Get Your Scan On: How to Introduce Cannabis QR Codes to Boost Your Customer Experience

[ good afternoon if you're joining us from the east coast really excited about today's webinar it is a tool that everyone should be familiar with and or using by this point um i feel like qr codes are somewhat underrated a lot of value can be assessed from this platform so today we're going to be sharing a lot of the experiences surrounding qr code skin and how to introduce qr codes to boost your customer experience share info about your products your store and even more so on our agenda for today what we will be covering is what you need to do in order to create unique qr codes why adding cannabis qr codes to your marketing can actually boost your sales and where you can include cannabis qr codes to maximize visibility and how to track your codes to ensure that they're working as well as getting the most value from them quick introduction on myself i will be your host for today my name is eduardo silva i bring 18 years of sales and marketing experience and i'm super excited about being part of this industry foot traffic is a digital advertising agency solely focused in the cannabis space for over five years now so we're really really excited to be partnering with a lot of the brands in this space to help them get in front of their customers and find new customers so let's get ourselves ready for today's webinar real quick housekeeping items here we absolutely love those cell phones as a matter of fact they're integral to the topic we're going to be discussing today however for the following 28 minutes since we are going to be running through a lot of content if you have joined us in a previous webinar we always ask you to put those phones face down and or just silence them for the next 28 minutes so that we can get the most out of the content our team has curated for you here today in addition do take a moment to familiarize yourself with the q a button in the zoom interface you should find that in the bottom of the screen and then finally and most importantly do stick around till the end we do have a special offer for those attending the webinar today and really excited to share that with you at the end of the webinar let's jump right into it we have all seen qr codes before and maybe you have even scanned a few in your life but do you really know what they are and why they have become so popular the q and the r in the qr code is short for quick response these scannable codes were introduced believe it or not in 1994 and they were initially designed to be used by the japanese in their auto manufacturing facilities they encode data so that it can be read by a scanner now you are familiar with the upc or universal product code those are those barcodes on products that provide information regarding pricing and inventory well qr codes work very similarly but they can actually store a lot more information and be read more quickly than the average upc think about it upc's are just a bunch of lines that represent a specific number sequence whereas qr codes feature a pixel pattern that can represent a wide variety of data now thanks to smartphones we all have qr code reader on us almost all of the time which makes using qr codes an effective way to share information or website links with your customers this means that while upcs are relegated to retail qr codes have gone mainstream so how do you get started with these codes well to make your own qr code you need to use a generator there are both free and paid qr code generators available however if you want tracking you should probably opt for a paid option being able to track the effectiveness of your qr codes is key to making them even better so it's worth that extra expense if you are worried that your qr code is just going to be another boring black and white box well don't be worried about that because qr codes are customizable they don't just have to be square and or black and white you can actually change their shape your logo can be attached to it and you can also inject your own brand colors so that they you know are better matched for your marketing material so before signing up for a generator you will also want to know what you want to actually happen when someone scans that code do you want to send the individual customer to a particular landing page or an app store most generators will let you choose the type of action your qr code will put into motion but to be on the safe side have a plan first the last consideration before choosing a generator is whether you want a static code or a dynamic code a static code can't be edited once you've created it that's it it's out in the wild a dynamic code on the other hand can be edited after the fact so let's say that you change your mind on the landing page you want to send people to halfway through your campaign if you have a static code you can't do anything about that but if you have a dynamic code you can edit the code so that it goes to a new page the code on your flyers or postcards won't change but what happens when it is scanned can change once you know what you want in your code generator you can pick the one that it best meets your needs and start creating pretty simple so far right so why go through all this trouble qr codes allow people to quickly go to your website without without having to remember your url plus they're trackable so you can actually see the effectiveness of different marketing campaigns qr code use continues to increase year over year as well with 11 million u.s households projected to have scanned one of these qr codes in 2020 that's 45 of those scans are believed to be from millennials which is a popular target audience within our cannabis industry now that projection was made before the coronavirus even existed more companies have begun using qr codes since the beginning of pandemic so we can reasonably expect that more people are scanning codes than previously expected qr codes can be used in store to easily provide information you can share product information event information loyalty enrollment information basically whatever you might want to share with your customers because they can scan these codes on their own devices they can easily access that information elsewhere as well plus for dispensaries and states still seeing covet increases this provides a safe no touch way for people to interact with your product displays pay you and much much more when thinking about whether to use qr codes and where to place them just ask yourself is this going to make my customers life easier if the answer is yes great include a code if it's no then you will want to go to the drawing board to think about how you best provide the information in a format that works for that customer now that we know what they are how to make them and why you should start using qr code why don't we start talking about where you can put them first up direct mailers when you get a mailer from a brand you're interested in what do you do you save it right maybe you tack it on your fridge with the magnet so you can remember to use that coupon or maybe you set it on your desk so you can go to their website when you have the free moment 73 percent of american consumers say they prefer being contacted by brands via direct mailer because they can read it whenever they want it that's a huge percentage of your customers and what they're saying is clear direct mail is convenient great so people like receiving mailers from particular brands that doesn't mean they act on them correct well thankfully when run correctly a direct mailer campaign can have a response rate of around nine percent add some