Scan our BestPrintBuy QR code for quick access to the best real estate marketing materials!

A Quick Response Code (QR Code) is a trademarked graphic image technology used to embed information… information which can be easily “decoded” with one of many available apps on today’s smartphones. Originally used by Toyota to track parts, it’s now used by individuals, companies and marketing gurus to open up a whole new conversation via smartphones.

The QR code is usually a square box with black box patterns, although there can be various versions (some are even artistically rendered and utilize the high-error correction technology to prevent data loss during the conversion to a more aesthetically pleasing version of the code). A QR code is similar to a bar code, but goes beyond bars, and creates a matrix. It can also include more than just numbers. It can include vcards, website URLs, text, phone numbers, coupon codes, video links, geo-location information and a myriad of other useful bits of data.

How Do I Use It/Where Can I Use It?

• Postcards – expand the reach of your postcards with QR codes to virtual tour URLs, embed geo-location information for particular properties, link to a detailed description of the property not suited for a postcard — all while keeping your postcard visually attractive and compelling enough to encourage them to use the QR codes
• Real Estate Business Cards – keep your card clean, while offering vcard options with QR code, direct people to your social networking pages/sites, link to your website, your online video presentations, your website’s “about” or “contact” page.  Scan our code to the right and see what we’re talking about.
• Advertisements – QR codes can offer coupons to local service businesses (if you have a relationship with them), it can quickly add an open house event to a calendar, it can encourage a visit to your website or your social pages — or can give them the ability to SMS you with a question, at the click of a button.
• Listing Brochures – Use the QR code graphic to direct clients to related YouTube videos, additional photos on external resources, to direct visitors to additional information about school districts, neighborhoods, local city government for a particular property and to direct them to your website
• YouTube Video or Web Based Video of a Listing – at the end of the video, add a QR code to immediately encourage viewers to see more information about the property they just saw — or send them to your contact page for more information
• Doorhangers – Put a QR code doorhangers for more information about a specific property (hang one on the door of the property itself too!)
• Yard Signs – Don’t miss the opportunity to reach people who see your sign in the yard and give them the information they really want — immediately!

How Do I Read One?

If you have a smart phone, you can read QR Codes using a number of QR scanner apps. Many of the apps are available for free. Red Laser is an app that works for Android, iPhone and Windows smartphones. There are a number of platform-specific app options as well (I prefer QR Droid because it is a lightweight app that offers many options, works well, and is free.)

How Do I Create One?

You can use some of the tools that are on your smartphone to create QR codes on the fly. QR Droid is an example. If you want to create the codes online, simply Google “how to create a QR code” and review the hundreds of options you have. Just be sure that you test the code before you use it on your printed materials (I’d even suggest you scan and test on three or four readers to make sure it’s universally sound.)

What Should I Avoid?

Be careful about using QR codes on your website — if it’s easier to embed the link in text, that’s the way to handle it. Remember to consider what’s easiest for the visitor (a click is easier than pulling out the phone, launching the scanner, capturing the QR and then launching the mobile site). And don’t ever use a QR code on the site that links back to the same site. It’s annoying and useless. QR codes should be a bridge to NEW content that can easily be enjoyed on a smartphone.

Make sure the information you link is mobile friendly. Using a QR code to link to content not optimized for mobile is counter-productive. If you are using a QR code in a stationary location, make sure it’s a locale that has good data coverage. (For example, if you use a QR code on a yard sign in an area without 3G or 4G, you are just going to frustrate your potential clients.)

Keep safety in mind. Don’t post a QR code on a billboard on the Interstate. Don’t encourage people to use QR codes while driving. (Yard sign codes, are fine, since the potential buyer is probably parked or standing in the yard to use it.)

Don’t use a QR code unless it is a “value added” situation. If it doesn’t improve your marketing, your interactivity, and the convenience of your potential client, don’t use it.

Why Should I Care?

The QR code helps to bridge the span between print marketing and online, interactive marketing tools. With the touch of a smartphone’s screen, your desired client can capture the information you want to share and with a second touch, they can save it to their own phone — or share it with others.

Today, the smartphone has become the primary form of personal communication — both for gathering information, sharing information and storing information. Once your data reaches a potential client’s phone and is saved — you are there to stay. That’s a nice way to reach your clients in a way that’s nearly effortless for them.

You can also track the effectiveness of your print campaigns by embedding analytics information into the code in some of the fancier QR code programs and services — so you know what’s working and what’s not working in your online marketing and your print marketing! It gives you the opportunity to tweak and track print campaigns in a way that was previously impossible.

When using QR codes, give your customers the information they seek, direct them to the tools you want them to have, and do it all while requiring minimal effort on their side. THAT is the value of the QR code approach.