How to Use QR Codes to Increase Customer Engagement

We’ve all seen QR codes when we’ve been out and about, and their prevalence has increased during the coronavirus pandemic. A QR code stores important data, which allows people to access information faster and complete specific tasks. 

And for businesses, they’re also excellent ways of increasing customer engagement. 

But how do QR codes work for businesses who want to boost brand awareness and engage more customers? How can you use them to your advantage?

In this article, we take a look at everything you need to know about QR codes and customer engagement.

What Is Customer Engagement? 

Customer engagement is the relationship prospects customers have with your brand. It’s how switched on they are, how aware they are of your brand, and how much they interact and engage with you on multiple channels. 

When you optimize your customer engagement, you can acquire more customers, engage more customers – and retain more customers.

Why Use QR Codes For Customer Engagement?

We’re going to take an in-depth look at how you can use QR codes to increase customer engagement below, but first let’s understand why you’d use them. 

QR codes are “Quick Response” codes that essentially allow your customers to get access to lots of information much faster than ever before. 

All the customer needs to do is read the code with their mobile device, before landing on a specific page, playing a video, or downloading an app. 

Fundamentally, QR codes have bridged the gap between traditional marketing and online marketing. For example, let’s say you hand a customer your business card at an event. In the past, you’d have included your website and email address on the card in the hope that, at some point, the customer would make the effort to contact you. 

Now, you can add a QR code that the prospect can scan so that they arrive on your webpage within seconds. 

QR codes, then, have sped up the lead-generation process – and they can help with customer engagement, too, simply by – as mentioned – bridging the crucial gap between traditional and online marketing. You can get more followers faster than before, and you can engage them faster, too. 

Even better, any business can easily implement QR codes at a really low cost. 

Benefits of QR Codes 

For the customer, QR codes have additional benefits:

Easy to Use

All a customer needs is a mobile device and some data in order to scan a QR code. As soon as the QR code is captured by the mobile device’s camera, a specific action is taken. 

It Grabs Their Attention 

It’s not easy to grab a customer’s attention in 2021 because there is so much noise out there. To ensure the customer doesn’t miss out on something they would otherwise have been interested in, you can use QR codes to elicit their curiosity and provide them with a simple and quick way of gaining access to information. 

They Don’t Have To Write Anything Down

One of the easiest ways to reduce customer engagement is to ask them to write things down. If you’re a business at an event that wants to promote your online store with a potential customer, there’s no more need to ask them if they have a pen. Instead, you can make the whole process much more convenient for them by giving them a QR code on your business card. 

How To Use QR Codes To Increase Customer Engagement

Send Potential Customers to your Store’s Website 

Driving traffic to your website should be one of the number one aims of all businesses. 

But you don’t just want to drive any old traffic – you want to drive qualified traffic. 

Whilst you can drive qualified traffic via SEO campaigns (and we highly recommend that you do this), you can also drive it via QR codes.

How? 

One of the easiest ways is to add a QR code to your business card. Then, each time you network with customers at events, you can hand your cards out. When the prospect gets home and checks your card out, they can then scan your QR code and land on your website. 

Where else can you attach your QR codes? 

It requires a bit of creativity on your part, and it also depends on your niche. But possible ideas include product packaging and invoices, as well as newspaper/magazine ads, flyers and even emails. 

Naturally, you need to make sure that you direct your prospects to the right page. It’s recommended that you send prospects to your landing page as this page basically acts as your “shop front.” It not only tells people about you and what product your store sells, but it should also come with a call to action. 

Here are some tips for a strong landing page:

• Keep it focused and free from distractions 
• Add professional product images that stand out
• Succinctly explain the benefits of your product using power words
• Make sure the content aligns with the branding on whatever material the QR code was displayed on
• Add a call to action (what should the prospect do next?)

Use QR Codes To Direct People To Your Social Media Profiles 

Businesses need to have a strong social media presence in 2021.

The likes of Instagram and Facebook have bought into the QR code revolution by introducing interactive QR codes to their respective sites. Businesses can easily add their own QR code to material such as products, packaging, labels and leaflets with the purpose of directing prospects to your social profiles.

This is far easier than the prospect having to type in your social handle, or search for you manually. This not only increases the chances of them actually bothering to look you up, but it also has the potential to boost customer engagement once they’re following your social media profiles – and conversions.

