QR codes have slowly and gradually made their way into the marketing strategy of various brands. They enable brands to share information and promote their products and services, making them a popular marketing and customer engagement tool.
While QR codes are great for promoting your products/services, they’ll be effective only if they reach a large audience and get scans. To make that happen, you’ll need to promote your QR codes.
So, how to market your QR codes?
Let’s find out.
How to promote your QR codes for more scans?
Promoting a QR code is all about placement. It’s vital to put a QR code where more people notice and scan it.
Here are the best spots to place your QR code for more scans.
OOH advertising like billboards, hoardings, and signage
Out-of-home (OOH) advertising includes billboards, hoardings, posters, bus advertising, and other spots. It comprises all sorts of advertising that reaches people when they’re outside their homes, hence the name out-of-home.
The biggest advantage of OOH advertising is higher reach and brand awareness. You’ll get tons of eyeballs if you put up a billboard in a high-traffic area.
You can include a QR code in your billboard or signage to promote it and get more scans. Use the QR code to send people to your website, social media, and other online channels.
Print media, like newspapers, magazines, and brochures
Despite the rise in digital information consumption, newspapers and magazines are still quite popular. Over 2.5 billion people read a printed newspaper regularly, and magazine sales are also quite high.
Many brands give ads in newspapers and magazines to reach a large audience and increase awareness. You can put a QR code in your newspaper or magazine advertisement to reach more people and increase scans.
In fact, QR codes in newspapers are a significant trend, and various brands are using them to bridge the offline-online gap.
Product packaging
Product packaging is another lucrative spot to place your QR codes. According to Statista, 57% of consumers have scanned a QR code on food packaging to get information.
So, product packaging is an excellent place to promote your QR codes. You can grab many eyeballs, resulting in higher scans and more engagement.
Shopping bags
Like product packaging, shopping bags are an excellent spot to place your QR codes. Shopping bags are a physical representation of your brand and can skyrocket brand awareness and recall.
You can print QR codes on your shopping bags to transform them into branding powerhouses.
Ensure that your QR codes are worth scanning. You can do this by sending users to your website or social media, providing QR code coupons, and more.
Inside and outside the store
You must’ve seen QR codes in various brick-and-mortar stores, and rightly so.
Omnichannel experiences are becoming crucial. Marketers using an omnichannel strategy can generate a 287% higher purchase rate, 250% higher purchase frequency, and 13% higher average order value.
And QR codes are one of the most impactful omnichannel tools out there.
You can use QR codes in retail stores and other brick-and-mortar locations to increase visibility, scan rate, and engagement.
There are two ways to use QR codes in physical stores:
- Inside the store: Put QR codes inside your store walls, on kiosks, product shelves, and other spots.
- Outside the store: Place QR codes on the door, windows, and other areas outside your store.
TV ads
Despite the rise of Netflix, Hulu, and other OTT platforms, there were 5.41 billion TV viewers in 2022, and this number is set to reach 5.68 billion by 2026.
This massive viewership makes TV a great channel for sharing QR codes. You can include QR codes on your TV ads to reach more people and increase scans.
Moreover, you can use QR codes to make your TV ads more actionable and effective.
Email signature
An email signature is a prominent tool for marketing and customer engagement. Emails with a professional email signature result in:
- 22% more clicks
- 32% more replies
- 15% leads
- 10% higher social media reach
You can make your email signature even more effective with QR codes. Create a QR code for your digital business card, business page, or website, and include it in your email signature.
Your email recipients can contact you seamlessly by scanning the QR code.
QR code marketing mistakes to avoid
In the previous section, we looked at some lucrative channels to bring your QR codes in front of more people and increase scans.
However, some common mistakes could kill your QR code’s reach and scan rates.
Let’s discuss them real quick.
Putting a QR code in a low-traffic area
If you include a QR code in OOH advertising, choosing a high-traffic area is essential. Fewer people will see it if you put up the billboard in an area with low foot traffic.
Hence, choose an area with a high population and traffic so that your QR code gets more scans.
Choosing the wrong channel
The channel you choose to promote your QR code also plays a vital role.
Let’s understand this with an example.
People will scan a QR code using a smartphone or tablet. If you share a QR code on a mobile app or some other mobile channel, users won’t feel the need to scan it.
On the other hand, if you put a QR code on a billboard, newspaper, or other offline channels, more people would want to scan it.
Overlooking the design and the QR code
The design is a crucial element of your QR code. An appealing design grabs more attention and, thus, more scans.
So, don’t limit yourself to a black-and-white QR code. Use shapes, colors, and other design options to make it compelling.
Pro tip: Adding a logo to your QR code can align it with your brand and yield more scans.
Not getting the size right
The next thing to consider is the size of your QR code. If your QR code is too small, it may go unnoticed.
Therefore, the QR code you print should be large enough to get people’s attention.
Also, small QR codes may not scan properly. A QR code should be at least 1 x 1 inch for seamless scannability.
Not integrating it with your existing marketing strategy
If you want to market your QR code effectively, don’t use it as a standalone marketing tool. Instead, integrate it with your current marketing strategy to see the best results.
For example, if your existing marketing plan involves running newspaper ads to promote your latest product range, you can include a QR code for your website to enhance it.
Final thoughts
To generate the best results from your QR code campaign, you must recklessly promote your QR code. This involves choosing the right spots and channels for QR code placement and following the best practices to increase the QR code’s visibility and scan rate.
If you want to implement top-notch QR code campaigns, QRCodeChimp has your back. Get started with QRCodeChimp today.
