The Banner Blog

Used properly a QR code can help spread your message, facilitate a sales process, track leads, and generally make your company look smarter. Used improperly and you will jeopardize all of the above. You can avoid such pitfalls by following a few simple guidelines.

1. Realize that QR codes are not used by everyone. While QR codes are gaining traction low adoption rates are tied with the smartphone market: not everyone has one, and those that own one do not necessarily use a QR code reader app. In some cases, this can limit your audience. That is, those that would scan a QR code “frequently” may have a penchant for the latest and greatest technologies. Take your customers into account when deciding to deploy a QR code system. A quilt shop customer base will be vastly different from that of a retail electronics store, and a garden center patron will have different likes than a sports fan. So if your product is generally geared towards older adults, the less technically savvy, or someone that’s never bought anything online then QR codes may not be as effective as you would like.

2. Like UPC’s,  QR codes generally look the same. A human trying to read a QR code is like reading Sanskrit. Good luck! In order for you to know what data a QR code has in it you will need a system, internal to your company, that matches something human-readable with the QR code. This can be as simple as naming your art file the same as the URL embedded into your QR code or a print-out that has a human-readable counterpart to each QR code deployed in your company. This will help with managing your QR code inventory.

3. Keep your QR codes in vector or a high-quality raster image. If you have a good quality print of your QR code then smartphones should not have a problem scanning them, and doing it quickly. A very small QR code with low dots per inch will give your app reader headaches. There are error-correction tools that you can use when generating your code but they add complexity to the blocks in the code matrix. With a high-quality art file you can be assured that the code will be readable and can scale up or down with little or no loss of resolution.

4. Understand that the more data you embed the more complex the dot pattern. If you have an extreme amount of info to convey you can embed it directly into the code or setup a URL that has the information. Just be sure the art file is high-res; see #3. You can use a URL shortening service, such as bit.ly, and that will save some text real estate. However, there is a limitation with using these systems…

5. The only 3rd party URL shortening system you should trust for long-term use are… none of them. Have you ever tried getting support from the companies that run search engines, social media sites, or email programs (e.g., Google Calendar, Facebook, Twitter,  Outlook)? I challenge anyone to find a support number or customer service contact page for those services. Do you really want to trust a 3rd party URL shortening service with a QR code that requires it be readable 3 years from now? (side note: will we still be using QR codes in 2014?) Businesses get sold, go belly-up, or grow to a point where they do not respond in a nimble-like fashion to their customers. Another problem is that of URL shortening website changes that may break your link. That’s the problem: stability for your mission-critical initiatives. In fact I am surprised, for example, by how invested a business can be in their URL of http://an-infamous-social-media-site.com/your-irreplaceable-companyname-or-brandname. Ask Ars Technica how that went. The only way to trust a URL shortening service for the long-term is to install your own. You can still track QR codes with proper landing page setups or your own URL shortener.

The benefits of QR codes are many but the cost is high if deployed incorrectly. So test test test, and test again. Use different smartphones and see how your data comes up, and have a plan for the long and medium-term, not just the near future. Your company will look golden if used correctly. Good luck!