17 Statistics on QR Code Marketing

Should you be adding QR codes to your marketing toolkit or is it all just hype? I wanted to know but most statistics I see are – ahem – slightly promotional (QR scans increased 2,340%!). Being a brand mechanic with a fondness for tools that work, I’ve been on the hunt for some real data and so I collected 17 stats on QR codes to share with you.

What is a QR Code?

Quick primer: QR stands for ‘quick response’ and it’s basically a new type of consumer-friendly bar code that offers faster decoding and higher storage of data. Think of it as a secret decoder ring you give your customers.

Usage of QR Codes:

• 58% of people say they aren’t familiar with QR codes. (Lab42 survey of 500 respondents, Aug., 2011)
• 64% don’t know what they’re for. (Simpson Carpenter survey of 794 online respondents, 2011)
• 28% of smartphone owners have used a mobile bar code scanning application like a QR code. (Mobile Commerce Daily, Jan., 2011)
• Overall, 11% have ever used QR codes (Simpson Carpenter survey of 794 online respondents, Sept. 2011)
• 6.2% of total mobile audience scanned a QR code in June (Comscore)
• 47% of people who did scan found them very useful, 20% said they don’t offer any real advantage and don’t plan on using them in the future. (Simpson Carpenter survey of 794 online respondents, Sept. 2011)
• The data on which gender uses them is mixed but usage clearly skews younger and high-income.

Barriers to QR Code Usage:

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Tool Time 2! 10 Great Free Internet Marketing Tools

In last week’s post – Tool Time: Getting The Right Internet Marketing Mix – I likened getting the optimal online mix to shopping at Home Depot and categorized 17 major  tactics into what they do so you don’t end up with a tool that looked cool but gathers dust.

One major type of tool I left off was measuring tools . So in this post I’ll share the 10 favourite internet marketing tools of this mechanic when it comes to measuring how we’re doing and if we’re on the level. In order… (more…)

Tool Time: Getting The Right Internet Marketing Mix

Picking the right mix for your internet marketing has become much more complex recently. Everything is so sexy and new – and there’s a lot of choices! Sort of like going to Home Depot. This post provides some easy guidelines for picking the right tool for the job.

Be careful when you go to Home Depot. From experience I know that too often you spend big money on something that looked cool and you thought for sure that you could use.  But six months later you’re looking underneath your workbench saying ‘Now, why did I buy that?’

Trying to pick the right internet marketing mix is just as dangerous. You’re just as likely (more…)

Movember Social Media Marketing Miss

12 month cycles are a proven way of planning your marketing campaigns but Don Draper and the other MadMen never had the opportunity we marketers do today to spin on a dime and react to god-given marketing opportunities. To promote the benefits of moving quickly, here’s one example of someone who could and shoulda.

I presented yesterday to Fanshawe College’s Public Relations & Corporate Communications course. (Great group: 80% are University of Western Ontario grads and some very sharp writers in the crowd. Hire them.) I was there to share with them how you can dig for insight to better manage and measure your brand using search engine marketing and social media listening tools.

We were digging down into search volume inspired Seasonality planning. In other words, boosting conversion by using the right set of words at the right time of year. It’s an intelligent way of building an Editorial Calendar for your marketing content.

However, the caution is to not to fall into the trap so many 12-month corporate planning cycles do. That is, not remaining nimble enough to be able to jump into great marketing opportunities when God sends them your way.

So I asked them what month it was. I only had to repeat the question once before the right answer came back: MOVEMBER!

Here’s the trend on searches for moustache using Google Insights for Search.

Beginning in 2004, we see this spike to slowly emerge every November until (more…)