A Direct Marketers Guide to QR Codes

QR codes are popping up everywhere right now. In magazines, on billboards, even on the back of lorries. But what exactly are these 2D barcodes? And what do they mean for direct marketers like you?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll have seen these small squares filled with black and white pixels. We see them almost daily, but few people realise the huge potential they have. Especially with the growing popularity of smart phones.

QR Codes and Direct Marketing

Using a QR code reader on their phone, mobile users can scan these quick-response codes and access a wealth of information. If you’re looking for a way to breathe new life into your direct mail marketing strategies, this is definitely it.

Easily generated and included on your mail shots, QR codes are one of the best ways to bring your direct marketing methods into the 21^st century. They can make them interactive, add a whole new element, or even let your customers make a purchase.

Here we look at four ways quick-response codes can be used to boost your direct mail marketing:

1) Share Data

QR codes may be tiny, but they can contain huge amounts of data. Marketers can use slightly different symbols, which can all hold increasing amounts. Generally though, these codes contain more 4,000 characters (text including spaces) or 2,900 bytes.

You don’t have to be a computer genius to know that’s a lot.

This gives you a great deal of freedom with the information you embed within the code. Your direct mail QR code could contain anything from a map to your bricks-and-mortar store, to product information.

2) Enriched Experience

Your recipients are living in a world where technology is King. The humble letter is now seen as ‘old school’. By including a QR code on your mail shots, you can enrich their experience by integrating paper with online.

Use your code to add an interactive element by taking your customers to a specific landing page on your website. You could also use it to direct them to the product promoted in your mail shot.

This helps you achieve your goals right away. You can generate organic traffic, and send people to your website with minimal effort. Customers love to feel valued, and see their shopping experience made easy. QR codes and direct mail is one of the best ways to do this.

3) Boost Sales

As well as enriching your recipients’ shopping experience, a QR code can boost your sales. By embedding it on your flyer, postcard, or letter; you can create an instant opportunity for your customers to buy.

For example, if you send customers a brochure, catalogue, or printed advert; include a QR code by the products. This can be programmed to link users to the product on your ecommerce store. You could also use the code as a way of getting a discount on the product,

This will encourage an immediate purchase, rather than delaying it while they think it through.

4) Track Campaign Success

One of the biggest challenges faced by direct mail marketers is tracking the success of their campaigns. Unlike email marketing, it is impossible to see how many people opened your mail shots. Often, the only way you can track success is by seeing how many discount codes were redeemed.

By adding a QR code to your mail shot, you can easily and effectively track the success of your campaigns. You can generate real data about the number of people who scanned your code, and those who brought from you.

This is especially important for marketers, as how else can you track the success of individual campaigns?

Even in a technology-obsessed world, there is space for direct mail marketing. QR codes are just one of the ways you can integrate your marketing, and bring your offline campaigns bang up to date. They’re affordable, effective, and easy to use. A marketers dream come true.

How to Get Recipients to Open Your Direct Mail

Consider what your own actions are when you receive promotional mail through the post. The chances are you create three piles - an A-pile, with the things you’re interested in, a B-pile maybe the bills and magazines you want to keep, but don’t want immediately, and a C-pile, with things you’ll throw out without opening. The aim for marketers is to get your mail shot out of the last pile and into the 'A' pile so it gets opened.

Make sure your mail is addressed to someone

If a mail shot is personalised it is far more likely to get attention. Handwritten envelopes with a stamp on are the most successful way of getting the recipient to open it. Don't address the letter to the 'Home Owner' or 'Occupier'. Letters which are not addressed to anyone in particular are likely to end up in the bin. Don't use a typeface which tries to look like hand writing. They’re easy to spot, so they won’t help get your letters opened.

Vary the appearance of your future mailings

Variety is the key to the success of future mailings. Recipients who decide they are not interested in your mailings will bin any future correspondence which looks similar. Use different types of bespoke envelopes, window envelopes and plain envelopes to ensure your mailings have the best chance of being opened. Your prospects won’t anticipate your mailings and will be more likely to open them. Through varying your envelope design and type you are more likely to reach a wider audience.

