Printed messages break through the clutter and QR codes and digital marketing help to maintain and engage your customers.  It is because of this balance, cross media marketing has become such an extremely powerful tactic when trying to increase your reach and frequency.

Not only do QR codes offer a platform to expand the amount of time a person spends with your message, but they also allow you to easily track and measure your message’s performance and collect additional consumer information — How many people scanned the code, what links had the highest click through rate and how long were they engaged with your landing page?

By identifying the answers to these questions you can build a campaign in the future based on the popularity of the content clicked on in your previous campaign.  As you grow your database and send more personalized and targeted messages, your relationships with your customers increase and you’re ultimately able to secure more sales.

Digital media offers a high reach and frequency and can easily be tracked and measured, but with the increasing amount of these digital messages it is harder and harder to cut through the digital clutter and reach your audience.  Conversely, print messages cannot be as easily ignored.  You cannot simply delete them from your inbox or remove them from your screen.  Print messages must be handled – if even for a moment, the viewer is exposed to you message.  If the printed piece is well-designed and executed, it will gain the person’s attention.

By including QR codes on your printed materials, you’re reaping the benefits of both print and digital — your message breaks through the clutter and, with QR codes, your digital message is easily accessible and visited by your target audience — enabling you to reap the benefits that digital media has to offer.

Timothy Freeman
President
Print & Graphic Communications Association