How To Overcome The Fear Of Using QR Codes In Any Market
Have you ever talked with your friends or networking professionals about QR codes? It’s rhetorical, the important point to be made here is what do you personally think about the silly little matrix bar codes. If you have not seen a quick response code yet, you will.
Mobile Market Facts
*Our current North American mobile market in first quarter 2011 was 3X as big as the internet itself and is about to explode.
*Smartphone prices are becoming free for an increasing number of models as large phone carriers receive incentive from mobile marketing revenues which are just on the brink of the mobile marketing revolution.
*50% of all social media interactions are done by mobile devices including Smartphone’s.
*Giving your market the choice of a traditional web address on printed materials or online and a message like ‘Enter our web address above OR access immediately on your mobile device with this QR code’, is all you need to keep your conversions intact.
*Return on investment can be tracked for every QR code you use on every marketing medium so you can track the profit or loss of any barcode.
“The Internet Is A Fad”, said one of my long lost friends in 1998.…
If you don’t know something that’s normal and that is fine but standing in front of a tidal wave with an umbrella and telling others to do the same just sets you up as the fool, or worse yet, ignore the wave all together. I recall my friend Jason telling me in 1998 that the Internet was a fad, be blatantly denies any such statement just a few years ago and he still is not online. QR codes are not a fad, barcodes are already in use on almost every item in any retail store. Quick Response bar codes are an existing technology in a new market.
Don’t Make This Mistake When Talking About QR Codes
After posting an article about QR codes recently in one of the LinkedIn groups that I’m a member of I noticed a very negative post by another marketer about these mobile barcodes. This marketer was promoting an item and he said that he does not want to get stuck explaining to people how to use QR codes when they could be downloading his report instead. He went on to say that even though QR codes require less steps compared to other methods to get people to your site his fear of the unknown prompted him to plaster his message on the Internets largest business social media site LinkedIn. It get’s better….
In another great group on LinkedIn called Manitoba Executive Group one lady shared an experience with the group where she used QR codes on her marketing material at her booth at a live event… What were the results you ask? I don’t recall exactly what product or service her business was but I do recall that the QR codes caused quite a buzz at her booth. People were gathering, talking, and learning how to use these funny little codes and she was seen as the tech savvy professional in her own little niche. Everyone lives at the level at which they speak!
“What Do I Say In My Marketing Materials?”
Give your prospects the choice of the old way with your web site address or link on a web site with your traditional call to action. Also include your QR code with a short message ‘Use your QR reader for instant access to the same site listed above’. There are marketers that are giving away coupons using QR codes, taunting their clients to learn QR codes or miss out on the the discounts and freebies! The technology can give you some leverage depending on your ability to recognize and harness the buzz.
Important Facts When Getting Started
My QR code generator of choice is beqrious, it’s got a great free option and it’s what my mobile marketing coach Laura Betterly recommended to me. But, before you go crazy making these codes for your online and offline materials here is one crucial fact: Generate your QR codes after registering at beqrious, don’t use the QR generator tool outside of registration for your marketing.
Reason why is that you won’t be able to change your terminating web or file address if you don’t register. What does this mean? If you get 1000 business cards made and decide to change the address that your code is pointing too, you can’t change it unless you had registered and logged into your own beqrious profile. This registration process allows you to also upgrade your account later at any time for some awesome tracking features to watch your ROI in real time.
Outsource Your Entire QR Campaign
Outsourcing of your QR code marketing campaign is a definite real possibility if you just want to focus on your existing business operations and leave the QR code stuff up to the professionals. You can expect to pay a nominal set up fee and the going monthly fee’s for quick response codes alone are relatively cheap. Mobile marketing packages can include QR marketing, text marketing, local mobile maps and much more with the right company.