strategic targeting and your response rate could even be higher than that as long as you create a targeted campaign that reaches your ideal customer you can stay top of mind with your customers and create further brand recognition plus because most cannabis dispensaries aren't doing this you will stand out from your competitors a qr code on a direct mailer makes it easy for you to track the effectiveness of your campaign and it makes it simple for the recipients to visit whatever site you want to send them to whether that's your menu your new delivery page or your loyalty program you can even share a coupon via a qr code or if you have a app you can send them to the app store to download it this is something we can actually do for you so if you are interested just go ahead and schedule a call with us foot traffic dot me forward slash call awesome we'll put that on uh on the chat window here for you as well so you can go ahead and just get scheduling i've mentioned product displays already so let's dive a little deeper on that dispensaries provide customers with a unique shopping experience it's actually pretty similar to shopping for jewelry in most places everything's behind glass or out of reach of the consumer in order to comply with state or provincial regulations this means that people can't just pick up a product and read the information on the back of it so how else can they discover the terpene content or read about the actual brand specifics qr code provides dispensaries with a safe compliant way to offer customers the information they want about that product by creating in-store product displays that feature a qr code you can better help customers identify the products that will help them meet their goals now you probably won't want to do this for every product you carry because that would be really time consuming and possibly inefficient however you can focus on product types particular vendors and certain items that you are currently promoting so let's say that you choose to focus on a specific product type you can have a pre-row qr code that takes people to a landing page that provides information about pre-rolls in general and then links to your live menu to show which items are in stock this can be especially beneficial for medical dispensaries that need to share information regarding different consumption methods like tinctures and capsules a lot of people aren't familiar with cannabis in these formats so providing additional information about how to use a cannabis tincture or how many cannabis capsules to take would be very very helpful if you have your products displayed by vendors your qr code can go to that specific brand's page on your website to share what sets them apart from different types of products they offer this can be really great if you carry your own brand of products and want to further highlight their benefits for example we have a client that runs dispensary and cultivates their own brand of flour they are invested tons into proprietary cultivation method and do a lot to ensure that their brand and bud is top-notch they can share more information about how their fl flower is grown and why their product are exceptional by setting up a branded product display with a qr code to get growing to get their growing page and product offerings top of mind to maximize the use of your qr codes you can make ipads or other devices available for customers to use though again they will have their phones on them and be able to scan on there too and if you have noticed in recent updates for just about every smartphone out there a simple camera function now can scan a qr code so it is more available than ever waiting areas are also a great spot for qr codes people are essentially looking to kill time while they're waiting and if you have a strong call to action they may choose to scan your code and read your messaging if you check the waiting area of any dispensary most people are on their phones this is a great opportunity to engage with them a simple table tent with a qr code linked to your menu will allow customers to browse and shop while they wait it can also encourage people to sign up for your loyalty program before they get up to your sales counter if you had product information out or other items that people could touch before covid and have removed them for safety reasons you can use qr codes to share that information in a different format for example instead of having copies of your menu out or even ipads with your menu on them that you have to constantly clean you can actually have table tents that simply read check out our live menu now followed by a qr code now this one is a must if you can only implement one idea from this webinar then this is the one that you're going to take away with you start putting qr codes on all of your flyers or postcards if you are dropping a flyer for an event into customers bag then they need to have a qr code this will make it easy for people to sign up for your event or add your event to their calendar so they get reminded about it but don't stop there if you want to further advertise your loyalty program make sure you have flyers or postcards made up with qr codes that leads to your loyalty sign up share the benefits of your program and let people know why they need to sign up are you doing any giveaways or other promotions take the guesswork out of entering for your customer giveaways by implementing a qr code for them to scan that will take them right to the page on your website so they can enter this last one i'm going to mention is crucial because it's going to help you get even more customers i've noted it in previous webinars several times that you need to be asking everyone for reviews here's one easy way to get more reviews in addition to having your bud tenders ask everyone you can include a postcard in your bags with a qr code that goes directly to your review page you can start increasing your rating with this and that social that is actually social proof which will directly impact two things the first your google ranking that's right google looks at your reviews and they take them into account for local searchers if you want to show up higher you need to make reviews a crucial part of your seo the second impact is your reviews right overall which are going to have a impact and potential customers people read these reviews they want to know what a business is like before stopping by having new positive reviews popping up regularly is going to help you you convert curious people into actual customers seriously you want to get this implemented as soon as possible we already seen more medical stages go recreational if you want to maintain your market share or even increase it you need to keep setting yourself apart and reputation management is an important part of that i love to talk to you about this in greater detail so please once again feel free to schedule a call with me by following the link that we just provided for you here let's talk about brochures if you have brochures in your store especially ones that talk about product types medical cannabis use or specific qualifying conditions the use of qr codes can help you provide even more relevant information to your customers we know that the burden of educating cannabis consumers falls on the dispensaries there's too much bad information out there and if you want your consumers to have access to relevant fact-based information then oftentimes you have to provide it yourself this is certainly the case with medical cannabis in many places doctors can make a recommendation that a patient try medical cannabis but they can't tell them what to use or how much