Do you know anyone with a smartphone? Have you gotten one yet? Have you noticed a lot more people using them in the last few months? According to Nielsen, smartphones accounted for 28% of all mobile phones and predicted to outnumber standard mobile phones by the end of 2011.
Like it or not, the proliferation of smartphones is changing the way we interact. If you’re a nonprofit, this means the way that you interact with donors, volunteers, and other interested parties must change to account for this.
“Change” is a scary word, but don’t worry because you don’t have to abandon what you’re doing now and start from scratch. Believe it or not, there’s a free, simple tool you can plug into your existing marketing that will make it much easier for you to interact with smartphone users.
It’s called a QR Code and these square 2-dimensional barcodes can be read by smartphones with the appropriate free software. The smartphone converts the QR Code into a URL and brings the owner of the phone to a corresponding website. In June, 14 million people scanned a QR code.
Certain smart nonprofits have already started incorporating QR Codes in their marketing. This post from Blackbaud shares some inspiring examples of how several nonprofits with diverse backgrounds have included QR Codes in their marketing campaigns.
This video shows how NYC Parks & Recreation used QR Codes to engage a younger, more wired audience.
Are you ready to get started using QR Codes? You can start experimenting today! You can use one of the many Do’s and Don’t’s of using QR Codes in Marketing.
How have you seen examples of QR Codes incorporated in nonprofit marketing? Please share your comments below.
About Blase Ciabaton: Blase has helped nonprofits launch successful direct mail fundraising campaigns every day for the last 7 years. In 2009, he launched the blog, www.TheDirectMailMan.com. It caters to the nonprofit community and tackles issues related to postage permits, mailing lists, returned mail, and donor conversion. If you found this post valuable you may want to follow @TheDMailMan on Twitter, sign up for his weekly e-newsletter or subscribe to his blog’s RSS feed.
