In the years since restaurants first deployed QR codes to replace the need for physical menus, the chessboard-like grids now adorn signs, mailers, product packaging, badges, stickers, napkins, and even individual receipts. 

And, thanks to a viral Super Bowl ad, you’re increasingly seeing them on your TV. These are all interesting use cases to bring offline users to your digital properties, leveraging the ubiquity of smartphones in nearly every pocket as a way to bridge the “phy-gital” divide. 

QR code tactics are easy to identify. Examples to emulate are all around us, but they say that, “tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” Throwing money at QR campaigns is like making use of a shiny new toy, and perhaps that expands the reach of your marketing, but just utilizing QR codes doesn’t necessarily move the needle for your business. 

However, QR codes can do quite a lot to transform and accelerate the strength of your digital connection to consumers when combined with a robust mobile growth strategy. And for many industries, offline audiences can be a huge source for growth, representing a larger addressable market than existing desktop or mobile traffic.

In order to have this maximum benefit, platforms must find the right balance of intent-based marketing and think about how digital engagement fits into their broader performance indicators, like engagement, retention, or lifetime value (LTV). 

Optimizing your QR code strategy

As in other channels, to win this game, you must match the placement of a QR code campaign with the intent of the users who see it. There is no one-size-fits-all message. Brand awareness is often aimed at wide audiences for building the top-of-funnel pipeline. Whereas highly targeted and personalized calls to action should be deployed in a one-on-one pathway, directed specifically at users who have demonstrated high intent. 

It’s important to wield QR code campaigns in a portfolio approach, aiming different messaging at different audience segments. Whether you’re promoting app-only features, driving app downloads, or offering a financial incentive, customers will respond to different calls to action (CTAs) depending on the channel they’re in—and where they are in the customer lifecycle.

Using intent-based strategies

An effective portfolio will have a mix of more general, ongoing one-to-many campaigns as well as personalized one-to-one campaigns. And plenty of examples exist between those ends of the spectrum.     

An efficient strategy is to match the volume or specificity of the campaign with the intent of the user. A simple framework is to break users (and campaigns) into three buckets:

1. Passive campaigns (low intent)

Most big brands invest in general awareness campaigns already, so adding a QR code to real estate they’re already paying for adds an additional layer of return on that investment. Depending on the industry, a brand might want to take mobile users directly to app stores to download their app and begin onboarding for their platform. Or they can take users to a mobile splash page and leverage other tools like smart banners to draw them further down the acquisition funnel. 

These campaigns can be put on billboards, in print in periodicals, or even on TV screens during commercials or as a sponsor during TV segments. These campaigns will have wide visibility, but low expected activation rates (click-through rate, or CTR). In time, users might be more adept at grabbing their phone and activating a code during the course of a fleeting TV spot, but with print mediums, users have time to see a code and decide when to activate it. Incentivising these CTAs will boost their activation rates, and by measuring their success holistically, brands can optimize their marketing efforts around new users acquired via QR codes.

2. Active campaigns (medium intent)

For even greater efficiency, QR codes can be leveraged on owned channels through physical or digital representation. This includes signs around a retail location or stickers and posters in areas where customers tend to aggregate or wait for service. Groups of users will see these codes, but are inherently more primed to use them as they are visiting the site as an active customer. 

While these user groups are smaller, they are a higher-intent subset of the addressable market, so their engagement rate should be much higher. You’ll see more and more QR codes at brick-and-mortar locations for restaurant chains, clothing stores, and other retailers. The objective is to help migrate existing customers in the app, where they’ll be able to engage long after they’ve left the store.

3. Active campaigns (high intent)

Offering a way to engage or drive app adoption among captive audiences is an effective strategy. Going further, brands might deploy QR codes in a one-to-one way by placing them on things that their customers take with them. Codes can be placed on takeaway bags, handouts, fliers, product packaging, inserts in delivered packages, or on a customer receipt. In some cases, the QR code could be generated dynamically, specifically delivered for that particular end user. A deferred deep link might help activate a new user account or ensure a new shopper is enrolled in a loyalty program and that the customer gets credit for their very first purchase. 

Onboarding in-person customers to an app experience leapfrogs normal acquisition steps. Customers now have a direct pathway to engage with a brand and can do so in the easiest way—from the app on their phones. Brands then have a more loyal and engaged customer, one they can reach with deep links from a variety of customer relationship management (CRM) channels. 

What happens after a user scans your QR code?

From the start, brands must decide where to send the user once a QR code is activated. To the app store or your mobile web site? Both routes can eventually lead to an app download, so whether it’s a single click to the app store or a two-step process with a splash page, the app install is still the primary goal. 

And once again, there’s a decision to be made. Just downloading the app is a win, but a deferred deep linking experience that personalizes the first app open enables a better user experience. Otherwise, all users get the same first-time experience on a generic home screen, providing no personalization. For example, with a subtle change like the confirmation of a promotion code or content that is tailored to the user’s prior engagements, the first-time app open can boost user conversion, retention, and ultimately LTV. 

