The folks over at SMS marketing provider Tatango have been busy lately. Not only have they produced some awesome infographics on smartphone usage, but the company is in the middle of “QR Code Week,” an entire week dedicated to producing resources and tools with the goal of helping marketers integrate QR codes into their SMS marketing campaigns.
To start things off, the company’s CEO, Derek Johnson, put together a video tutorial as part of its “Tatango University” series in which he explained how to integrate QR codes into SMS marketing campaigns. For example, allowing users to scan a barcode can automatically pre-populate an SMS message, which allows the user to simply click send to engage with the campaign. This is good news for the 40% of mobile users that carry smartphones, but for the other 60% that don’t, he explains the importance of also including a standard text-in call-to-action below the QR code.
On Tuesday, the company kept the momentum going by unveiling a new tool that’s become the first free QR code generator specifically made for SMS marketing. The new tool provides a super easy way to input a few lines of data such as your short code and keyword to produce beautiful QR codes that are not only easily integrated into your SMS campaigns, but also has the elements required by the MMA’s US Consumer Best Practices.
As an example of what’s possible by integrating QR codes and SMS marketing, the company detailed the unique implementation by a nightclub in Seattle called SeeSound Lounge. The venue created an SMS QR code and turned it into a 5×5 foot wall decal. Scanning the QR code automatically generates an SMS message to Tatango’s short code (68398) with the nightclub’s keyword “SOUND.”
Finally, the company also published a new free resource today called the Begineer’s Guide to QR Codes and SMS Marketing, a PDF document that answers many common questions about QR codes and how to best integrate them with SMS marketing; such as who scans QR codes, how to best integrate them with SMS, where to promote your SMS QR code, and best practices for using SMS and QR codes together.
Be sure and stay tuned to Tatango’s SMS Marketing Blog for the fifth and final day of QR Code week tomorrow.
