Hi Jim

I’d say there are some golden rules here, for anyone thinking about QR.

1) No matter what you do, add Google Analytics campaign tags to your URLs. Just pop your URL into https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/, add “qrcode” or whatever into the relevant variable, and then use that URL to generate your code.

This is a 100%, no question “you’re insane if you don’t do it” thing, in my opinion. You have absolutely zero chance of evaluating your QR effectiveness if you don’t do this. 

Also: you’ll then be able to follow these tags through and figure out which devices went the QR route and which didn’t.. and then can you please share the stats with the list :-)

2) Again, no matter what you do, provide alternatives for each potential link. By this I really mean “a url”, and preferably “a short url”. Go and buy a short domain and connect it to bit.ly or rebrandly.com. Both offer free URL shortners. We have https://www.aviation-experience.com/ as a client for example and they’re doing some on-gallery tours so we got them to buy avexp.co. 

If you’re geeky, go for https://yourls.org/ which you can self-host. This has both QR and Google Analytics integration options.

I would imagine (does anyone know?) that the inbuilt QR scanner on iPhones now might be making a difference to potential conversions?  

Final thing - nowadays you don’t even need a scanner app so if you’re clever you can point people to sites like https://webqr.com/ if you need.

Ultimately though, it’s all barriers to the content, so context is absolutely everything. QR (or NFC or …whatever) will most likely work in environments in which there is high value content or high geek-factor, but probably not with normal humans who still see them as magic.  

cheers

Mike


_____________

Mike Ellis

Thirty8 Digital: a small but perfectly formed digital agency
thirty8.co.uk


** Workshops, courses and free downloads: trainingdigital.co.uk **
** Marketing advice and interviews for museums: marketingformuseums.com **
On 22 Jan 2019, 10:02 +0000, Jim Richardson <[log in to unmask]>, wrote:
Hi All

A blast from the past for you all this morning. Remember QR codes?

I’ve an old article on MuseumNext which was written back in 2008 about QR Codes ( https://www.museumnext.com/insight/qr-codes-and-museums ) and because it ranks top for relevant search terms on Google it receives a few hundred visitors a week.

I’ve put a disclaimer at the top of this article to say, 'Just don’t use QR Codes' but think it probably deserves more of a rewrite if that many people are landing on the page looking for advice outlining the best alternatives in 2019.

So, what filled the QR shaped hole in your museum life? Did you move to just writing out URL’s. Is anyone using QR codes successfully and thinks I’m wrong to state that their day has come and gone.

As I say, lots of people seem to be searching for info on this and I’d love to offer an update which can point them in the right direction. Any advice appreciated.

All the best

Jim

-

MuseumNext
www.museumnext.com

CultureGeek
www.culturegeek.com


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