It’s understandable why many brands miss this personalization opportunity; it’s hard! But a mobile linking platform (MLP) like Branch enables deep linking to bring users to their desired content—even after downloading the app—to expedite onboarding flows and even auto-apply promotion codes. In a world where incentivization is used aggressively to win new users, these small UX boosts can give a huge advantage to brands that leverage deferred deep linking.

Real-time engagement 

And let’s not forget that the “Q” in QR stands for “quick.” These codes not only bridge the offline-to-digital gap, they enable immediate digital engagement. Expect to see QR codes deployed throughout many different industries, especially the travel and entertainment sectors, as a way to engage in real time. Because apps allow for direct digital end-user engagement, expect more industries to leverage them comprehensively throughout the customer lifecycle. It’s a win-win for the platform and customer as these UX opportunities often allow end users to do more in less time than in an offline or asynchronous digital world. 

In the travel industry, for example, apps allow for mobile check-ins, upgrades, and food service in advance of a trip, but also keyless hotel room entry and over-the-top (OTT) entertainment during the trip. Not to mention the usual account management functions that could vastly reduce the need for expensive customer service call centers. 

The benefits of a mobile linking platform 

Greater app adoption from larger, offline addressable markets combined with the user experience benefits of real-time engagement is already a win-win justification for QR code deployment. But by leveraging a solution like Branch’s MLP for QR codes, marketers can easily connect the dots between offline activations and down-funnel events. 

Did a TV or mailer campaign promoting 10% off a first in-app purchase drive enough new buyers, or was it the $10 discount that delivered greater ROI? Down-funnel attribution gives marketers quantifiable results from end to end. This data provides maximum visibility into the engagement that originated offline via QR codes. 

Branch and QR codes

We’ll all start noticing QR codes with greater frequency on more and more offline channels. But some of this will be a wasted effort by brands until they think strategically about their deployment and holistically about their measurement. Thankfully, we’re here to help!

Learn more about how you can grow your business with Branch QR codes.

The post How to Make the Most of QR Code Campaigns: The Strategy Behind QR Code Tactics appeared first on Branch.

So what happened? Not long ago, daily fantasy sports apps began flirting with major advertising campaigns, notably during the National Football League’s peak season. This exposure allowed brands such as DraftKings and FanDuel to explode in both popularity and revenue. 

By leveraging deep linking in their acquisition and engagement campaigns, sports betting apps have pointed the way toward explosive user growth strategies. Below we explore this market boom and provide tips on how to maximize user engagement. 

Big bang of an industry

Previously, Nevada was the only state in the U.S. to legally place sports wagers. Yet even that limited geographic market was worth billions of dollars in volume. This combined with hundreds of millions in revenue for sportsbook operators and a tax revenue stream that would move the needle in most states.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA, 1992). Doing this lifted the ban on states establishing their own sports wagering markets. Now a few years later, the sports gambling market has already reached $50B. And it’s growing fast. 

While each state has its own regulations on sportsbook operators, 14 states and Washington D.C. have launched mobile gaming apps that allow sports wagering for anyone over 21 with a device confirmed to be in that state at the time of the wager. 

Mobile devices turn out to be the perfect platform to accelerate this industry. With such a massive and previously underserved market, the competition to grab market share has been ferocious. User lifetime value is already enormous, justifying the high acquisition costs. This combination of factors has led to some of the highest cash incentives for consumers ever seen from a digital platform. 

Approaching 10M users in the U.S. already, the market could reach $100B in volume in 2022. And carving that market up are strong brands led by players like DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, and Caesar’s. All are trying to cement themselves as the top betting destination for new users. 

What kind of business is this anyway?

Consider these platforms from different industry perspectives. They’re much more than financial markets. They’re also entertainment and gaming platforms with an obvious emphasis on the diverse world of global sports. In practice, they’re conversion-focused eCommerce apps that require users to “shop and transact.” This creates the potential for these apps to become social media platforms. And all the while, they layer on loyalty and rewards programs to underlie user retention just like any other usage-based offering. 

A single app experience requires these platforms to meet and optimize certain business objectives. These objectives are sometimes just a singular focus in other industries: 

• Finance: Ensure security of monetary transactions as a trusted platform.
• Gaming & Entertainment: Maximize engagement and fun.
• Sports: Personalization and community is key.
• eCommerce: An intuitive and efficient shopping experience. 
• Social: Enable seamless peer-to-peer and brand influencer social engagement.
• Loyalty: Maximize user retention and lifetime value through incentives. 

The competition for market share is already fierce. We’re seeing market leaders differentiate themselves by providing better user experiences and employing strategies that address all the requirements demanded from a multi-faceted platform. But we’re also seeing huge missed opportunities due to basic product features that other industry verticals have already mastered. 

What are some of the best channels for acquisition?

Sports betting is perfect for mobile devices and apps. But before any platform can scale the business through engagement, it must first acquire users and drive app adoption.

