QR code marketing for coffee shops: what to put behind the code

Every café has a QR code somewhere. Most of them go to a menu nobody needed or a review page nobody visits. The code is free real estate on something customers hold for twenty minutes. Here is what to put behind it.

Start with what customers will actually scan

People scan a QR code when the payoff is obvious and immediate. "Scan for our menu" has no payoff for someone already holding a coffee. "Scan to play, win a pastry" does. The code should promise something, and the something should be worth more than the scan.

The tiers, from weakest to strongest

1. The website. Fine for a window sign, useless on a sleeve. Nobody reads your About page while walking.
2. The review link. Worth having, but only for the customer who was going to review you anyway.
3. The mailing-list sign-up. Better, if the incentive is on the sleeve ("scan for a free cookie").
4. The loyalty card. Good. Digital punch cards remove the wallet problem. Payout is still on visit ten.
5. The game. A one-minute level in the browser, starring your mascot, on your street, where clearing the level is a free pastry with the next latte. It gets played because it is fun, and it brings people back because the reward is next time. That is what we build at Level Up Promotions.

Where the code goes

The sleeve is the obvious place, and the best one: it is in the hand for the whole walk. Add the counter card for the line and the window for the sidewalk. Three codes, one destination.

How to know it is working

Count scans, count plays, count redemptions. A sleeve program that gets scanned by 5% of cups and redeemed by a third of those is adding visits every day. If the number is zero, the payoff is wrong, not the code.

One mistake to avoid

Do not make the code the reward. "Scan for 10% off" trains customers to wait for a code. Make the code the start of something (a level, a club, a contest) and the reward the end of it. People value what they earned.