Mar
6
QR codes a smart way for businesses to reach customersustomers
With smartphones making up more than half of all cell phone purchases these days, local marketing guru John DiPietro is urging Holden Chamber of Commerce member to add QR codes to their print material. Mr. DiPietro was the latest in a series of breakfast speakers sponsored by the Chamber to train members in how to grow their businesses. QR codes, or Quick Response codes, allow a smartphone user to scan a small square of random-looking smudges. Once scanned, a QR code can take the user to the owner’s website, where he/she can get more information about the product or service available. When properly set up, a QR code keeps a print ad like a phone book ad, relevant for an entire year, even if the company moves or introduces a new product. Mr. DiPietro said QR scanning has increased by 4,500 percent from 2010 to 2011, and the group with the highest percentage of users is the 35 to 44 demographic.“They were established by Toyota in 1994 to track car parts,” he said. Mr. DiPietro said QR codes can be used in a variety of ways, and cautioned the audience that most codes lead to dead end web pages. “They don’t continue the selling process,” he said. “Ideally, the code goes to a video, and then to a landing page with your website and phone number.”QR codes are inexpensive $50 per month and reusable, so that a restaurant can use the same code to tout its specials, which may change, even though the code does not. “You can even do two different ones and see which one gets a better response,” he said. Mr. DiPietro said the old way of reaching customers through the morning paper, radio news on the hour and the evening news at 6 and 11 are falling by the wayside as social media, blogs and self produced videos are used to reach new markets. “People love video,” he said. “They have an amazing open rate and they’re much cheaper to produce than they used to be.”Mr. DiPietro told the audience that videos are a great way to bring out their personality and to promote their unique product or service. “The goal of marketing is to differentiate yourself from your competitors,” Mr. DiPietro said. “And QR codes are a way to do it.”
Source: Telegram Towns