Ads are ubiquitous at this point, to the point of saturation. But ads also work. When the lifetime value of a user is high, brands are willing to bid aggressively for airtime both on TV and on all digital platforms to acquire users. Once users arrive, enormous incentives are offered to ensure users complete the sign-up process. 

Getting users to download and successfully onboard to an app should be every brand’s early goal. App users will see more, do more, convert more, and spend more. And they’ll do it all faster with fewer glitches. 

How your app can maximize user acquisition 

Deep links

‘Deep Links’ or ‘Deferred Deep Links’ are links that bring a non-app user to the app store for downloading and then immediately to the desired in-app content. Using deferred deep links, brands can create a personalized activation experience through both the app install process and when the app is first launched. With the deferred deep linking experience, you can ensure the user will not lose their sign up bonus activation and will get to the right place to start betting. 

QR codes

Website acquisition is a no-brainer. And yet, sites completely fail to be proactive with app download prompts and instead simply put logo links to the app store on landing pages. There is a better way, and it costs very little — QR codes.

Adding QR codes to the landing page creates an easy pathway for users to activate a deferred deep link. It also allows them to onboard with a bonus confirmation. It can even add more parameters like geography, to customize the content users are shown once logged in. 

And “thanks to” a pandemic — and even a recent Super Bowl ad featuring a QR Code —  smartphone users now know how to activate a QR code in everyday life. 

Journeys (smart banners)

Migrating users from mobile web registration into the app is even easier. Branch offers Journeys, a smart banners product for mobile websites. Journeys can be easily targeted, personalized, and optimized with branded creatives. And, depending on the user journey, smart banner strategies can be tailored to meet not just sports betting app needs, but any app needs.

Best channels to promote user engagement

Onboarding and app adoption are only half the battle. For sports betting apps to retain users, they must engage them effectively. Fortunately, there are multiple pathways to encourage daily engagement. 

Email

Email enables tap-to-app engagement, making it a valuable channel. With robust deep linking, email is an extension of the brand itself. It pulls users into specific content and activates promotions with a single tap. Email even drives users to adopt features that will enhance their app experience. So far, only a few sports betting apps are deep linking emails to their U.S. customers. Even then, they’re likely not capturing down-funnel event attribution. There are still a lot of opportunities for platforms to stand out with superior email engagement.

Social

Unlike email, deep linking social media to the app isn’t the issue. The issue is that social media isn’t deep linked at all! The leading sports betting platforms in the U.S. have a massive social following with highly topical content. But not a single one is linking into their apps. That means those platforms are unable to leverage a highly engaged channel of loyal customers with obvious opportunities to transact. 

Referrals

Referrals or shared links are relatively common and see the best adoption in apps with an engaging entertainment focus. Enabling peer-to-peer engagement through an app referral program is all upside. It can be leveraged in one-off sharing pathways via SMS or other messaging channels, or via one-to-many social media posts from loyal users or paid influencers. 

DraftKings reported that users leveraging social sharing app features were significantly more engaged and had a higher transaction volume. Given the inspiring results seen by DraftKings, the race should be on to close this opportunity gap. 

As noted above, betting apps transcend multiple industry verticals. They can learn from the playbooks already utilized by brands in finance, eCommerce, entertainment, and others. But the holistic strategy of app engagement across all channels is one that could be embraced by all brands. Once the battle for acquisition starts, the long-game of user engagement and retention will determine long-term success for any brand with an app. 

Branch is ready to tackle this with you!

Sports betting apps are finally getting their big moment, and the huge market opportunity is drawing innovation. We have also yet to see any major players leave the ring or any significant consolidation among betting platforms. The long-term playing field has yet to be decided. But early market shares suggest that usability features will play an important role in deciding the true winners.

Eventually, we should expect some failures and exits. Throwing money at user acquisition was a previously unheard of strategy, and it can’t be sustainable. Yet some platforms are pouring new users into a user experience rife with churn.

Fortunately, the tools and playbooks needed to win this race have already been mastered. Branch’s mobile linking platform (MLP) has helped apps in all verticals engage seamlessly with customers to drive higher retention and lifetime value. And the tools necessary to accelerate app adoption have already been deployed with great success by Branch customers around the world. 

Furthermore, comprehensive and reliable data from Branch’s mobile measurement partner (MMP) provides the attribution and down-funnel analysis that any data-driven marketer should demand from their platform in order to make optimal decisions. 

In a competitive land grab, speed-to-value is critical. That’s why Branch makes an ideal strategic partner for those platforms intent on winning in this lucrative, long-term consumer market.

Branch provides the industry’s leading mobile linking and measurement platforms, offering solutions that unify user experience and attribution across devices and channels. Branch has been selected by over 100,000 apps since 2014 including Adobe, BuzzFeed, Yelp, and many more, improving experiences for more than 3 billion monthly users across the globe. Learn more about Branch or contact sales today.

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The post How Sports Betting Apps Maximize Engagement, and What Others Can Learn appeared first on Branch.