QR Codes - connecting print and digital

When you’re sending engaging, interactive, personalised mail, you know it drives response. Now you can use technology to easily link your customers to relevant, accountable and immersive online brand experiences with a QR Code.

Historically, QR codes were not in general use and made harder to access through having to download a specific app to view content. Now, it is much easier – a phone’s camera will recognise and open a QR code – and their use is more widespread, driven in part by Government use in the NHS Covid 19 Test and Trace app.

Importantly, QR codes don’t have to just link to a website. Intelligent QR codes, like the one we produce at Lettershop, is printed on your mail and links directly to your:

• Campaign landing pages, Order Pages, Offer Pages
• Videos
• Sound files
• Calendar invites
• Contact details

It also provides activity reporting through a dashboard – so you can see the web traffic your mail is driving. It’s easy to use, it takes your customers straight to your product or service page and it reports on the traffic generated.

Another point to bear in mind is the incentive being offered at the moment by Royal Mail as detailed in their latest blog about the resurgence and use of QR codes.

Use existing content in new ways

The benefit for marketers is it allows the use of existing landing pages or online content. Much like PPC, you can direct your customer’s journey straight to the

relevant product page or offer. 10% of recipients of retail direct mail visit the sender’s website¹ , so make sure they are seeing your carefully crafted messages.

See what is working

One of the challenges of printed media like door drop and direct mail is there are a lot of assumptions as to what a customer does with a mailing. JICMAIL gives us an insight from a research perspective but a QR code allows you to track the consumer on their journey.

• Learn what works - Understand what performs well and what doesn’t by comparing different call to actions, assets and campaigns, driving improvements and innovation.
• Understand your customers - Surface powerful insights on your customers, from what time of day they’re interacting with your product to which category or features they prefer - all in real-time.
• Measure ROI - Attribute traffic, sign-ups and sales to your campaigns. Compare alongside your existing marketing channels to offer complete oversight and maximum ROI.

This data can all be provided in a dashboard so that you can measure the interactions and understand/improve the customer journey.

Personalise your QR code

The QR code can be generic so there is no consumer information. Alternatively, to get more enriched data, the mail piece could have a unique code allocated to that address.

Using a unique code allows you to further customise the online experience:

• Pre-Personalised landing page
• Pre-completed order or enquiry forms
• Different offers or levels of offers
• Different creative executions
• Bespoke online journey

More imaginative QR codes

If a standard black and white QR code does not do enough for your brand, have some fun and create a better looking QR code to match your campaign or offer. There are lots of options available:

• Change the Colour – the only determinate being it must have enough contrast to scan
• Change the Size – make it bigger or smaller
• Add Artwork – embed your logo in the QR code

You can have an invisible watermark so that the code doesn’t interfere with your creative execution. This is great however remember it needs to be easy for the consumer to find the code to scan it and if it’s hidden – well that’s not easy is it?

How easy is it to start using a QR code with a mail campaign?

The common barrier to using technology is that it creates extra work and effort that already time-poor marketing professionals don’t have the capacity to absorb. An intelligent QR code uses existing online content so it can be as simple as attributing the URL to the QR code.

If you want to create bespoke content for a campaign or Augmented reality this will take time, planning and creative execution but to trial a simple web experience using existing online content will take less than 24 hours.

¹Source: JICMAIL Item Data Q2 2017 to Q1 2020; Retailer (e.g. clothing, household electrical etc.) Addressed Mail sample size = 11435