online materials.

LINKEM statistics page showing geo-location, scans and clicks

And truly great QR code generators allow you to add tracking pixels so you can retarget your visitors. This allows you to have your marketing messages follow your prospects to make sure you stay top of mind.

 

Creative Places for QR Codes

  • Brochures
  • Flyers
  • Business Cards
  • Postcards
  • Menus
  • Letters
  •  Posters
  • Wall signs
  • Windows
  • Registration desk
  •  Packaging
  • Labels
  • Stickers
  • T-shirts
  • Tattoos?
  • Displays
  • Tabletops
  • Shopping bags
  • Television ads
  • For Sale signs
  • Doorways
  • Give-aways 
  • Promotional items