Why There’s a Direct Mail QR Code Explosion Happening Now

If you've looked at your mail recently, you may have noticed that much of the direct mail pieces (re: junk mail) you're getting have QR codes on them. You may be thinking, wow this is really catching on. Well, that may or may not be true. But, it's not the reason you're seeing so many of them. It's because the U.S. Post Office is basically paying advertisers to use them.

That's right, now through the end of August, the Post Office is giving bulk mailers a discount on the postal rate if they include a visible QR code on the piece. There are some rules. It does have to be relevant to the piece and not just some random link in order for the mailer to get the postal discount. It does seem that a lot of big direct mail marketers are taking advantage of it.

All this makes now a perfect time to test out its effectiveness with your own marketing. We have talked to our clients about whether or not to use QR codes for some time now. This presented a good opportunity for testing. For most of our clients, we used an "enter to win a prize" carrot to get customers to scan the code. Then, we sent them to the newsletter sign-up page on our client's site. Anyone who signed up for the eNewsletter during the time period of the promotion is eligible to win. That way, we could gather information on those who scanned in the code without having to spend money on creating a new landing page.

We also used a bit.ly code for the QR code and printed the non-bit.ly url below the QR code. That way we can track the number who went to the page using the QR code and how many typed in the url, giving us a good feel for how many understood or could use the QR code.

What about you? Have you or your clients taken advantage of this QR discount? And what has your experience with them been so far?

Mike McClure, ECD & QR-Curious