These days, 21% of smartphone owners say they’ve scanned a QR code, with 2% saying they scan QR codes at least once a day.With the Right Demographic, a Potential Boon

Businesses with a significant demographic skewed toward “hipper,” generally younger tech users—people who like to stay on the edge of what’s happening digitally—should take a serious look at QR-code marketing. Most of us have come across a QR (quick reach) code in our travels. It’s that framed square of hieroglyphic-like symbols that we flip to in a magazine, which triggers our smartphones to reveal a company website when scanned. Or it’s on that advertisement we see at an airport or train station that, when scanned, conjures up an electronic coupon on our tablets that can be used at a coffee shop, often only steps away.

How effective are your advertising and media campaigns? More important, how are you measuring your return on investment (ROI)? When marketing pros speak of “tracking media,” they’re really referring to tracking promotion, which—along with product, price and place—is one of the four P’s of marketing.

Despite intense competition from social media heavyweights, such as Facebook and Twitter, e-mail remains a formidable marketing stalwart, according to a new study released in May by Market Tools (www.markettools.com). The researchers found that e-mail use was actually up among 45% of the 1,268 professionals and students over 18 who were interviewed for the study. And only a few—4%—said that their use of e-mail had decreased over the 12-month period included in the study.

Businesses that rely heavily on web marketing are in for a rude awakening in the coming year. That’s when privacy advocates will begin crippling the ability to easily track visitor activity on a company’s own website as well as across the Internet. In practice, the backlash against visitor tracking—commonly known as “Do Not Track”—is expected to make it tougher for a company to monitor which visitors are using its website and how they are using it.
Marketers looking to get a handle on social media as a promotional tool have found an easy solution: Integrate the medium into existing e-mail marketing programs. The pioneers of this method say that a little creative contact with current and potential customers on social networks, such as Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, can add new muscle to tried-and-true e-mail.
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