QR (Quick Response) codes are basically 2-dimensional bar codes that can be decoded by smartphone apps to open whatever link you choose to encode. They’re those fuzzy looking one-inch square shaped symbols that are basically taking over flyers, business cards, and even billboards. Within just a few years, QR codes have gone from being relatively unknown in the United States, to becoming one of the most powerful bridges between the real world and the online one.
QR codes are a form of powerful new communication technology that can basically take any audience directly and easily to any online destination. QR codes are easy to generate with any number of free online tools and can be printed on to pretty much anything. As a matter of fact, a QR code’s potential is only limited by the creativity of those who create it. Just have a look at these fives innovative ways your law office can use QR codes in different aspects of offline business to drive online connections:
(1) QR Codes for your business cards.
Business cards are one of the most obvious opportunities for meaningful QR coding! For example, linking potential clients and business partners to a video introduction on your website is an easy but powerful way to start building a strong trust-based relationship while drawing traffic to your website. Using QR codes to link to your social media profiles is an infinitely better alternative to printing a URL and praying somebody will have the patience to type it out. QR codes on your business cards can also be valuable by offering instant convenience: they can link to your electronic business card to make it easier for clients to save your contact information or they can link to directions to your office.
(2) QR codes for your advertisements and promotional campaigns.
If you just remember a few basic, common sense guidelines, you’ll already place your firm way ahead of other firms that are trying to use QR codes for marketing: make sure the code is sized and placed appropriately – there’s no point in placing QR codes where people can’t scan them, make sure to test your QR code before rolling it out, and make sure the online content the QR code links to looks good on smartphone-sized screens and actually offers valuable content. Too many businesses link to redundant or irrelevant content when they should be offering exclusive multimedia, time-sensitive offers and invitations, free downloads or something else that makes it worth scanning that flyer or postcard. By offer enticing QR codes, you can roll out a marketing effort that’s both cost effective and easy to track with all kinds of analytics and metrics.
(3) QR codes for your recruiting.
One of the most innovative places to use QR codes is in your recruiting efforts – especially when it comes to attracting the relatively younger paralegals and interns who grew up with mobile technology. You can use QR codes in newspaper or magazine ads to provide additional information that cannot fit in most classifieds classifieds listings. You can give out business cards with QR codes specially targeting potential recruits rather than clients. Using QR codes at a career fair or college event will give interested prospects a way to instantly access useful information from your firm without having to wait in line. On top of adding efficiency and convenience to your recruiting efforts, QR codes help your firm stand out as a more innovative and technology-friendly business.
(4) QR codes for your office inventory!
Another innovative way of tapping into the powerful potential of QR codes is for internal business purposes. It takes no stretch of the imagination to see how QR codes present the perfect opportunity for tracking and classifying all kinds of things at your office. Plenty of creative, QR code based services are cropping up to offer unique solutions for everything from document filing to office inventory management. For example, one of the newest office inventory management systems, EZOfficeInventory, deploys QR codes for an innovative asset checkout and checkin mechanism that helps reduce the workload placed on administrators by distributing asset management across the entire staff.
(5) QR codes in your reception rooms.
That’s right – QR codes can help make your workplace more client-friendly. This is another one of those areas of opportunity that’s limited only by your own creativity. You can use QR codes for all sorts of functions: clients can check-in using a QR code based system and then be redirected to promotional content, clients can log in to your free-wifi by scanning a designated QR code, or they can be used to solicit positive reviews on any number of places like Facebook, Google Places, and Yelp.
Paul Colley is a personal injury attorney in Austin, Texas. Always interested in the newest technology, Mr. Colley enjoys using QR codes in his law practice.