In Technology
Multi-channel marketing communications - all in one!
QR Codes at Dscoop
Posted by 
on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 
at 9:37 AM 
in It’s been about three days since we’ve returned home from the Dscoop convention in Dallas, Texas. Without a doubt, it was one of the best shows that interlinkONE has ever attended.
At Dscoop, we made it our mission to ensure that everyone there would be exposed to a QR Code.
Here are a few ways that QR Codes made their presence known at Dscoop 5:
Show Entrance
- As people walked into the convention center, there was a Floor Decal with a huge QR Code. If someone scanned the QR Code, they were directed to a video that gave them reasons to come to the interlinkONE booth. We have a little video of the decal here.
QR Code Floor Decal
Brochures
- We created an updated interlinkONE “Company & Product Overview” brochure. On nearly each page, people were presented with a unique QR Code. Some of the codes directed people to specific pages on our website; others went to videos.
For example, scanning the QR Code on the Software page in our booklet directed people to more information about our products on interlinkONE.com. If they scanned the QR Code on the page that talks about our online storefronts, people were directed to a YouTube video that actually demonstrates what our storefronts actually look and feel like to use.
Cookies
While the Dscoop staff certainly ensured that there was plenty of food available for the conference attendees, people could pick up free dessert at the interlinkONE booth. Yes, that’s right —- we had QR Code cookies. Here is a picture of the QR Code cookie:
QR Code Cookies
Here is a picture of our good friend Jim Olsen, from Great Reach Communications, helping to spread the word about QR Codes.
Clothing
- At the closing reception of Dscoop 5, we proudly wore QR Code t-shirts! Thank you to all the people that asked for permission to scan my (100% of pure muscle) chest.
QR Code T-Shirts from interlinkONE
Business Cards
- We handed out our latest QR Code Business Cards. On the front of the card, the QR Code presented our contact information. The back of the card had a QR Code that went directly to our corporate website.
QR Code Business Cards
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If you’d like to try to create your own QR Codes, and measure their success, you can do so easily at QReate & Track.
Tags QR Code Valentines
Perhaps you are stuck looking for a last-minute gift….. Or you want to stand out as unique….. Or, you’re trying to get the attention of someone that is addicted to their mobile phone.
If any of those things are true, we have a little application that may be able to help you:
Send them a QR Code Valentine message by simply visiting http://ilnk.me/QRlove
The Value of a QR Code
QR codes are appearing every where. While the two-dimensional bar codes have been popular in Japan and Europe for years, it’s taken the move towards smartphones in the U.S. to make them useful here. You can download a reader for just about any smartphone with a camera: when you take a photo of the QR code, your phone interprets the website address hidden in the pattern and takes you to it. That website can have anything on it: a coupon for the store you might be standing in, more information for an ad you passed by or something else entirely. A QR code can contain other information, as well, from phone numbers to an event. It depends on what the person who generated the QR code wants.
Creating Your Own QR Code
There are a wide variety of uses for QR codes. You can print them on just about anything: t-shirts, signs, postcards. If you can print an image on it, you can put a QR code on it. That means that you can direct attention to a piece of information in a variety of offline settings, without expecting passers-by to write down the details. And while creating a standard bar code can require some work, creating a QR code is just a matter of having a piece of information, such as a web address where you want to send visitors, in mind. With a QR code generator, such as the free tool at http://www.QReateandtrack.com, you just plug in your information and the code is spit out. You can download your code as a high quality file, ready to run off on your own printer or send off to a professional printer.
You’re not just limited to one QR code, either. If, for instance, you’re running two separate advertising campaigns with different deals, you can set up separate pages for each on your website. Using those separate pages, you can create two different QR codes — one for each advertising campaigns.