Vary the mailing and keep testing

This is an important aspect of any marketing campaign. Separate your response rate for each class of envelope, what was printed on the printed envelopes, and what was visible on the window envelopes. It should become clear if the appearance of the mail shot has an effect on the success o f the campaign. Keep trying new things even when you have a successful campaign. You can build on those strategies which had yielded positive response rates. You can pick and choose which type of mailing you want to send to certain groups depending on whether or not they had previously responded or not. Hopefully, that way you will have a good response from both groups.

There is no easy way of ensuring the success of mass mailing campaigns. However, there are ways of generating the best results possible by following these few strategies.

Direct Mail: An Excellent Means of Sending Visitors to Your Website

There are many options to promote your website, such as email, radio, TV and billboards. Direct mail is an effective method which gets overlooked. Although it may not provide the cheapest option, direct mail can conveniently and effectively drive targeted traffic to your website. Presenting something to potential customers which is in printed format gives your website credibility.


With the use of printed envelopes, you can control exactly how your mail shot is presented. In contrast to email shots, which appear differently depending on the users email software You can either outsource the skills and equipment required to create a mail shot or do it yourself depending on your setup. You could use a print management company who will create and post your mail shot. Leaving you with just designing the actual content and envelope.


In order for your mail shot to be successful it will need to be well thought out and optimised. The first major hurdle is to get your mailing opened when it lands on the recipient's door mat. The design of your printed envelopes can play a huge role in the success of the campaign. Simply telling people about your website will only yield a few results, but you can do much better than this. The best response comes when there is a specific call to action directed at the recipient. This call to action will work best if recipients are sent to a specific landing page which contains the information which they were initially interested in. It can send potential customers to the exact offer you seek to promote. In this way you can track the effectiveness of the direct mail campaign.


It is advisable to create a short website URL which directs people to the relevant page and is easy to type into the address bar quickly. It's best to wait until major search engines have indexed a website before starting an offline campaign. This is for the simple reason that many people will type the URL into the search engine rather than the address bar. Personalizing your direct mail advertisement will also improve its results. At a minimum, address the recipient by name.


Another advantage of a specific, targeted offer is that it allows you to set a deadline. If there is only a week to take advantage of a special offer, recipients are more likely to take action straight away rather than putting your literature to one side. Take into consideration the time it takes to get the mailing printed and posted out. Give enough time on the offer for people who don't check their post straight away.


This type of promotion has already been used to successfully drive traffic to many different websites, so there is no reason why it shouldn't work for you. Start with planning the content of your mailing and consider the way it will be presented and the design of the bespoke envelopes. Depending upon the size of your marketing budget and the complexity of your offer, you may want to use a letter or opt for a postcard. Next, you can set up printing and delivery.

Email vs. Direct Mail Marketing - Which Should Your Business Be Undertaking

Using the best marketing channels for your business can really make a difference to your bottom line. With so many different options available you run the risk of ‘spamming’ you audience by sending them the same message 100’s of times.

So with direct mail and email marketing baring similarities, which method should your business be employing?

Why Use Email?

Email can be an effective way of sending out personalised messages quickly and easily to targeted individuals. Email provides a cheap and instant means of getting visitors to your website for very little cost.

It is advisable to use a 3rd party email marketing company to send your emails via if you have a hefty mailing list. You will then be able to sort your mailing list by certain criteria and send out emails to suit those individuals. By using a 3rd party provider you will prevent your work email from being black listed.

Direct Mail Marketing

Personalised direct mail can often be well received if it offers some kind of benefit to the recipient. Direct mail does require a greater financial investment than email marketing but can be effective if postcards and letters are personalised.

You can increase your open rate with the following tips. Choose printed envelopes or shaped postcards to add impact to your marketing campaign. Unlike email however, you can’t track what has been opened and ignored.

Could a Combination of the Two be the Answer

By following up your direct mail with an email you are ensuring you reach your prospects and your message will be reinforced. Using integrated marketing strategies have been proven to produce better results.

