Why QR Codes Didn’t Revolutionize Commercial Property Marketing

A few years ago, people were touting QR codes—those crazy, speckled black and white squares—as the greatest thing since email. You couldn’t read a magazine or pass a bus stop without seeing one, and brokers quickly employed them in every phase of commercial property marketing.

Cool, yes.
Revolutionary, not so much.

Well, now it’s 2014, and the QR code has become Questionably Relevant.

Turns out, scanning a code to get to a webpage wasn’t a revolution in commercial property marketing. In fact, in most cases it was just a plain old waste of time.

Quite Remarkable

QR codes do one thing well—they translate a printed image into instructions a smart phone understands.

If you have something printed—a business card, a city bench or a commercial real estate flyer—and you want to steer readers to a certain web address, a QR code isn’t a bad way to do it. As long as the reader has a QR reader on his phone or tablet, he can go straight to your webpage without typing in the URL. It doesn’t always work smoothly, but it’s still pretty cool.

Nothing wrong with a QR code,
as long as it’s not hiding information

Quashing Readership

So in commercial property marketing, it makes some sense to put a QR code on a business card, or the hard copy of a flyer. Someone with a QR reader then has a quick way to store contact information on his phone, or to retrieve a flyer online.

But a QR code is just a tool, not a tactic.

Just because you can encode a ton of commercial property marketing information in a QR code doesn’t mean you should. We see brokers committing two grave errors with QR codes:

1. Hiding critical information in the code that doesn’t appear on the flyer, so readers have to go online to get it.
2. Embedding meaningless details in the code, teasing readers with the promise of valuable information online.

80% of smartphone users
won’t get this message

Either tactic can be explained as “driving web traffic” or “gathering analytics,” but all you’re doing is wasting people’s time. Why on earth would you make it harder for a potential client to see important information? How can you justify sending a prospect on an Easter egg hunt for information she doesn’t really need?

Plus, less than 20% of smart phone users have ever scanned a QR code. Maybe you just don’t care about the other 80% getting your message?

Quintessentially Redundant

QR codes make sense in some print situations, but why do businesses use them online? To guide someone from a desktop computer to a mobile device?

They’re already on your website. Talk about redundant!

Besides, there’s just no reason to use a QR code when you can simply use a link. Unlike a QR code, a link:

Remember these?

1. Displays useful information—or a meaningful image—instead of hiding it.
2. Doesn’t require a special app to read.
3. Takes just seconds to create, without special coding, and
4. Doesn’t look like those composition notebooks you hated in fifth grade.

QR codes have their place in commercial property marketing, but brokers should resist the urge to employ them just because they’re the latest gimmick. Keep it Simple, Stupid—and never make it harder for people to view vital information.

Within a year or two, we predict QR codes will be Quaintly Retro.

via:http://www.brokersavant.com/qr-codes-didnt-revolutionized-commercial-property-marketing/