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Staff Reporter
QR codes would be more effective if real estate agents adjusted their print advertising and broadband speeds were faster, a supplier of the technology has said.
“If you can get the same [broadband] speed that Telstra has got but a lot cheaper, then suddenly QR codes with mobile phones will be a lot more popular for those industries that are image and video-focused,” Agentpoint business development manager Ryan O’Grady told print industry magazine ProPrint this week.
The article, which focused on ways printers could tap into QR technology, said the real estate industry was getting on board.
“Agentpoint, a company that builds applications and websites, is a shareholder in a web app called Mohbe that allows real estate agents to have a dedicated mobile phone website for each of their property listings,” the article said. “This mobile site is viewable through any internet-enabled smartphone. Agents can put the QR codes on billboards advertising the property or in print ads.”
“So if you are looking at the paper and see a property you like and you want to see more, you can take a photo of the QR code and all the details of the property will come up on your phone,” Mr O’Grady told ProPrint.
Yet, with only 20 agents were using the Mohbe service, O’Grady said the challenge was getting real estate agents to adjust their print advertising and put the codes on their billboards.
“The other big issue in Australia, he says, is the low speed of mobile broadband. The National Broadband Network will change all that, he expects. More agents will take to the technology.”
QR codes are “a way to take a print piece and tie it to an online world,” Peter Brittliff, marketing manager for graphic communications and software solutions at Fuji Xerox, told the magazine.
“From a marketer’s perspective, it is very difficult to track a piece of print. Once you print it and it’s out into the big blue yonder, it is difficult to track where it has gone and who is reading it. But if I get someone to click on to a QR code and get them into an online world, I can track them, I can request further information, and I can start creating a conversation with my customers.”
The article said that anything can be turned into a QR code. “There are websites that can provide free codes. One of the most popular is QR Stuff (www.qrstuff.com). Cut and paste the text in and it will appear as a QR code, much like free services to shorten web addresses, such as TinyURL.”
Quentin Brown, owner of QR Codes Australia, told the magazine that printers didn’t need to know too much about the technology.
“QR codes are just a graphic so they print them like any other graphic,” he said.
But he had some words of warning. “If they don’t put their websites in correctly, they could fail. Printing them too small is another failure. You probably don’t want to go under one and a half inches because it’s hard to scan. Not having them in good quality could be another one. It’s very important that they have good contrast.”
He told ProPrint that, where possible, a QR code should take the viewer to a mobile site, not the standard website.
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