Top tips for pubs on using QR codes
QR is short for quick response: someone scanning a code using a smartphone is automatically taken to a remote source of information. This can be a piece of text, a phone number or some contact details, but most often it’s to online content.
At their most basic level, pubs can use them to direct people to their web homepage, but the beauty of a QR code is that it can take users straight to a specific piece of online content.
You don’t have to spell out complicated web addresses that people have to scribble down or manually copy on to their phones, or explain to people that they have to go to your homepage, then click on this, that and the other to get them to where you want them to be.
Potential uses for QR codes
- The QR code could lead to video clips enabling users to ‘meet the team’ or to hear the manager talking through the beer range — something they wouldn’t have time to do on a one-to-one basis at the bar, but that could actually encourage dwell time and extra spend.
- QR codes could be deployed to direct users to special food offers, either to boost their spend during their visit or encourage a repeat one.
- Some code-generating sites offer options to have codes printed on T-shirts, mugs and badges, and you could also put them on beer mats, menus, napkins, food bills and pumpclips — just about anywhere with a printable flat surface.
Top tips
- Have a clear idea of what you’d like your QR code to achieve.
- Experiment with free codes. Make sure they work before going public and don’t sign up for premium schemes if you don’t need to.
- Be creative in the content you link to them. Make sure it is worthwhile and meaningful.
- Encourage customers to connect to your free Wi-Fi and help customers understand how to make QR codes work.
- Try to make them a way of building a lasting relationship with customers, rather than just a one-off website hit
Many pubs, pubcos, brewers, drinks brands and pub-related organisations have already hit on a variety of ways to make QR codes work for them.
Freedom Brewery puts them on its branded beer glasses to take drinkers straight to brewing details, tasting notes and food pairings.
QR code generation
There are a variety of different online code generators, eg:
- Kaywa
- QR Stuff
- Gogr.me
One thing to look out for is the option to create dynamic QR codes rather than static ones. A static code will only ever direct traffic to a single URL — a dynamic version gives you the flexibility to go back online at a later date to change the URL that the code points to.
QRs can be downloaded in a variety of file formats, and computer codes can be generated to embed them on to websites and blogs. Some sites also allow you to generate codes in different colours to match your own corporate palette.
Although the basic generation and management of codes is free, several providers also have paid-for upgrades that allow you to produce extra codes for different online content or access analytic data to assess how effective your QR codes are and which ones are generating the most interest.