Businesses of all sizes can include free and paid for marketing techniques to help raise their brand awareness as well as promote their latest products. One particularly popular and effective marketing channel is social media which can be used to provide insight into your business and earn you credibility, whilst your offline marketing activities can help you to build your brand.

Despite advances in technology direct mail continues to be a popular and effective. To find which is most effective for your business it is worth trying out a few different methods of marketing.

Integrated Marketing: The Advantages for Small Companies

In the 21st century there are plenty of ways to promote your business such as television, radio and billboard advertisements. If you’re a small business owner with a small budget, these marketing strategies can seem out of reach. If cost is a concern, combining offline and online promotion can be a good way of creating the best results for your budget..

Combining an effective direct mail marketing strategy with your online campaigns is effective due to its simplicity. There are many online marketing strategies such as social media, guest blogging and article marketing which are free. Use direct mail to send relevant traffic to your website.

The design and appearance of flyers and brochures is important but with printed material at least you can control exactly how your advertisement appears to its recipients. If you mailing requires an envelope, make sure you use custom printed envelopes to entice the recipients to open them. A print management company can oversee the printing and distribution of your mailing campaign so that you don't have to. This also frees you up to spend more time on your online marketing campaigns.

Once you have grabbed your recipients’ attention, you need to call for a specific action. Direct mail marketing campaigns which are aimed to send traffic to a website should be linked to a specific landing page. Using a unique url to send traffic to will indicate the success of your marketing campaign as you will be able to monitor hits. You need to give people a reason to visit your website, simply giving them the details will not prompt them to take action.

Setting up accounts on the key social networking sites is free and easy. Maintaining these social media accounts with regular content and linking them with your marketing strategies is a good way to drive traffic to your site. Encourage people to visit these pages with incentives. Offers which are only available if they 'Like' or 'follow' you are a good way to grow your audience

Integrated marketing will enable you to show people different aspects of your business, upfront and behind the scenes. Personally addressing direct mail will increase your success rate.

Integrating paid and free marketing techniques will provide the results required on a small business budget. Postcards can provide an effective marketing solution for those with a tight direct mail marketing budget. The design of marketing material remains critical so shop around for a company who can provide you with the creativity and printing capabilities which you require, at a price which you can afford.

How Direct Mail Marketing Can Work For Your Company

When it comes to marketing your business and website, there are a number of options open to you. Direct mail has been proven to be effective for a vast array of different business types. This marketing approach can reach a diverse customer base quickly. It is good for driving targeted traffic to a website.

With technology moving on, many businesses have forgotten about this method of marketing. In many cases, social media and online marketing have taken the place of this marketing strategy. However, direct mail marketing enables you to add a personal touch which can go a long way to producing the results you require:

First Impressions are Important

First impressions count, so it is important that you make the most of this opportunity. To make your efforts count, you need to make sure your mail doesn't end up in the waste paper basket.

Printed envelopes can be an effective way to get your mail the attention it deserves. Make your direct mail marketing work through good design and print quality. What you need most of all is for people to read your mail and act on it in a positive way.

Design your envelopes and letterheads to incorporate your brand identity, that way, any mail is automatically linked to you. If you keep a consistent look and feel across your campaign, your business is seen as trustworthy and professional.

If you are struggling to reap rewards with letters, postcards are a great form of mail marketing. Your message should be short and to the point. As with any direct mail, the design should be consistent with your brand.

Personalising Your Marketing

Always maintain professionalism but add to it a personal touch. Make sure you address the recipient by name to increase your chances of success. To "The Occupier" is unlikely to yield a good success rate. Personally addressed mail is deemed to be more successful than something which could be for anyone.

Where possible, handwrite your envelopes. This is obviously dependent on the amount of letters and your time scale, but is a personal touch that is often appreciated. Using stamps also adds to the personal feel - it shows that you have gone to trouble to mail it, not just post through the door.

If you’re an ecommerce business, continue the personal touch with your goods when they are posted out. Send out a customised ‘thank you’ note. This unique touch can encourage people to make repeat purchases with you.