Over this past weekend I attended the MJSA Expo show in New York City and met with several vendors, jewelers, and speakers. I especially enjoyed my conversation with Eugene Brill of Rio Grande about their e-commerce use on mobile devices.One of the topics Eugene brought up during his seminar was the use of QR Codes, which are those square dot like things you see all over the place now. After his seminar many jewelers were asking him more questions about those codes and how to potentially use them in their store.
These questions inspired me to dig up one of my old case studies and share it with you today. Since I already shared a story about Petco this week, I thought I would share another mobile success story from Verizon and their use of QR Codes for a marketing plan.
In the summer of 2011, Verizon offered a special promotion to people in San Francisco that combined QR Codes, Facebook, and real world interaction.
During a 1-week promotion, people who walked into a Verizon store were invited to scan a QR Code by the front door and share the landing page with their friends on Facebook. If any of those friends bought a Verizon two-year phone contract, the original customer would receive a free phone.
For that single week Verizon's sales increased 200% and generated $35,000 in additional revenue. Verizon's Facebook Page also shot up to 25,000 fans that week.
You could do a similar promotion in your store, here's how:
1. You will need to set up a QR Code that provides scan tracking and a link to a special landing page.
2. The landing page needs to be simple with a single image and directions.
3. The image, or photo, needs to be engaging so people will actually pay attention to it.
4. The directions would need to explain that the person needs to save the image to their smartphone and then upload it to your jewelry store's page. During the upload the person needs to tag their friends in the photo.
5. Those tagged friends will be notified that they are tagged in a photo, and perhaps those friends will be lead to your page and to your store as well.
6. You will have to manually track all the posted photos and the names of the people tagged.
7. For each friend who comes in and buys something you would need to offer an award to the original friend who scanned and posted the photo.
Although Verizon only did this promotion over a week's period, a single location jewelry store would probably need to do it for a longer duration.
I recommend that you use 3 images on that landing page so users have the choice of saving and something different. Remember that your customers will be sharing the same images over and over again to your Facebook Page and all those images will become a little overwhelming. You should probably swap out those 3 images daily, and don't be afraid to use photos of jewelry, but include a written message in the image.
The prize or gift you award does not have to be jewelry. It could be a gift card to your store, or it could be a gift card to some other business, perhaps even simple movie tickets. You could also award different prizes depending on the amount of money that the friend spends. For every $100 or the friend spend you could award a $20 gift card to your jewelry store. If the friend spends more than $500 you could award dinner for two at a local restaurant. If the friend spends $3000 then maybe you can give out an iPad or a big screen TV.
Unlike other Facebook contest ideas, this one requires in person involvement. Only those who initially visit your jewelry store in-person can participate. That means you won't get any of those "contest bottom feeders" that usually swarm to Facebook contests. This contest would be available to anyone who walks into your store. No purchase would be necessary, but they would obviously need a smartphone, a QR Code scanner app on their smartphone, and a Facebook account.
Give it a try.
