Using QR Codes for Marketing

by ljknechtel | Jan 21, 2022 | Marketing Metrics, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, SEO, Website Design

USING QR CODES FOR MARKETING

Improve customer experience and your bottom line

Invented in 1994 for the automotive industry, the QR Code has been used for marketing for well over a decade. However its original surge in popularity for digital marketing was short-lived due to a number of factors including the need for third-party apps whose reliability was frustrating at best. And so, the marketing world let the QR code fade back into relative obscurity, until recently.

Today’s QR code is recognized by leadership of public and private enterprises for its superiority to the bar code. Mobile device manufacturers have added accurate, efficient readers directly to their operating systems, eliminating the need for third-party apps. And a QR code has a much higher data storage capacity than its bars-only counterpart.

Not only has it become central to the vaccination status verification process, but the Quick Response code has been widely adopted to help businesses maximize the hands-free experience of their customers.

Restaurants are displaying them at windows and on tables so customers can access menus directly on their devices. Retailers are adding them to print ads and in windows to link to their online shopping experiences. Service providers are including them in brochures and displaying in windows for online appointment booking.

How to Use QR Codes

So, with the re-emerging prevalence of the QR code, the question is how can you use the QR code to improve your business’s marketing and customer experience? Here are a few ideas:

Use it to provide access to you virtual business card or Linktree page.
Contactless menu(s) at restaurants
Easily share how-to or DIY videos about using your products
Link to a digital coupon for your products or services
Help clients easily access PayPal or other payment portal to make one-time or ongoing payments
Link to your phone number or email address to make contacting you easy
Direct people to your online portfolio for examples of your work
Provide directions to your location in Google Maps or Waze
Link to your events calendar to see what’s coming up
Help people link directly to the online review platforms where they can add a review
Link to a social media account or featured post to grow your followers

how to generate create a qr code customize

How to Create QR Codes

Simply use a free QR code generator like Create QR Code (which allows you to not only generate QR codes but customize their appearance as well) and then download generated code(s) for either print or digital use.

If you would prefer to focus on your core business and outsource your marketing management, contact us to get started.

Marketing Analytics – Why & How to Measure Your Marketing

by ljknechtel | Nov 16, 2020 | Marketing Metrics, Social Media

MARKETING ANALYTICS

Why & How to Measure Your Marketing

Feedback. You can find it in every walk of life, at every stage of life. Sometimes it’s unsolicited, but most times, it lets us know how we’re doing – in school, at work, with our new fitness regimen, or when trying a new recipe.

Marketing is certainly no exception. Feedback is critical for the implementation of a successful marketing strategy. Bottom line: if you’re not measuring, you’re not marketing.

The problem is that metrics and analytics are not terribly sexy concepts, and the prospect of having to look at numbers and graphs sounds daunting and downright boring. So, you might not care much about marketing analytics, but if you like results and continuous improvement, it’s time to start caring.

Many businesses like yours are busy doing what you’re in business to do. As such, your marketing efforts consist of throwing money at the odd newspaper or magazine ad, saying yes to digital ad salespeople who visit you once a year to renew your contract, sporadically posting to social media, attending a few networking or trade events, and paying for a website whose content rarely or never gets updated.

But to what end? No company, large or small, likes to throw money out the window, but that’s exactly what you’re doing if no one is reporting back to you on the results of your marketing investment.

Monitoring your results does not have to be complicated. If something’s working, do more of it. If something’s not working, change course. And the nice thing about digital marketing? Unlike traditional marketing channels like print media, billboard advertising, and posters, you can easily and precisely assess engagement with native (built-in) or add-on analytics dashboards. Here’s a general framework for measuring your marketing:

Website Marketing Analytics

While some platforms have built-in analytics, there’s nothing more powerful than Google Analytics. Here’s how to get started using Google Analytics. This is a robust dashboard, offering the ability to dig really deep into web traffic metrics. We’ll be writing more on this topic soon, specifically about the most important metrics to track on an ongoing basis.

Email Marketing Analytics

All email marketing platforms (we use Constant Contact) include native marketing analytics, which are generally sufficient for learning what’s working and what’s not. If you want more in-depth analytics, most email marketing platforms also integrate with Google Analytics. Refer to the knowledge base for the platform you use for how-to information.

Social Media Marketing Insights

Each social media platform offers its own marketing analytics. Here’s a list of where to find metrics on the more popular ones:

Facebook

First of all, analytics aren’t offered for personal profile pages, but given that you’re a business, you have a Business Page, right? To access your page analytics, simply select “Insights” from the secondary menu.

Twitter

Twitter was late to the game with Analytics, but they finally added them in August of 2014. To access your analytics, simply go to analytics.twitter.com and log in.

Page Admins can access Company Page analytics about visitors, updates, and followers by switching to the Admin View and selecting Analytics from the Page menu. To get to the Admin View, simply select “Manage Page” from your main Company Page.

Instagram

Instagram is becoming a popular marketing platform choice for businesses of all types including those in the construction and home services industry. However, Instagram currently only offers analytics to accounts with high levels of engagement. So how do you find out how your Instagram posts are performing other than looking at each individual post? By using a social media management platform like Hootsuite. Not only does Hootsuite allow you to schedule and manage posts for all of your social media accounts from one dashboard, but it also provides analytics for all platforms connected to your account, including Instagram.

YouTube

YouTube account owners can access analytics by going to studio.youtube.com and selecting the Analytics option from the left-hand menu.

Analytics are available to Pinterest Business Account owners and can be found in the top Page menu with options to view an overview, or specific metrics pertaining to profile views, people you reach, or your overall audience.

While you can dive really deep into marketing analytics, measuring your results is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Every step you take to learning about which marketing activities are effective and which are not, is a step in the right direction where marketing ROI is concerned. So start with measuring website traffic sources and behaviour and add other channel analytics as you get more comfortable.

If you would prefer to focus on your core business and outsource your marketing management (which includes monthly marketing reporting) contact us to get started.