Page 51 - Print21 Magazine May-June 2021

Marketing
How a consequence of the pandemic
will help grow your printing business
Marketing guru Malcolm Auld says printers should grab this opportunity now because the marketing partner that is first mover in this space will own the QR code production role for a long time.
The digital marketing world is littered with more failures than successes. More often than not, the latest shiny widget hailed
as the new-new-thing in digital marketing superiority dies a rapid death and is soon forgotten as the next new-new-thing takes its place – Google glasses being an example.
And so it was with QR codes. Relegated to the digital dustbin, they had a short life, mainly due
to the hassle of downloading an
app for scanning the code. Not all apps scanned all codes. Some were proprietary to certain code types – for example those used by magazine publishers to link you to more of the story on a website.
Sometimes they just didn’t scan easily, and not all phones worked
with the apps as the phones weren’t so smart back in the day – the mid- 90s to early 2000s. So inevitably, frustration and impatience eventually killed off the humble QR code.
But then along came a global pandemic. Who would have thought, hey?
Now, thanks to smartphones and contact tracing, QR codes are ubiquitous in our lives. Every retail store, cinema, theatre, restaurant et al, requires the humble punter to scan the QR code upon entry. We cannot live in society without QR codes. And therein lies the opportunity for the print industry.
Everywhere you look there are
QR codes. Publishers, religious organisations, real estate agents, retailers, packaged goods manufacturers and more have jumped at the opportunity to use QR codes as a response device – also known as an engagement device – for those limited to marketing in digital channels.
What is the opportunity?
Ironically, in a digital world, QR codes are helping to lead an already resurging interest in direct mail – the codes appear on the envelope, letters and brochures as the response device that takes you to customised landing pages – a seamless, measurable link between the real and the virtual worlds.
And this is the opportunity for printers – to not just print the codes on every job they do, but to design and develop the landing pages that accompany the codes. When you manage the landing page, you have access to the analytics of who uses the QR code to visit the site.
You can then create follow-up messages – via mail, email, or SMS – depending upon the data collected. You are more involved with campaign performance, not just a supplier of the printed product. And a QR code can link to a landing page, website, open an app or take the consumer
to a shopping cart. The options
are broad and genuinely useful to marketers.
The smartest B2B marketers know direct mail is by far the best-performing media channel to generate hot leads – it always beats LinkedIn, email and online
QR code: major opportunity
advertising hands-down. Until QR codes, direct mail linked to Purls (Personalised Urls). As a consumer, you had to enter the Purl into your keyboard. But who wants to type when it’s much easier and faster to scan and link to the Purl on your phone?
As the printer, you need to have special software to print the Purls from the variable data supplied by your client. I understand it’s much easier to print QR codes.
You don’t have to chase the top end of town for the work. This Easter, my neighbours and I received a mailing from the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The QR code is printed on both the
letter and the brochure – linking
to a landing page with much more information and video content.
My local Mayor uses QR codes in his letter to constituents. And I’ve used them in a mailing to promote an event about how to use direct mail – including how to use QR codes in your mailing, if you get my drift?
So grab this opportunity now, because the marketing partner that is first mover in this space will own the QR code production role for a long time. 21
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