Merely a few years ago, QR codes seemed to exist "the next big thing." Shop windows, nutrient labels, band fliers, mag advertisements -- those distinct little black-and-white squares were everywhere, vying for our attending.

And while small business owners and marketers thought they'd hit the jackpot, the QR code trend didn't become as popular with consumers as some had predicted. A 2013 surveyfound only 21% of American smartphone owners say they've ever scanned a QR code, and simply 2% say they scan a QR lawmaking at to the lowest degree once per day.

You might recollect that, in an historic period when consumers tend to keep their smartphones shut by at all times, an application that connects the physical and digital worlds -- kind of like Instagram, FitBit, and thousands of other apps do -- would take flight.

But I'll be honest hither: I've never scanned a QR code in my entire life, and I'm pretty tech-savvy. I can't even recall watching a friend scan a QR code, either. But I realize I'thou a sample size of one, and I've heard people debate -- marketers especially -- that QR codes are still alive and well. I found myself thinking, could that even be possible?

Download our free guide here to learn how to create QR codes for yourself.

So I decided to await for success stories and data to run across whether I was ill-informed or QR codes actually are notwithstanding a affair. Though I could hardly find a information point that was less than two years sometime, I'll tell you what Ididdiscover, what I think it ways, and what marketers should do well-nigh it.

Are QR Codes Dead?

Like I said, this isn't an easy question to answer because of the limited data. Only the data I did find suggests that QR codes are not widely used.

For example, Inc's 2012 research found that 97% of consumers don't even know what a QR code is.Digital business analytics visitor comScore found that 6.two% of the total U.S. mobile audience scanned a QR code on their mobile device in 2011.

Since 2011, the number of mobile users has increased, specially amid the younger population, while QR codes seem to have maintained steady popularity and visibility. According to comScore's written report,the number of people who have scanned a QR code seems to have plateauedsince 2012:Equally the number of smartphone users continues to rise, the number of consumers scanning QR codes remains the same.

trend is out of style, or are some of them really seeing real success? After all, it's understandable that we're constantly looking for ways to bridge offline and online marketing in our net-driven world -- so to the states, links you can "click on" in real life are a godsend.

Data from MarketingCharts suggests that the average marketer's view on QR codes is "somewhat at odds with the consumer statistics. Whereas relatively few consumers say they're actively scanning QR codes, marketers are finding them to be quite an effective mobile marketing tactic." To be specific, of the marketers who responded to an Experian survey virtually the effectiveness of QR codes as a mobile marketing tactic, 29% of them rated QR codes very constructive, and another 66% effective.

So what does this information all hateful? Basically, QR codes appear to be working for that small, brackish population that knows how to employ them. While QR codes aren't "dying," they're certainly not thriving. The question is why, given how many consumers take smartphones present.

What Happened?

In that location are a number of reasons why QR codes might be going "out of style," but the most important is probably that they're oft misused. They're in subway stations where there's no WiFi, on TV commercials that have an air fourth dimension of a second or ii, and some of them lead to cleaved links or landing pages that aren'toptimized for mobile. In one case a consumer is disappointed past the mobile feel behind a QR code, she may never scan one again.

For those of you who utilise QR codes properly and offering slap-up mobile experiences behind them, this is probably very frustrating.Just fifty-fifty when QR codes are used properly by businesses, the bigger outcome is that the manyusers don't know how to utilize them properly. They take been poorly adopted in the United States and haven't actually broke out of the tech-savvy crowd. And although mobile devices incorporated a preloaded version of a QR code reader into their organization (Apple tree's is built into Passbook, non the camera itself),that isn't very widely known or used.It turns out that the activeness of taking out your phone, opening a QR code reader, holding the photographic camera from the app up to a QR code with steady hands, and pressing a button isn't super intuitive -- so you should probably adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

What's a Marketer To Do?

Marketers who believe QR codes are alive are already drinking inbound marketingKool-Help -- they're just trying to apply an offline channel to drive website visits. And then, what are other ways to bridge the online/offline gap and draw more people to your website?

1 applied solution is to lock down a short, memorable URL and requite people that URL. Consumers are becoming more than and more than familiar with their smartphones, and nowadays, typing a URL into a mobile browser is not a trouble for almost people. Just make sure that these URLs are short and that they incorporate a unique UTM tracking code then you can mensurate your success. (HubSpot customers: learn how to create a tracking URL for a landing page in HubSpot here.) And, also QR codes, at that place are other constructive means to attract people to your website, add y'all on Twitter, or buy your production -- y'all can click here for some ideas.

If QR codes are a part of your marketing strategy and you believe they bring you success, I suggest that yous run an A/B test or ii to approximate their effectiveness. For example, at your next effect, you could include a QR code on half of your programs, and a shortened, piece of cake-to-remember URL in the other half, both linking to the same page on your website. Put separate UTM tracking codes on the QR code link and shortened URL and so y'all tin can compare how many people visit from each, and voila -- you tin can see if your audition likes to apply QR codes. Simply because QR codes don't work for some companies doesn't mean they won't piece of work for you lot, and this type of testing is the but way to know if they work for your unique audition.

What practice you lot recollect? Are QR codes dying?

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Originally published Aug fourteen, 2014 8:00:00 AM, updated July 28 2017