Determining the Success of a QR Code
It may be relatively easy to determine just how successful a QR code containing a website address is. It’s just a matter of checking the increase in traffic at your site. You can also check whether you conversions have increased — if viewers of the code have followed up in the way you want (like making a purchase). However, having hard numbers on how many people have scanned in your code can help you tweak your campaigns to improve the ROI. If you’ve created your code through http://www.QReateandtrack.com, you have the option of choosing a premium plan that will track how often your code is scanned. Such an approach can help you determine which codes are more effective, especially if you create separate codes for different locations. Tracking is also useful if you’re taking a broader approach to marketing with QR codes: locating a certain code could be the goal of a contest meant to give away a prize. Knowing how many times a code has been scanned could be crucial in such an approach.
Happy Scanning!
- John
Marketing Automation – Best Practices
The term “marketing automation” is a mouthful – but it’s one that is worth repeating. Using technology to build a marketing campaign and send out consistent, relevant messages in an efficient, cohesive manner is always a good thing! So if you’re a little tech-hesitant, don’t get scared off by the term. Because marketing automation is really all about making your marketing easier on you and more effective overall. In fact, there are several things that are really important when it comes to marketing automation:
1 – The gathering of data that can be used to target your audience in a relevant and valued way. Think about all the information that could be collected about your target market. And think about how much could be collected over a period of time. That kind of information is worth its weight in gold, don’t you think? To be able to see the habits of your audience, pre-determine their decisions based on historical data…it’s all a gold mine at your fingertips. Marketing automation software allows this data collection and analysis and it’s obvious how important this information is for your future marketing campaigns. Why shoot in the dark for leads when you don’t have to?
2 – The ability to build a multi-channel campaign that reaches the target market within the channel they are in and the media in which they use. Your audience resides in a vast universe. And not all of your prospects will respond to a message sent via a single channel. Imagine resting your marketing campaign on a banner ad. Okay, so the banner ad is on several highly visible sites that your audience frequents. And the banner ad is actually pretty cool and you’ve received great feedback when you’ve tested it. But not everyone clicks on banner ads. And many people may turn a blind eye to them after cruising the internet for too long. Multi-channel campaigns allow you to send a consistent marketing message across several channels. Email. Direct mail. Text messages. Larger campaigns that seemed unmanageable with your current manpower are within your grasp when you implement automated marketing software.
3 – The development of an information map for your audience. You can make it easy for your prospects to find the information they need by having a clear call to action and the ability to follow through. Landing pages, personalized URLs…when your call to action is combined with an offer, your prospects are induced to move, heading to the automated responses that you have set into place. And in fact, as they move forward and receive those automatic responses, your sales team is in the wings, waiting to work the warm and hot leads.
4 – The ability to score your leads. Not every lead is equal. Some people are ready to buy. Some need more time and information. Some are just looky-loos. And you don’t have the time or resources to waste on the leads that aren’t ready. So one of the best things about automated marketing software is the lead scoring capability, informing your sales team who is cold and who is hot!
5 – The measurement of campaigns. If you throw a marketing campaign out there you want to know what parts of it were a hit and what parts were a miss. Did the email message fall flat? Was the text message the best received? The more you can analyze, the better, because it will enable you to design and implement further campaigns that are even more successful.
Tools for Cycle Counting
Ah, the Cycle Count.
If you have ever worked in a warehouse that stored inventory, you are probably familiar with that term — as well as the hours that may go along with accomplishing that activity.
Cycle counts can prove very helpful when it comes to keeping inventory amounts accurate. They also contribute to a customer’s confidence level.
interlinkONE’s ilinkONE Version 8 software has solutions to help your warehouse team accomplish cycle counting.
It is integrated directly with our inventory management and online ordering features. Thus, you have access to whatever data you need in real-time.
An interlinkONE customer recently completed a major cycle count with our software. They reported that their customers were happy with the results, the counters were happy using the system to update the numbers, and the auditors commented favorably on the process and accuracy.
Also, by using interlinkONE’s cycle count tool, they cut the hours spent last year in half!
Here are a few screenshots from our Cycle Counting feature:
Cycle Counting: Control Panel
CycleCount: To Be Counted
If you have any questions about interlinkONE’s Warehouse Management software solutions, including Cycle Counting, Inventory Management, Pick Ticket & Packing Slips, Premium Restrictions, and more, please contact our team.
