Following on from Your QR Code Works. What Next? – Part 1, we illustrate a few more best practices of QR code based CTAs (Call To Actions):
INTRASOFT. The ad offers download of the company’s financial results by scanning the accompanying QR code. Since financial results are bulky, we presume that the ad chose to employ a high density QR code – technically called Version 15 (77 x 77), size 1.25” x 1.25”) – instead of the standard low density one – Version 5 (37 x 37), size .75” x 75” – that we normally recommend. In the past, this has proved to be a problem since high-density QR codes could only be scanned on high-end smartphones. However, a recently published QR code reader app called Barcode scanner from TACOTY CN manages to scan such QR codes even on entry-level smartphones. Therefore, we were able to scan the QR code and download the financial results to our smartphone.
RELIANCE. Scanning the QR code takes the reader directly to the microsite for the advertised offering “Reliance Business Services: Makes It Easy” – and not to the home page of the company’s website, which is bound to be very crowded considering that Reliance is one of the largest companies in India and has scores of offerings.
VIDEOCON. Appearing at the bottom of a full page print ad for Direct-to-Home TV service, this QR code takes readers to a mobile-optimized lead capture screen. It’s a simple, straight-forward use of QR code – and a very effective one, we reckon.
WSJ. The Wall Street Journal uses a QR code on its masthead to entice one-off readers – like me – to “Subscribe Today”. This is another great example of the type of smart responses enabled by our QR360. The landing page presents different plans in an easy-to-read manner. However, the form on the right of the landing page is simply too long for a phone screen (click here to see it). We won’t be surprised if WSJ faces a huge shopping cart abandonment problem at this step. WSJ can bolster conversion by simply collecting the visitor’s name and email address at this stage, by using our EMAIL360 website leadgen app or an equivalent technology. It could then gather the remaining details (including postal address) by continuing the conversation on a PC. This is called “Progressive Profiling”, whereby only the information necessary and convenient at a particular stage of the customer journey is extracted at that point, with the rest of the information collected as and when it comes necessary or more convenient to do so. We admit that this involves a channel hop – from mobile to PC – and could lead to abandonment by itself. That’s why we would be careful about recommending such an “omnichannel journey” under most circumstances. However, in this specific situation, physical delivery of the product is involved. WSJ needs to obtain the subscriber’s postal address. The only choice WSJ has in the matter is, whether to get that info from a smartphone virtual keyboard or a fullsize PC keyboard. Instead of selecting one of the options arbitrarily – or on the basis of HiPPO i.e. HIghest Paid Person’s Opinion – we recommend online A/B testing to test both options, one where the smartphone screen shows the full form as at present and another where only a 2-field form like EMAIL360 is displayed. WSJ could then compare conversions from both screens and decide which option works best. If it wishes to seek professional help in designing and conducting this test, it could turn to Optimizely or some other cloud-based providers of A/B testing solutions (Disclosure: We’re an Optimizely reseller).
In a future post, we shall summarize the essence of QR code best practices drawn from these specific illustrations. Watch this space!