The QR (quick response) code has quickly become a powerful tool in the event marketer’s toolbox. It’s simply a square, two-dimensional, black-and-white barcode that smartphone users can scan to access your website, promotional materials, and more.
Creating QR codes with one of many readily available online services is both easy and free, but using QR codes to your best advantage takes some planning and foresight. Below are a few suggestions to turn your QR code into a highly successful lead-generation and ROI-boosting machine.
Include QR Codes on All Non-Digital Promotion Materials
Whether or not you plan on creating your own event app that includes a QR scanner, you can employ QR codes to great effect. To optimize the impact of your event, create a QR code that links to your event registration page, and include it on all your physical event promotional materials. By so doing, you not only encourage people to register for your event, but make it easier for them learn more about it. The more people know, the more excited they will be to come by your booth or attend your event!
Use QR Codes to Drive Engagement
Beyond helping people learn about your event, QR codes can be used to increase engagement. But make sure your code links to content that is truly valuable to your guests. Attendees walking the event floor are likely not interested in a code that simply brings up your Facebook page. Instead, use your code to augment and expand the event experience, not as an opportunity to bludgeon attendees with self-serving advertisements.
What constitutes valuable content? Using QR codes throughout your event to:
• Lead attendees to special presentations
• Allow attendees to enter contests
• Give attendees access to event maps
• Provide free digital offerings
• Update attendees on program changes or newly added happenings
• Survey attendees for their opinions
These and many other possibilities are all great ways to increase engagement and improve brand awareness and loyalty.
Take Advantage of Event Attendee Data
The data on attendee interaction—with each other, with your vendors, and with your speakers and presentations—is perhaps the greatest asset QR codes provide.
By including personal QR codes on event attendee credentials, your visitors can exchange contact information with a single scan, and your vendors can capture profile data on visitors in the same way. You can then track and analyze these interactions to determine:
• What offerings are the most popular
• What vendors or parts of the floor get the most traffic
• How, where, and how much attendees are interacting with each other
That sort of data can be hugely valuable, allowing your marketing team to create more pointed initiatives that can be implemented into your future events as well as your general business strategy.
QR codes are simple to create and cost absolutely nothing. With a little planning, you can leverage them to increase event engagement, facilitate attendee interaction, and build loyalty—increasing return attendance. There’s a lot of power in these little squares. Unlock it for your next event!