Thursday, 23 January 2014
Monday, 6 January 2014
5 Benefits of QR Codes for Small Business
5 Benefits of QR Codes for Small Business
Each year more and more people are using smartphones. Over half of all Americans now have smartphones with more people using these devices than land lines and other mobile devices. For marketers, the mobility of smartphones makes it possible to reach customers without any attachment to a specific location. QR codes play an important role in this process for many small businesses. Are you still skeptical about QR codes? The following list details five benefits of QR codes for small business that will convince you to give them a try. It is important not to get overwhelmed with all of these strategies. Pick one or two that are most relevant for your particular company and build from there.
Benefits of Using QR Codes
Build customer relationships
Many businesses struggle to get customers to complete surveys about products. If they receive a survey in a store, most people are just not interested in taking them home to fill out later. QR codes give customers the opportunity to participate while they finish at the cash register, wait in line, or seated at a table in a restaurant. Customers appreciate the convenience, and businesses appreciate the rapid turnaround time. Don’t forget to tell customers how you will use their feedback. People want to know that their comments will be taken seriously. Small businesses can also use QR codes to gather business reviews for online sites such as Yelp. Many companies choose to offer incentives such as special discounts or free items for people who write reviews.
Get free promotion
QR codes allow people to “like” and “follow” a business quickly and easily without having to search for it later. Consider creating codes that link directly to Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. QR codes also allow people to “pin” your products, blog posts, and other website links on Pinterest. Many small businesses create their own Pinterest accounts to post pictures of products and services and other relevant industry information. One of the key aspects to success on Pinterest is high quality images. All of the pictures of your own products and services that you post should be good enough that potential and existing customers will want to share them with others. The chances that your content will go viral increases when that content, such as videos, are high quality and shared appropriately on social media.
Boost website and blog traffic
It is always important to place QR codes, each with a clear goal and purpose, in convenient locations so people will take the time to visit your sites. Offering something of value for your customers will help drive the kind of traffic you desire. For example, a restaurant may put QR codes on their menus with nutritional information about the dishes.
Cater to a local audience
There isn’t a better method for advertising local promotions than directly in front of a business. QR codes cultivate relationships with customers and, in a sense, bring them to you. The codes get them talking about your company, and with enticing incentives, these customers are more likely to become repeat customers. Discovering a great new company and then getting an immediate deal for one of their products or services is a sure way to get a new customer to share the story with friends and family. Many small businesses also use QR codes for local event registration. Don’t let people walk away without giving them the opportunity to register or at least get more information about the event. Make a flyer or poster with content that is visually appealing, and consider offering an incentive when people sign up for the event.
Build an email subscription list
Every small business should give all potential and existing customers a simple method for signing up for a company email newsletter. Although there are a number of successful methods for building lists, many companies make use of QR codes for subscription sign up. Newsletters allow new customers to stay connected to and learn more about businesses. In turn, they allow companies to further customer relationships and increase the chances of gaining return customers.
Low cost
You can signup for services that you cannot track results with for free, or for as little as $19 a month you can track the success of each code you create.
About the author:
Kristen Gramigna is Chief Marketing Officer for BluePay, a credit card processing firm offering different types of credit card terminal options. She brings more than 15 years of experience in the bankcard industry in direct sales, sales management, and marketing to the company and also serves on its Board of Directors.
Cyber-attacks eclipsing terrorism as gravest domestic threat – FBI
Cyber-attacks eclipsing terrorism as gravest domestic threat – FBI
Counter-terrorism chiefs urge Congress to resist altering controversial surveillance programs except 'at the margins'
The threat of a major terrorist attack inside the United States is lower today than before 2001, three of the country’s most senior counter-terrorism officials testified on Thursday.
But the heads of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and National Counterterrorism Center urged Congress only to change controversial surveillance programs at the “margins".
A devastating, 9/11-style attack is “more likely now to be overseas than it is in the homeland”, Rand Beers, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told a Senate panel, “but that is not to say we should drop our guard in any way”.
Testifying for the first time since becoming FBI director in September, James Comey told the Senate homeland security and government affairs committee that cyber-attacks were likely to eclipse terrorism as a domestic danger over the next decade.
“That’s where the bad guys will go,” Comey said. “There are no safe neighborhoods. All of us are neighbors [online].”
Comey said the threat to online networks in the United States, to include business and government data, came from disparate actors with different motivations, from spies to “hacktivists”, which he likened to an “evil layer cake”.
Cyber-security concerns eclipsed those about terrorism in a hearing dedicated to updating the Senate on domestic threats. Beers and Comey urged Congress to pass new cyber-security legislation expanding government access to private-sector data, ostensibly to redress vulnerabilities in business and other non-governmental networks.
Senator Tom Coburn, the top Republican on the panel, sounded skeptical, arguing that private firms ought to have the opportunity to voluntarily comply before being compelled to turn over that data. But Coburn agreed with Beers that any such legislation ought to provide legal protections for companies compelled to disclose proprietary or customer data.
Beers said legislation ought to be “carefully crafted” to avoid “a total blanket liability protection”, which he said would potentially violate civil liberties.
Congress created similar protections for telecommunications and internet providers in 2008 when it expanded the government’s powers to spy on Americans’ foreign communications with non-individualized warrants.
Comey, Beers and NCTC director Matthew Olsen testified that al-Qaida’s ability to attack the US was diminished, but not eliminated. “The risk of a spectacular attack in the homeland is much smaller than it was before 2001,” Comey said.
But all three individuals said the threat of copycat attacks from self-radicalized individuals – so-called “lone wolves” – remained, and they said the agencies had difficulties in preventing them.
Self-radicalized terrorists do not necessarily “hit the trip wires”, Olsen said. Comey urged Americans to report what they considered suspicious activity: “Listen to that feeling in back of your neck.”
Even though the threat of a major domestic terrorist attack has receded, all three government officials warned Congress against rolling back the sweeping bulk surveillance authorities granted to intelligence and law enforcement agencies to prevent one.
Comey, who in 2004 resisted a warrantless surveillance effort that collected Americans’ email data, told the Senate panel he could accept changes around the “margins” of surveillance powers, but “don’t make changes at the expense of core capabilities”.
Beers, who will soon leave the Department of Homeland Security after five years, echoed intelligence officials who have resisted surveillance reforms beyond increased transparency to Congress.
“Make sure you are comfortable with the oversight,” Beers said, “but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
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