In our previous article,“14 Top Tips to Increase Your Sales with Direct Mail”, one of our tips was using QR codes to make it as easy as possible for your recipients to act on your mailing.
Stannp.com’s QR Code generator provides our API users with a streamlined tool to enhance recipient engagement. By making a simple API call, you can effortlessly create QR codes in real time and incorporate them into your Direct Mail campaigns, boosting your marketing strategy's efficiency.
Each QR code can point to a unique data string, making it easier to combine your QR codes with personalised URLs (PURLs). This allows you to seamlessly merge your printed and digital content into a fully personalised individual experience, while also tracking individual responses to your campaign.
A QR code is a square image that looks and functions in a similar way to a barcode, and will look a bit like this:
QR code stands for ‘Quick Response’ code. QR codes are 2 dimensional barcodes, with data stored both vertically and horizontally (unlike the 1 dimensional ‘line’ bar codes, known as UPC codes).
As QR codes are 2-dimensional, they can store significantly more information than UPC codes - over 230 times as much. This makes them ideal for encoding web addresses that you would like your recipients to visit, such as a personalised page (PURL) on your website, a YouTube video, a Facebook page or post, or any other hyperlink of your choice.
Using our API QR code generator, your QR code functions as an 'image-based hypertext link' that can be used to take people from your Direct Mail to any website you would like them to visit online.
Any recipient with a smartphone can simply use their phone camera to scan the QR code on a postcard or letter you’ve sent them, and their phone will take them straight to your link. It really is as simple as that!
As an ISO27001 accredited company, your data security is important to us. To avoid any potential security issues from revealing your API key in public code, we’ve also introduced public API keys (which are restricted on the Stannp platform to non-sensitive requests like generating QR codes). Read more here https://www.stannp.com/us/accreditations.
You will need to generate a Public Key from your Stannp account’s API page before you can use the QR code Generator.
To find out more about generating a public QR code and how to set up you API QR calls, you can use our online API documentation here: https://www.stannp.com/uk/direct-mail-api/tools. Alternatively, you can add a QR code to a template in our platform based designer with one click.
Our QR codes also support live feedback to you when your customer scans. Each QR code will have a uniquely generated redirection link that passes through our server. When one of your customers uses the link our system will flag it.
You can receive this information via our platform in the reporting section or via a webhook. You can find out more about setting up a webhook here: https://www.stannp.com/uk/direct-mail-api/webhook.