What is a Mobile Tag?
A mobile tag is a type of barcode that is designed to be readable by smartphones. There are various types around, but a common one is a QR-Code. It looks like this:
Try it now – scan this tag to find out about the latest Christchurch earthquake.
Make sure you have a QR tag reader installed on your smartphone, then use your phone’s camera to scan the tag.
The mobile tag contains a message for the phone that reads it. It might tell the phone to go to a specific web page, to ring a number, to show a particular location on a map.
Mobile tags are increasingly being used in marketing – you might see a tag in a magazine advertisement and when you use your phone to scan the tag in the advertisement, the phone might take you to the web page for the advertised product, for example.
Mobile Tag Ideas:
The basic concept with a mobile tag is that it is a quick way for people to jump to some internet-based information. That information could be a web page with textual information, a YouTube video, a FaceBook page – there are many possibilities. So, in this way, you can incorporate online material into what was previously an off-line experience. (For example, when reading a book, you might scan a tag to see a video related to what you were reading).
If you take into account the fact that web pages can DO THINGS, there are even more possibilities – scanning a tag might lead to tweeting, requesting someone to call you back, making a donation, locating the nearest store where you can purchase something, adding information about an item into an online database….
Here are a few ideas of how you could use Mobile Tags in your business:
Business Cards
Include a tag on your business card, providing people with a quick way to access more information about you and your business – by linking to your website, or other online resource such as FaceBook.
Product Information
Include a tag on printed materials related to your products, providing people with an easy way to access more information about the product (videos, specifications, instructions…) – by linking to specific pages within your website, or to YouTube videos. If you include a tag on the actual product, customers will be able to use it to locate instructions or other information long after they have lost the manual.
Customer Engagement
Encourage customers to explore your website or printed materials by “hiding” mobile tags within it. When found and scanned, the tag might provide the customer with a discount code, or some other reward.
Tracking Resources
Tags can be used instead of standard barcodes, within your business, to keep track of equipment that you hire out. Because your employees will then use a phone rather than a scanner to scan equipment as it is hired out or returned, they will be able to do these tasks when away from a computer or from the office.