QR Codes are showing up in more and more places. You may have seen them on products in stores like Best Buy or in advertisements in many popular magazines. We detail who can benefit from QR Codes in our white paper, and outlined what they are here; but how do you get started once you’ve decided to take the plunge into mobile marketing? Follow along with this tutorial to learn everything you need to know about launching a successful QR Code campaign. We’ll cover things to do as well as things to avoid to make sure your first mobile marketing campaign is a success.

Step 1: Identify a target.
Mobile marketing is just like any other type of marketing, at least at the start. Spend time identifying who you want to scan your QR Codes. Where possible, segment your customers (or potential customers), and figure out which segment you’d like to reach.

Step 2: Identify a location.
Once you’ve identified who you want to target, decide how you’d like to target them. QR Codes can be placed on mailings, advertisements, product tags, billboards, signs or just about anywhere else your customers go. Get creative with it, but make sure to put them in a place that can easily be scanned. Follow common sense guidelines (or don’t), but make sure they can be scanned (the minimum size of qr codes should be at least 1” x 1”).

Step 3: Create a mobile page.
Once you’ve decided who you’d like to target your QR Code advertisement to, and brainstormed ideas of where to put the codes, it’s time to get started creating content for the QR Code. QR Codes, when used most effectively, link to mobile friendly websites. Whichever method you chose, make sure to provide relevant information or promotions that are tailored to your specific audience.

This step doesn’t need to be difficult, and doesn’t require a lot of programming expertise. What it does require is that you come up with something creative. This is your chance to shine and stand out to your customer. You should spend the vast majority of your time on this step. It’s important to get it right. Add videos or other high quality information to bring your sales literature to life. Your goal should be to make it an awesome experience for the people scanning the codes. Don’t shortcut this step. Take your time and get it right.

Step 4: Generate your QR Code.
There are many ways to generate QR codes. There are plenty of free generator out there (a google search will return hundreds of quality generators), but they all come with some limitations. Paid alternatives generally give you the ability to change where your QR Code points to as well as allowing you to easily edit the mobile page. Free alternatives will require that you have your own mobile-friendly site, and won’t allow you to change where the code points to. Many of the paid alternatives also let you track analytics (it’s great to be able to see how many people are scanning your codes, what time of day they’re scanning, etc. Don’t overlook analytics when using QR Codes).

It’s important to note that not all QR Codes are created equally. Make sure to use a url shortening service before creating a QR Code, or better yet, look for a QR Code generator that has url shortening built in. This is going to give you cleaner looking and easier to scan code.

Once you’ve generated your QR Code, save the file and incorporate it in your marketing materials. Go back to step two and check to see how you’re planning on using the code. Make sure to keep the code at least a one inch square, and make sure you don’t cover the white space on the outside of the code. Making your code smaller than one inch makes the code difficult (or impossible) to scan.

Step 5: Track success.
Tracking analytics is always important with mobile marketing, but it’s especially so for your first QR Code campaign. You want to see how your customers are interacting with your codes. Having analytics setup allows you to see how many scans your codes get. This can provide a baseline to test new campaigns against. Measuring success, lets you know when future changes are helpful or when you should look for new ideas. A poor performing first campaign shouldn’t signal failure; but if it’s properly measured, you can have a better chance of hitting a home run with your next campaign. If the campaign is an overwhelming success, you’ll have the information you need to help you recreate it next time.

Step 6: Repeat.
Use what you’ve learned from your first campaign to create follow up campaigns. Use the data you’ve gained to improve and test to see how your changes are performing. Whatever you do, always remember to delight the customer with the QR Code campaign.

Best Practices:
Keep all codes at least one inch squared.
Provide engaging content.
Give a reason for customers to give you contact information (you’ll email them a coupon, tell them about specials, etc).
Have fun with it.

If you’ve got any questions, feel free to ask them in the comment section below. If you’ve used QR Codes, please feel free to share your experience with us (and everyone else) below in the comments.