QR Codes have been highly utilized in the last two years in the United States. Some times, QR Codes have been used very well and sometimes QR Codes have been used VERY incorrectly. Those instances where QR Codes have been used incorrectly has discouraged some marketers (and consumers). You can read about the #1 Mistake Marketers Make Using QR Codes by clicking the previous link.
But this blog post is designed to help marketers avoid a critical and common error when using QR Code in their marketing. I have heard from many QR Code generator companies that a major complaint of their customers is the fact that people create a QR Code, send it to print and realize the QR Code links to an incorrect URL or content. Take the example below,
Have you ever created a QR Code using any number of QR Code generators? This QR Code could be used on a business card, in a newspaper ad or even on a brochure. You send your design to the printing company and a few days later you have the final product in your hands. In this example lets say you just added a QR Code to your business cards and you now have 2,500 shiny new business cards in your possession.
You are very excited about using this new technology in your everyday affairs and showing off how technologically advanced you are. So now you open your box of new business cards take out card #1 and your smart phone to take the QR Code for a quick test drive.
Very quickly you realize the URL the QR Code directs to is not the correct URL. Now your heart skips a beat, your stomach flutters and you realized you made a major error when creating the QR Code and you now have 2,500 useless business cards.
The moral of this story is CHECK YOUR WORK. In fact, you should even double or triple check your work using different smart phones. My shop teacher in High School, Mr. Hillegas used to say, “Measure twice, cut once” referring to measuring a piece of wood to cut. The same applies to QR Codes
In the example above of the business card mistake, it’s not a major fix because business cards are relatively cheap to produce. But lets say you put a QR Code on a billboard. That would not be a cheap fix. Or let’s say you made a mistake with a QR Code in a print ad, but didn’t realize it until the ad was already fresh off the press and at news stands. There is no way to fix this, you just have to deal with the fact that your QR Code is worthless and everyone who scans it knows it.
Again, my advice to you is: CHECK YOUR WORK BEFORE SENDING QR CODES TO PRINT!
