Allora Media has it's roots in direct mail, so the advent of the QR code was a potential boon for us. They promise to solve the age-old promise of driving people from print to the web, where a customer can fulfill a transaction at a much lower cost. As with any new technology, the standards for the use of these scannable wonders are seldom followed. With that in mind, we have compiled our hit list of best practices for using QR codes

QR Code Tip: Why is there a QR code on your website?

QR codes go onto printed materials: postcards, flyers, catalogs, tradeshow displays, product tags, t-shirts, soda cans... the applications are endless. A QR code does NOT go onto your website

Don't assume that everyone knows what a QR code is.

Don't assume that just because you are all up to speed on what these bizarre looking graphical codes are and what you can do with them, that your customers are as well. I think of the adoption of QR codes as similar to the early days of RSS. Once the major publications started using RSS, there appeared near every RSS icon a little "what's this?" link with information on what the heck an "RSS" is and what it's for.

A QR code in the wild from the Make A Wish Foundation.

Not only do customers need some fine print under a QR code in an ad (i.e., "Scan this code with your smart phone to get a super deal"), a page on your site dedicated to what a QR code is, what it does, and links to a free scanner in the Android/iPhone/Blackberry app markets would help.

Create A Custom Content Strategy For Using QR Codes

It seems that most Internet marketing techniques start by dropping people on the target home page. Then as things evolve marketers realize that dropping someone from an offer onto a home page is pretty silly, and custom landing pages come into play - this is how paid search evolved. Today dropping someone from a paid search ad click onto the main home page is rookie mistake #1 for PPC.

Let's skip this part of the evolutionary process with QR codes and start making customized landing pages straight away.

Optimize Content For Mobile

As fast as you are popping QR codes onto postcards, people are scanning away and spirited away onto your awesome landing page. Most of these visitors are on their mobile phones, so you’d best be sure that your landing page looks, operates, and performs on smartphones. Whether you’re using CSS3 media queries, separate stylesheets, or a mobile-dedicated subdomain, it had better work.

TRACK!

As with any other type of online marketing, tracking is essential to the process. QR codes are no different than any other channel - track it, evaluate, make adjustments. You don’t want to waste marketing budget on a source that yields poor results, and you want to divert ad spend into those that perform well.

Pro tip: when creating your QR code, put specific Google Analytics campaign tracking parameters (or parameters for whatever web analytics solution you use) on the end of the landing page URLs so that it will show up as a channel in your campiagn reports.

QR Code Takeaways

• QR codes bridge print, event, and direct marketing with the web. 
• QR codes are utilized by mobile devices - smartphones and tablets.
• QR codes should be treated like any other web marketing channel.

Mike Anderson is Allora Media's Creative Director. With more than a decade of experience designing communications for business, education, television, film, and government agencies, Mike specializes in helping Allora's clients maintain their brand, as well as usability across email campaigns, landing pages, and full blown websites.