Everyone loves a great comeback story.
Lindsey Vonn coming back and winning four world cups and an Olympic gold medal after a body-crushing crash required her to be air-lifted off the mountain during training.
George Foreman stepped back in the ring at age 45, 20 years after he beat Muhammed Ali, to win the world heavyweight title.
Joe Montana, “The Comeback Kid,” leading his team to two Super Bowl victories before rupturing a disk in his back, then returning and leading them to win two more.
So why didn’t anyone root for the misunderstood, techy and honestly – kind of ugly – QR code to make a comeback?
Enter, COVID.
The QR code system was invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara from the Japanese company Denso Wave. The initial design was influenced by the black and white pieces on a Go board and its purpose was to track vehicles during manufacturing and allow high-speed component scanning.
What did we use it for? Restaurant menus.
Hey, sometimes you find a purpose and other times purpose finds you. Thankfully, the handy dandy QR code was a way for restaurants to keep people safe and for diners to access essential information while supporting the local establishments they enjoy. Love it or hate it, people were using it and websites were seeing an increase in traffic.
Now that we’re seeing some semblance of normalcy in the world, that handy dandy QR code is finding its way back onto marketing pieces from event flyers to logos and packaging.
Should your company use the Joe Montana of marketing pieces? Ask yourself these questions before tasking your marketing department with making the perfect on-brand squiggly square:
- Start with Why. (Thanks, Simon Sineck!) Why do you want a QR code? If your answer is, “because my competition has one,” you probably need to give your marketing strategist a call.
QR Codes are meant to drive traffic to one certain thing—an event landing page, a product page, a social media account, a purchase platform, a document, a music file, an app download. If you don’t have somewhere specific to send your customers, you probably don’t need one. - What do you want to achieve? Sales? Impressions? Engagements? Set a smart (S.M.A.R.T.) goal and use your QR Code as a tool to achieve that goal, and as a part of your larger marketing strategy. After all, a QR Code is a tool, not an entire marketing plan.
- How will you measure success? One of the greatest things about QR codes is the easy tracking metrics that show scans and page visits. One thing that may not be trackable from the QR code is what happened (and how often) once a visitor landed on the intended page. Consult with your marketing and web teams to set up tracking on the landing page so you can measure ROI and more.
If you’re interested in exploring new marketing tools but you aren’t sure where to start, give the CONRIC team a call for a free consultation at (239) 690-9840. Marketing, advertising, digital and website teams are standing by to help you develop the comprehensive marketing plan that’s right for you and your business and may even involve a QR code. Visit conricpr.com to learn more.