Of course, you have to give customers a reason to follow you, which is why it’s really important that you’ve already optimized your social accounts. This means posting regularly and consistently, giving value, as well as engaging with your existing followers. Let people know they can contact you too for more information.

It’s also worth mentioning that, because QR codes can be such a powerful way of helping you turbocharge your following, you should add as many social channels as possible so as to maximize follows, likes and engagement. You can also cross-pollinate your social channels and increase your traffic and engagement that way, too. 

And just like you need to send your customers to the right landing page on your website, you need to send them to the right content on your social channels, too. For instance, it might be a good idea to send them to a video, as this sort of interactive content has a better chance of engaging and entertaining them straight away, as well as eliciting their curiosity. 

Send Customers To Your Customer Support

There will be times when a customer wants to ask a question about your business. Perhaps they just want to find out some more information, or perhaps they’ve got an actual real problem that needs solving. 

Either way, if you’ve got a customer support section on your website, it’s very handy if a customer is able to easily reach it.

This is where QR codes can prove really useful. Indeed, research has shown that customers now expect a near instant response from customer support, with 90% saying they expect an immediate response. This means it’s even more beneficial if the customer is able to reach your customer support super fast in the first place.

You can generate dynamic QR codes that direct customers to your customer support on your business cards, your app, your website and more. Just make sure that, whenever a customer lands on your customer support, they get the prompt, helpful advice they’re looking for. To that end, you consider adding a live chat app to your website. 

Use QR Codes to Gain Product Reviews 

Customer engagement incorporates many things, but one of the most overlooked aspects is product reviews. 

Product reviews are a key aspect of customer engagement because it gives you insights into how your customers feel about your products. This helps you to enhance existing relations, as well as to make tweaks to your overall customer experience. 

Moreover, feedback also means customer testimonials. And the more testimonials you can leverage, the easier it will be to land new customers. For example, you can add testimonials to your website and social profiles to bolster your reputation and build trust among prospects who are visiting your pages for the first time. 

And the thing is, many customers are willing to give feedback and write a review of the products they purchased that they liked. Most of the time, however, they’re just not sure how to leave a review.

This is where QR codes come in. You can, for example, attach a QR code to an email thanking a customer for purchasing from your store or in a thank-you note with their package. The QR code can send the customer directly to a page where they can either fill out a quick customer feedback survey, or leave a product review. 

Just make sure that, whenever you use QR codes in this way, you don’t take up too much of the customer’s time. Reviews and surveys should be kept as short as possible. 

Create Fun Games Using QR Codes

Can businesses create games for customers and prospects?

Should businesses create games for customers and prospects?

Yes and yes.

When it comes to customer engagement, the more engaged the customer is – the better.

And one of the best ways to engage your customers is to encourage interaction and – where possible – entertainment.

This is where games come in. The idea is that you create a fun, quick game and push the game through marketing your QR code.

Whoever scans the QR code gets taken to a landing page that has the game, and upon winning – offers them a discount off their next order (or something else of value). 

Track Your QR Codes

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that, for customer engagement to be effective, you need to implement analytics so that you can monitor engagement across all channels.

It’s also a smart idea to track your QR codes so that you know how effective they are. Ergo, what are the click through rates, conversions and so on? 

This is important information to know because – among other things – you’ll need to know the baseline performance of your codes. Only by knowing this will you be able to make the right changes. 

For example, it might be the case that customers who are arriving on your website from a QR code implemented on your business card are engaging more with your brand than customers who are arriving on your website from a QR code implemented on your app. 

There are different ways you can track your QR codes. But when it comes to digital marketing, the simplest method is to use Google Analytics. You can build Google URLs for each of your QR links, create a campaign and then track said campaign.

For more information on tracking your QR codes using Google Analytics, try this helpful resource. 

Wrapping Up 

Customer engagement is an excellent way of raising brand awareness and building stronger relationships with your customers that last.

There are multiple ways of improving customer engagement, with QR codes being just one of them. Because QR codes are low cost and easy to implement by anyone, it’s a smart idea to get started with them as soon as possible. Be creative with how you use them, but make sure they tie into your overall digital marketing strategy for better results.