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QR Codes Breathe New Life into Direct Marketing Campaigns

You’ve seen them everywhere...or have you? From t-shirts to art exhibits, and coupons to packaging, these funky-looking bar codes are used for fun as well as for practical purposes. QR, or Quick Response, codes are giving some much needed lift to direct marketing campaigns.

One major struggle with direct marketing is the limited amount of space available to develop your marketing messages. Whether it’s a vehicle for couponing or a promotion for an event, we all want the highest ROI for each piece.

Enter QR codes.

There are a multitude of free QR code generators available online. They are simple to make and can connect to whatever website, article, coupon, video etc. See. I just made one:

I think the best use of a QR code is anything that continues the conversation with the consumer. If you sell a product, connect to a behind-the-scenes video of how it is developed. If your firm is more service-oriented, create a testimonial blog with interviews of satisfied customers. Whatever your direct mail campaign message, QR codes give you the added benefit of the omnipresent, wireless web.

The eternal direct marketing concern is measurement. How do we know that our mail piece worked? What tangible ROI can we attribute to it? Because QR codes link customers to your website, YouTube video, and/or Facebook page, you are now able to better track how well your direct mail campaign worked. The increasing use of mobile devices will only increase the ability to track and measure marketing efforts, including the ever-elusive direct mail ROI.

While the jury is still out regarding the staying power of the QR Code, it is worth noting that some type of interactive piece will invariably be part of direct marketing in the future.