QR Codes

What is a QR code?

Mobile tagging is the process of using a printed code to deliver data to a mobile device.  A Quick Response – or QR code – is currently the most popular and widely used mobile tagging code as it is the easiest type of code to create, produce, and read.   A QR code basically a two-dimensional barcode that can be read by a smart phone equipped with a camera.

What can it do for my firm?

Though originally created for inventory tracking, QR codes are gaining popularity for their ability to make printed materials interactive with dynamic online content.  With one scan, your client or potential client can download your contact information, research more about your firm online, and connect and interact with your brand whenever and wherever he chooses.   

QR codes can be used to do any one of the following things: 

• Launch the phone’s web browser to a specific URL
• Push out a calendar event that can be saved to the phone’s calendar
• Push out contact information that can be saved to the phone
• Push out an email address that can kick-start communication
• Launch an SMS (text) message that can be sent to Twitter, Facebook, or contacts

How are law firms using QR codes?

QR codes allow you to connect.  They can be personalized.  They are viral.  They can turn passive readers into interacting potential clients.  And, perhaps the most significant benefit of QR codes is that most can be tracked.

Below are the top ten ways law firms incorporate QR codes in their marketing:

1. Business Cards – Use the QR code to link the reader to your contact information, to your online bio page, or to your blog.
2. Stationery/ Marketing Materials/Firm Brochures – Create a QR code that links to the “News & Events” section of your website to allow clients, potential clients, and colleagues to keep up on your firm’s recent wins.  Or, link to your website’s About Us, Attorney Listing, or Practice Areas page to cross-sell all your services.
3. Announcements – Add a QR code to link these to your online announcement for additional information regarding the announcement (e.g., a new partner, a new practice area, a recent win, your firm move, or whatever you are heralding!)
4. Invitations – Make invitations to seminars, parties, meetings, networking events and more interactive by creating an event code that can be saved right to the phone’s calendar.
5. Invoices – Reinforce the firm’s commitment to the environment by linking invoice QR codes to web pages that provide information on how to set-up electronic billing or payment.
6. Website/Attorney Bio Pages – QR codes can be read right from computer screens, so be sure to include QR codes on pages listing the firm’s general contact information as well as specific attorneys’ contact information, on bio pages, and on Contact Us pages. 
7. Social Networking – Include your contact QR code in all your social networking – blogs, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.  You can even create QR codes that will provide the reader with a pre-written post/tweet about your firm or a specific firm event.
8. RFP Responses – Embed QR codes in proposals to direct potential clients to your website for more information, such as attorney’s bios, additional practice areas, or recent applicable news headlines.
9. Recruiting – Bolster your firm’s recruitment efforts by including QR codes on recruiting materials to attract the more technologically savvy pool of potential hires.
10.  Seminar Name Tags – Enhance networking by including a QR code on all participants’ name tags. 

For more on QR codes – what they are, how they are used and production guidelines – call your Account Manager today at 800.222.0510 or visit www.aslegal.com/qr.