How Not to Use QR Codes: Part 4
Posted on by Timothy BoyleThousands of examples exist of QR code uses that just aren’t very useful, or are really quite bad, and even some that are absolutely terrible. We will be looking at an example of the latter type in this blog.
Sometimes I wonder how a marketer or advertiser ever got their job when I see some of these QR code uses, it really is quite amazing. Take this example below; let’s list the problems and their remedy.
1) No real call to action. Sure is says “Find the Inn crowd”, but does that mean you should scan the code to find the Inn’s location? It’s a bit confusing. To solve this make a clear and understandable call to action, in this example it might be “scan the QR code to locate the nearest Inn.”
2) The size of the QR code. In order to scan a QR code your phone’s camera needs to be able to see it clearly. This means that when you plan on using a QR code you MUST think about whether your potential consumer is going to be near or far away from your prospective print advertisement. In this case you know your customer is going to be very far off, so if you are going to still use a QR code it has to be huge, perhaps half the size of the billboard in this case. At some point though, it just might not be worth it. There is a time and place for QR codes; you need to figure out when and where that is.
3) Death for the person who scans the code. This is rarely ever a problem you want to have. Your customer is driving along at 75 mph and sees the QR code on your billboard, he pulls out his smartphone, clicks on his QR code scanning app, takes both hands off the wheel and attempts to scan your small code, fifty yards off the highway…things are not likely to end well. How to remedy this? Probably just refrain from putting QR codes on highway billboards. But if you must use this marketing strategy and wish to risk losing many customers to early deaths, at least make sure when they scan the code they are taken to a nice mobile optimized website and not your awful desktop site. A small courtesy for their few remaining seconds on earth.
All you need to do to not appear on these sorts of blogs is to think before you decide to use a QR code. Make sure you have a good call to action, make sure you know where your customers will be in relation to your code when they will be scanning it, and make sure if they do scan your code their likelihood of death does not increase dramatically.
To get started using QR codes make sure you check out our best practices page, and then check out our mobile website creation platform and everything else Qfuse has to offer. Follow this and you’ll have a tough time messing up your QR code campaign.
Want more? Check out Part 5 of How NOT to Use QR Codes.