to dose this is a big problem for the normalization of cannabis medicine and let's be honest a lot of people that take advantage of the legalization of a don't use cannabis do so to self-medicate maybe they're trying to conquer pain dial down their anxiety or just get better sleep whatever the case they can benefit from quality information too so that they find the right product to meet their goals so if you have a brochure about using cannabis for pain you can link your qr code to a roundup of some of the strains or products recommendations so interested customers can easily buy them from you if you have a table at an event like mj bizcon or even a local event a qr code on a promotional material can make it easy to share more information with event attendees the last event we were able to attend before covent we set up a bunch of one-on-one meetings with dispensaries we gave out postcards with our information and qr codes the code made it easy to send people to a site like calendly that does the scheduling for us it also allowed us to see how many people scanned our code but didn't schedule a meeting we're always looking for these type of discrepancies because they help us make our advertising a lot better let's say you have a team doing medical marijuana assessments at a health and wellness event by having these cards you can further promote your dispensary brand and stay top of mind with these attendees you can create unique landing pages and offer any event in any event your dispensary attendees and monitor how effective these different flyer copy deals and landing pages are so that you can continue to make them better and better over time if you're holding an event you can have a postcard with a qr code to rsvp or for a landing page with more details about the event this is all pretty simple to implement and very worthwhile to help make your customer experience more seamless so you've got qr codes everywhere now what are you going to do now how can you check whether people are using them and whether they are actually impacting your bottom line i mentioned picking a qr code generator that allows you to track your codes if you do so you should be able to track how many skins your code gets when they're scanned where they're scanned and the device that's scanning them if you are sending users to your own landing page you can use google analytics to see how many visits you get how long they stay on your site and where they end up making a purchase from you if everything is set up correctly and if your goals is to increase sales then you can actually set up revenue attribution for your qr code campaigns and track how much online revenue you receive as a result of each one of these if your goal is to increase your loyalty enrollment and the form is hosted on your website you can also measure how well that goal was met the same goes for your getting forgetting reviews if you have a review gate hosted on your website which is something foot traffic can do for you you can measure how many people are actually taking that step to leave you a review or feedback if you've never used the review gate before i highly recommend it because it is not only helpful for you to get more reviews it also allows you to collect feedback from unhappy customers without them leaving you a review it's great for protecting your rating while allowing you to get the feedback you need to create a better customer experience so you have your data now um what are you going to do with that that's always the question right here's the answer you take all of that information you gathered and use it to make your qr codes and landing pages even better make sure you understand the goal of your codes as you look at your data so you can easily determine what's working what's not working and what needs adjusting when looking at your data compare the codes that had high scans to those that had low scans can you identify reasons or discrepancies for example let's say your your review flyer has a high scan rate but your event flyers don't is one call to action more effective than the other is one flyer more attractive than the other try to identify what makes customers more receptive to one flyer than the other so you can troubleshoot your lower scans look at the analytics for the pages your qr codes were linked to did any have particular high bounce rates did some lead to more sales reviews or loyalty signups once you know which codes and pages are working best for you you can make changes to increase the effectiveness of your codes always keep your goal in mind and consider how your customers will engage with your code and what it will take to help them convert if you really want to nail down the best way to use qr codes for your target audience then use a b testing to measure the effectiveness of different elements on your flyers and landing pages for example you can create multiple review postcards with different copy to see which one leads to the most skins or most reviews remember those two things are not the same you may leave you may have more scans on one card and then fewer scans but more reviews on another look at the whole picture before determining which postcard works better when doing a b testing make sure to focus on just one element to narrow down what works and what doesn't if you change too many variables you won't be able to pinpoint what has led to the chain to the changes in engagement with any certainty basically think of it as science meets art you want your control for certain factors while testing the effectiveness of one factor at a time set a time frame for any a b testing and then implement the changes that get you more scans across the board once you've done that you can move to test another factor over time you may find that you actually used to work doesn't actually work as well anymore thankfully you will have the tools to spot these changes access what's happening and implement changes for a new set of a b tests so i cannot say enough about reputation management and how crucial it is for you to actually get new customers i ask you to put your phones down i ask you to bring them back up now because using qr code is a great way to encourage people to actually leave you a review on google as well as talk about their experiences with your dispensary but that's only one part of the solution you also want to make sure that you're responding to reviews and asking for reviews in other ways and that is something that we will help you with as i mentioned reputation management is an important part of ranking well on google so we offer it as part of our seo services and for joining us today i want to give you 200 off your first month of a three month why three months well seo is an investment and he takes time to build those positive signals with google i want to make sure that you get as much value out of it as possible so let's get you signed up and start driving more organic traffic to your website and get you more reviews i want to take a moment to just thank you for your time today for joining us if you haven't already i do encourage you to scan the code here on the screen and let's get a call schedule with myself and one of our chief marketing officers to start analyzing your goals and build a search engine optimization strategy that is actually going to excel your expectations uh don't forget to schedule a call with us foot traffic dot me forward slash call i want you to take a moment to really appreciate the fact that you took this time out of your day to join us and given us an opportunity to help you with your reputation management once again thank you for your time have a wonderful rest of ]