Five reasons to use QR codes in hotel marketing

Quick response codes, or QR codes as they are more commonly known, have become a popular method of mobile marketing and are even giving the more traditional SMS communication a run for its money.

Sean Hart, clients services director at Ogilvy One gives five reasons why hoteliers should be incorporating QR codes into their strategy. 

 1. QR codes bridge the gap between offline and online media
They can easily be added to offline media: business cards, flyers, brochures, posters, billboards, and signs. You do not need to include your web address anymore, or a phone number and there is no risk that people may copy them down incorrectly. At the very moment when prospects are exposed to your message, they can scan the QR code and get connected to your offer, call to action or web site.

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2. QR codes enable sharing and building community
You can use an app called Likify to create QR codes that connect you with a Like button for your Facebook page. You can also create discounts that are specific to the QR code, and run them in advertisements or post them in a store, and turn them into re-tweets so that people share them with their followers. All this helps you build community.

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3. QR codes can be used for calls to action
You can link the codes to how-to videos, stories about a product, launching a web site, launching a pre-filled tweet, watching a trailer, audio commentaries. You can program the ode to deliver a text message with a promo code to get a discount or you can have ‘call us’ and ‘email us’ messages, where people scan the code and automatically call or email. You can also link the QR code to a landing page where people exchange their contact information for a treat, or a discount.

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4. QR codes contribute to your SEO and SMO
QR codes enhance both your search engine and social media optimization. You can increase traffic to those searchable objects to further optimize them by encouraging more sharing.

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5. The effectiveness of QR codes can be measured
The beauty of inbound marketing is that you can accurately assess the marketing cost of sales. Until now, with offline media like print or billboards, you were not able to measure this kind of effectiveness. With QR codes, you can measure results based on clicks and leads.